Traditional Halloween/Samhain songs?

Subject: Lyr Add: MY LADY’S COACH (from S. Baring-Gould)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 30 Dec 22 - 10:51 AM

Text from
Urith: A Tale of Dartmoor
By Sabine Baring-Gould
New York: United States Book Company, 1890, page 58.*

MY LADY’S COACH

[1] My Lady hath a sable coach
And horses, two and four.
My Lady hath a gaunt bloodhound
That runneth on before.
My Lady’s coach has nodding plumes.
The coachman has no head.
My Lady’s face is ashen white,
As one that long is dead.

[2] “Now, pray step in,” my Lady saith.
“Now, pray step in and ride!”
“I thank thee; I had rather walk
Than gather to thy side.”

[CHORUS:] The wheels go round without a sound
Of tramp or turn of wheels.
As a cloud at night, in the pale moonlight,
Onward the carriage steals.

[3] “Now, pray step in,” my Lady saith.
“Now, prithee, come to me.”
She takes the baby from the crib.
She sets it on her knee. [CHORUS]

[4] “Now, pray step in,” my Lady saith,
“Now, pray step in, and ride,”
Then deadly pale, in wedding veil,
She takes to her the bride. [CHORUS]

[5] “Now, pray step in,” my Lady saith.
“There’s room I wot for you.”
She waved her hand; the coach did stand.
The Squire within she drew. [CHORUS]

[6] “Now, pray step in,” my Lady saith.
“Why shouldst thou trudge afoot?”
She took the gaffer in by her,
His crutches in the boot. [CHORUS]

[7] I’d rather walk a hundred miles,
And run by night and day,
Than have that carriage halt for me,
And hear my Lady say:
“Now, pray step in, and make no din.
I prithee, come and ride.
There’s room, I trow, by me for you,
And all the world beside.”

- - -
* The text with musical notation is said to be in the first edition of

Songs of the West: Folk Songs of Devon & Cornwall Collected from the Mouths of the People
by S. (Sabine) Baring-Gould; H. Fleetwood Sheppard; F. W. Bussell; Cecil J. (Cecil James) Sharp
London: Methuen & Co., Ltd., 1889.

However, it was omitted from some later editions, and while some are available online at Project Gutenberg and the Internet Archive, I have not found a viewable online copy of any edition that includes this song.

Subject: RE: Traditional Halloween/Samhain songs?
From: Ged Fox
Date: 02 Nov 21 - 06:46 AM

My Lady's Coach

"My Lady's coach," words from "Songs & Ballads of the West" (my edition is dated 1895) omitting a number of verses added by Baring-Gould. The tune is also from the same book, found under the name of "Broadbury Gibbet." According to the notes, it was collected as a tune to "My lady's coach," but as S B-G already had a tune for that song he wrote the Broadbury Gibbet words so that he could include both.

Lady Howard died in mid-October so even if the song is not strictly Hallowe'en it could be considered seasonal. Of course, it is only tradition that links the song to Lady Howard's punishment and there are other layers of meaning.

Subject: Lyr Add: NOVEMBER'S EVE RIDING SONG
From: John C. Bunnell
Date: 31 Oct 21 - 09:47 PM

And now for something completely different: the following is of 20th-century vintage, but is clearly and explicitly meant as a Halloween song. I remember the song as being quite popular at filk circles, with enthusiastic audience participation on the choruses. (My printed copies of the lyrics indicate that the chorus should follow every verse, but I believe in performance every other verse was more usual for practical reasons....)

There is a YouTube recording, but it's not a particularly good rendering.


NOVEMBER'S EVE RIDING SONG
words: A. Kritchner, Leslie Fish, Shawn Wall; music: Leslie Fish

CHORUS: Saddle the black and saddle the bay,
Saddle the dun and saddle the grey,
That we may ride as ride we may – now off and away!

Upon a brisk and chilly wind we’re off to ride again;
Whatever steed we choose to mount is ready to our rein;
And be it wood, or flesh and blood, or foal of air and fire,
If we can call it to our side, we ride to our desire!

There’s Meg bestride a beast so stout for all her height so fine,
And Alice has a saddle on a beast of fire and shine,
My mount’s a gallant man when once the magic bridle’s gone,
But any steed will bear us well as we go riding on!

Now some of us will ride to hunt as lords and ladies do;
The pack we follow to the chase would scare the gentry blue!
Our huntsman has three horns – one horn to blow, and two horns more;
Our quarry runs away on feet that count two less than four!

