The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #53336   Message #821678
Posted By: Dead Horse
08-Nov-02 - 02:54 PM
Thread Name: The origins of Morris Dancing
Subject: RE: The origins of Morris Dancing
No. You didn't watch it with your own eyes. You saw it (secondhand)through a TV set! I watched the Titanic finally reach New York, but it aint happened yet. So there!
It is almost certain that ritual dance was commonplace in pagan times, and what we know as Morris is a direct/indirect descendant.
It is equally certain that should any of those old frozen-in-ice pagans be thawed out and shown a dance in any of the existing morris styles, they wouldn't have a clew what we were doing, or why.
And why is it that folk assume that Cotswold is the most ancient of these styles? I personally think Longsword should be considered the oldest. A linked circle dance, carrying mystical objects, and practised in some form or other throughout the civilised world.
Not jumping up and down waving hankies, surely?