JOHN OF HAZELGREEN, SUMMARY

In John of Hazelgreen a middle aged man comes across a maid crying by a creek and says, "What's up, Love?"

She says, "I dreamt about a young man called John Of Hazelgreen and he's tall, dark and handsome and I've got to marry him, but I don't know where he lives." (Why do dreams always leave something out?)

He says, "Forget him. You can marry my eldest son."

She says, "No! It must be John Of Hazelgreen."

He says, "If you'll forget him and marry my eldest son I'll give you gold combs for your hair." This doesn't sound very useful to me, so I'm not surprised she knocked that one back.

When he sees that she is faithful and constant and true he says, "Hop up on my horse, Honey, and we'll go and look for this John Of Hazelgreen - he sounds like a likely lad." Trusting soul that she is, she does, and off they go.

He pretends to go looking for this John Of Hazelgreen, but actually just takes her off home to his place. At this point I've got to tell you it doesn't turn out the way you think.

When he reaches his front gate his eldest son, John Of Hazelgreen, (he knew this all the time of course) is waiting for him and says, "G'day Dad, I've just had a dream about a beautiful damsel. I've got to find her and marry her. We'll find her crying by a creek."

The old man says, "I've saved you the trouble, Son, is this the one?"

They fall into each other's arms, the violins play and the credits roll up the screen. And it takes 34 verses.

When Sir Walter Scott heard this song it was over one hundred years old. He re-wrote it as Jock O' Hazeldean, telling a different story in four verses. I've gone back to the original (well one of the versions published by Child) and also produced a condensed version.

Continued...