Origins: Name for this ballad? - Daybreak?

Subject: Origins: Name for this ballad?
From: tendergold
Date: 14 Jan 21 - 09:48 PM

I was listening to a recording of some Irish folk musicians and found a beautiful, tragic ballad. I transcribed the lyrics, but Google has turned up little in terms of a proper title or origins for this song.

Here's my transcription:

Dawn of day once more is broken
Snow falls thickly, white as foam
Lo, the horse comes with no rider
Ah, my love has not come home

Day has dawned, the door is open
Wet and tired fell in the steed
His kind breast wounded and gory
In the door he fell to bleed

"Steed beloved, haste to tell me
Where you left my own true love.
In what vale, lone and forsaken,
With what crowning rock above?"

Clouds have gathered, all is darkness
Here alone I sit and weep
I must mourn, grieving forever,
For my love in sorrow deep

The title on the recording was listed as "Daybreak," but I've found no leads from that either.

Subject: RE: Origins: Name for this ballad?
From: Jack Campin
Date: 15 Jan 21 - 10:14 AM

It's not a ballad, though it may be based on a fragment of one. Obviously not traditional. Can you identify the group?

Subject: RE: Origins: Name for this ballad?
From: tendergold
Date: 15 Jan 21 - 11:05 AM

It's by David Colohan of The Magickal Folk of the Faraway Tree. I just assumed it's traditional because the album it came on had many other traditional songs.

Subject: RE: Origins: Name for this ballad?
From: Helen
Date: 15 Jan 21 - 02:20 PM

There is a sound file on this page about the album. Scroll down the tracklist to the song Daybreak.

The Soup & The Shilling

The website is David Colohan's so you could try contacting him for information about the song's origins. Please let us know if you find your answers.

Subject: RE: Origins: Name for this ballad? - Daybreak?
From: GUEST,#
Date: 16 Jan 21 - 01:21 PM

Here's the song.

https://davidcolohan.bandcamp.com/track/daybreak