We ride through oak and thistle, ocean waves, or grassy glen,
So any prey we choose to take is never seen again;
And be it winged, or finned, or hooved, or riding that which is,
We’ve never missed a kill or lost a soul which could be his!

Now some of us ride journeying to places far and fair;
The night is cold but as of old, we ride not clad but bare;
The journey’s end tonight is sweet; we’ll seek it as we may;
If fire awaits, it will not burn us till another day!

And some of us ride out towards a fight against the strong;
The motto on our banner flares: “Whatever rules is wrong!”
Rebellion is our ancient goal; we fight the pious lies,
And in the battle at the end, the world will be our prize!

And some of us would ride for love, and some for gain would ride,
And some would ride for mischief’s sake, and some for ancient pride;
We know what gave our power to us, we know where we are bound,
So free we ride upon the wind and never touch the ground!

We rode the earth before the gods, and still we ride today,
And none have dared to bar our path that ever rose from clay;
Though many times they’ve tried to deal, and some have tried to join,
I’m riding one who paid me with a very precious coin!

We’ll meet upon the bracken, or at Benevento’s tree,
At old Kirk Alloway, or at Dom Daniel in the sea;
We’ll call the storm to hide our track, we’ll chill the land below,
And we shall ride from dusk to dawn, still singing as we go!

They call us evil witches, and they call us chaos-born,
But still they cower in their beds to hear our huntsman’s horn;
And if May Eve, or Lammas Eve, or Hallows’ Eve’s in sight,
Our cavalcade is on its way – we ride, we ride tonight!

Subject: Lyr Add: LADY HOWARD'S COACH
From: John C. Bunnell
Date: 31 Oct 21 - 09:20 PM

I can't give quite as much information about this one as I'd like - there appears to be no good online source for the particular version of the song in question with which I'm familiar. However:

"Lady Howard's Coach" looks as if it should certainly qualify as traditional. The source of the verse is Sabine Baring-Gould, although from what I can find online I'm not certain which of several possible volumes is the most correct reference (possibilities include Songs of the West (1891 or 1905) and A Book of the West (1899). Dartmoor Resource has a Web page with a good deal of useful information, including a full set of lyrics as reconstructed by Baring-Gould.

Now, the version I know is a significantly streamlined text adapted by Pacific Northwest singer Cecilia Eng, for which I can find no good audio or video performance online (though it does exist on her album, Of Shoes and Ships). Here are lyrics for that version:

LADY HOWARD'S COACH (1)

words: Sabine Baring-Gould (v.1-2,5-6) & Cecilia Eng (v. 3-4)
music: Cecilia Eng © 1987


“Now pray step in,” my lady saith,
“Now pray step in and ride.”
I thank thee, I would rather walk
Than gather to thy side.

The wheels go round without a sound
Or tramp or turn of wheels.
As cloud at night, in pale moonlight
Along the carriage steals.

All black the coach my lady rides
And black the horses four,
And black the hound which makes no sound
But races on before.

My lady’s fair and dark of hair
And beckons me to ride.
Delights divine shall all be mine
If I should step inside.

I’d rather walk a hundred miles
And run by night and day
Than have that carriage halt for me
And hear my lady say:

“Now pray step in, and make no din,
Step in with me to ride;
There’s room, I trow, by me for you
And all the world beside.”

///

I know there's at least one completely different setting of this online somewhere, but that link has utterly vanished from my search streams.

Subject: RE: Traditional Halloween/Samhain songs?
From: GUEST,Ada the Cadre
Date: 31 Oct 21 - 10:09 AM

Surely the Hallowe'en, All Souls tradition is about remembering or being revisited by the dead: whether they are beloved ghosts or ancestors. So any song with ghosts or revenants-- Sweet William's Ghost,
the Wife of Usher's Well,
any number of night-visiting songs,
The Unquiet Grave,
She Moved Through the Fair,
Lowlands Away,
Molly Malone,
even stretching it, Joe Hill.

Or how about Poor Roger/Oliver Cromwell buried and dead with an apple tree over his head?

As others have pointed out Halloween is linked with Martinmas and Remembrance Day traditions too,

Violet Jacob's wonderful Halowe'en poem as sung by Karine Polwart or Jean Redpath links the two traditions. But seems to me a lot of those laments for the war dead fit in with that late autumn tradition.

Will Ye Go to Flanders?,
The Bonnie Light-Horseman,
Shule Agra.

Of course, there is a ghoulie, long-leggedy beastie tradition too, and witches if you want. I did once sing Woman by the Churchyard Wall at a Folk Club. It wasn't well received, though everybody I spoke to agreed it was one they had learned in the oral tradition in the school playground, it somehow did not quite count as 'Folk'.

Subject: RE: Traditional Halloween/Samhain songs?
From: Senoufou
Date: 27 Oct 18 - 12:30 PM

Gah! That was me. Forgot to sign in.

Subject: RE: Traditional Halloween/Samhain songs?
From: GUEST
Date: 27 Oct 18 - 12:29 PM

Oh well done Howard!! I'm too thick/old to learn how to do those blue clicky things, so thank you so much for that.
It's a dear little song isn't it?

Subject: RE: Traditional Halloween/Samhain songs?
From: Howard Kaplan
Date: 27 Oct 18 - 11:22 AM

The YouTube version with the animated cartoon is Hop-tu-Naa: Sung in Manx by the Bunscoill Ghaelgagh

Subject: RE: Traditional Halloween/Samhain songs?
From: Thompson
Date: 27 Oct 18 - 05:21 AM

The etymology of Samhain isn't 'summer's end', as far as I know; it comes from the proto-Indo-European 'sam' = 'together'.

Subject: RE: Traditional Halloween/Samhain songs?
From: Senoufou
Date: 27 Oct 18 - 04:41 AM

There's a lovely little song called 'Hop Tu Naa' from the Isle of Man.
It's on Youtube. The best version on there is sung by Manx schoolchildren, who've made a delightful animated cartoon to accompany their song.
The Manx language is fascinating.

Subject: RE: Traditional Halloween/Samhain songs?
From: keberoxu
Date: 26 Oct 18 - 07:39 PM

About the right time of year to refresh this thread?

Subject: RE: Traditional Halloween/Samhain songs?
From: GUEST,Cori S.
Date: 29 Oct 14 - 10:43 PM

Oh, that was me who posted just now, above. ^ Here's another, short traditional kids' song, in which I took part in a school play, as the old woman. http://www.playgroundjungle.com/2009/12/there-was-old-woman-all-skin-and-bone.html

Subject: RE: Traditional Halloween/Samhain songs?
From: GUEST
Date: 29 Oct 14 - 10:37 PM

I heard a version of "The Shaking of the Sheets" on "The Thistle and Shamrock" once and thought it was really cool. It seems to be traditional. http://www.traditionalmusic.co.uk/folk-song-lyrics/Shaking_of_the_Sheets(or_the_Dance_of_Death).htm

Subject: RE: Traditional Halloween/Samhain songs?
From: Stewart
Date: 29 Oct 14 - 06:14 PM

The Green Lady
Sung by Caz Forbes & Ste Moncrieff

Cheers, S. in Seattle

Subject: RE: Traditional Halloween/Samhain songs?
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 29 Oct 14 - 01:33 PM

No really old traditional songs then?

Subject: RE: Traditional Halloween/Samhain songs?
From: GUEST,Hazel
Date: 29 Oct 14 - 08:53 AM

John Goodluck's new CD seems to be full of suitable Halloween/Samhain material. Check it out.

Subject: RE: Traditional Halloween/Samhain songs?
From: GUEST,Rahere
Date: 28 Oct 14 - 04:12 PM

I can think of just one, The Wife of Usher's Well, which "fell about the Martinmas". If you reverse the Gregorian calendar reform, that's a Hallowe'en song.

That aside, how about some indirect ones? There's quite a repertoire, starting with The False Knight on the Road. Then there's all the Ghosties and Ghoulies, such as Bella Hardy's Drunken Butcher of Tideswell - or the Ghost Riders in the Sky? Moving on, although the Lyke Wake Dirge isn't strictly Hallowe'en, it's not Christmas either! Or if that's too dire for you, how about On Ilkley Moor baht 'At? Moving into the overworld, we have True Thomas. Need a skellington? Twa Corbies or Ravenscroft's remix Three Ravens does nicely, or you could have Dem Bones. And to tidy it back a bit, there's the infamous spider in the bath. Or the US kids' Down in the Valley, which opens the door to the Barbra Allens, The Unquiet Grave, and the rest. Not finished yet, we also have the mass murderers, Long Lankin, Edward, and their kith, if not kin. And there's the downright sentimental, such as Tom Bowling...sorry! How about a memento mori like Down among the Dead Men? Or Widdicombe Fair?

In the UK, at any rate, Hallowe'en's a recent importation, so I'd not look here for much originally linked to it. The Welsh have bits of the Mari Lwyd tradition, which is why I mention Widdicombe Fair. Then there's the entire wealth of Spanish Allhallows - most of Alfonso the Great's Cantigas qualify on this count.

Subject: RE: Traditional Halloween/Samhain songs?
From: GUEST,dobranoc
Date: 28 Oct 14 - 12:23 PM

'' All Souls Day...or All Hallows Eve'' created by a Pope holiday to replace Samhain / Summer's End' flames to church candles -one of many fake cristian's holidays.

Subject: RE: Traditional Halloween/Samhain songs?
From: Sandy Mc Lean
Date: 01 Nov 11 - 03:40 PM

Samhain was the New Year of the ancient Celts. The Celtic day started at sundown so celebrations were started in the evening. After the Christianization of the British Isles the Catholic Church failed to stamp out the people celebrating what was then considered a pagan event. Their solution "if you can't lick em join em" so they created the Christian holiday All Saints Day, but the people still celebrated Samhain as per custom on the previous evening so the church called it All Hallows Eve trying to make it reflect a Christian origin. It didn't fool the Celts though and many such as myself still celebrate it's arrival. Any song will suffice as long it's sung in the Gaelic tongue.

Subject: RE: Traditional Halloween/Samhain songs?
From: GUEST,julia L
Date: 31 Oct 11 - 10:54 PM

Samhain (pro. "sow -when") meaning "summer's end"

Subject: RE: Traditional Halloween/Samhain songs?
From: Sailor Ron
Date: 31 Oct 11 - 09:20 AM

Actually 'Halloween' or 'All Hallows Eve' is the eve of 'All Saints' day; 'All Souls Day' is the 2nd of November. But of course, both 'All Saints' and 'All Souls' are Christian festivals to remember the dead, the same as Samhain.

Subject: Lyr Add: A DANCING OF SOULS
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 31 Oct 11 - 04:16 AM

I doubt any really exist, but this is good:

from Bill Mitton
Today is Halloween and all the little Witches, Wizards, Goblins and Ghouls will be abroad laughing and happy, collecting sweets.... which is as it should be...But for us of an older persuasion......it is the eve of All Souls Day...or All Hallows Eve..When we remember those whose lives, love and teaching brought us to this day.

A DANCING OF SOULS
(All Souls Eve)

Around me in the evening mist
the s...ouls of those now gone
come lightly dancing in a circle
and they're singing, everyone.
I am not frightened in their presence
they are my family and friends
I still cherish all they taught me,
we are A chain that never ends.
I know each smile, I see them now
They are my friends, my kin
I open up my heart and memory
to welcome them all back in.
Their touch is still yet as gentle
still full of tenderness and peace
all the things that we once shared
here within the dancing soul's release
As the in days that they dwelt amongst
They still guide us from above
So here on this All-hallows Eve
I give thanks for their lives and their love

"Eternal Rest Grant To Them Oh Lord"

Subject: RE: Traditional Halloween/Samhain songs?
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 30 Oct 11 - 04:25 PM

Thank you very much Reinhard. Dammit I remember Faithful Johnny. Why didn't I think of that?

Subject: RE: Traditional Halloween/Samhain songs?
From: Reinhard
Date: 30 Oct 11 - 03:52 PM

The Traditional Ballad Index lists two Halloween songs, The Haughies o' Indego and The Last Speech and Dying Words of the Auld Kirk of Turriff.

And Faithful Johnny mentions Halloween in the third verse too.

Subject: RE: Traditional Halloween/Samhain songs?
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 30 Oct 11 - 03:41 PM

Seems the team knows nothing...

Subject: Traditional Halloween/Samhain songs?
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 30 Oct 11 - 06:07 AM

[Some song titles in this thread have been converted to links by a Mudelf.]

On another thread in another place, someone remarked that the only traditional Halloween song they could find was "Soul Cake" (as recorded by the Watersons on "Frost and Fire"). It seems to me at a guess that that might more accurately be called an All Soul's Day song.

Of course, Tam Lin and the various versions of Child 39 do spring to mind as referring to Halloween - but a short rummage has failed to turn up the expected plethora of traditional (by which I mean traditional, OK) songs about or for Samhain/Halloween.

What else does the team know?