'sing Golier'..Whazzit?

Subject: 'sing Golier'..Whazzit?
From: Barbara
Date: 23 Sep 00 - 05:32 PM

I have this old book (1912) by Hillaire Belloc [The Four Men], that involves the philosophical, metaphysical and pub-crawling walking journey of four archtypes [the Poet, the Sailor, Grizzlebeard and Myself] (one of them is Chesterton, I forget which, Grizzlebeard, maybe?) around Sussex and environs. It contains a number of songs and tunes, but only a tantalizing bit of a song that ends, "...and we[or I] will sing Golier."
So, what is Golier? A song? A place? A latin word? And what's the rest of the song?
Blessings,
Barbara

Subject: RE: 'sing Golier'..Whazzit?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 23 Sep 00 - 05:47 PM

As I read it, all the Four Men are Belloc himself. But Golier is still a mystery to me.

Subject: RE: 'sing Golier'..Whazzit?
From: GUEST,Dave Murphy
Date: 23 Sep 00 - 06:32 PM

I have an idea I know what it means. I could be wrong but I think it's Gaelic. If I'm right, Golier is actually go leor, which means, plenty of something. "We'll sing plenty." Judging by the spelling of golier, Belloc probably heard a someone from west Cork say it. Munster Irish can sometimes flatten out broad vowels, making them sound slender. Anyway, that my two cents worth.

Dave

Subject: RE: 'sing Golier'..Whazzit?
From: Barbara
Date: 24 Sep 00 - 01:38 AM

You could be right, McGrath. A Belloc scholar once told me the info about Chesterton (and Chesterton and Belloc were good friends), but reading it myself I thought the same as you.
I thought perhaps the musical phrase belonged to some other odd snippets of tune found in the book.
Recently Martin Wyndham-Read wedded Belloc's words for "Sussex Drinking Song" in this book to the Irish rebel song "The West's Awake" (having first discarded Belloc's tune), and the song is catching on.
My favorite song is the one about the Pelagian Heresy. But I would like to hear the song that ends ".. and I will sing Gol-ier" if it exists. The hyphen is how Belloc punctuated it on the title page. Dave could be right, it's really "go leor".
Any other theories. or songs?
Blessings,
Barbara

Subject: RE: 'sing Golier'..Whazzit?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 28 Sep 00 - 09:13 PM

I haven't had any luck yet in trying to solve this puzzle, but I think it's worth chasing up, and worth refreshing the thread in case there's someone out there with the answer. I suspect it actually is a genuine Sussex song.

In fact in The Four Men at the beginning of the section called The Great War Between Sussex and Kent, "Golier" comes in as well:

"With this Grizzlebeard, clearing his aged throat, dutifully carolled out the following manly verse on the tune to which all Sussex songs have been set, without exception, since the beginning of time - the tune which is called "Golier. (And here he prints the tune in staff notation - but I'm not too good at working it out, and the print is poor in my edition)

"If Bonaparte
Shud zummon d'Eart
To land on Pevensey Level,
I have two sons
With our three guns
To blarst un to the de-e-vil."

I'm pretty clear none of the Four Men could be Chesterton, and they all sound very like Belloc. Chesterton was never one for long crosscountry walks if he could avoid it. Well, he wasn't built for it. Down the pub and sit writing in the public bar was more his style. Wrote some great songs too. Here's a link to his poem/song to Belloc at the start of The Napoleon of Notting Hill.

I'd love to hear Martin Wyndham-Read's Sussex Drinking Song. But the song I'd really like to hear him put a tune to would be the one later in the book:

I shall go without companions
And with nothing in my hand;
I shall pass through many places
That I cannot undertsand -
Until I come to my own country,
Which is a pleasant land.

The trees that grow in my country
Are the beech-tree and the yew;
Many stand together,
And some stand few.
In the month of May on my own country
Al the woods are new.

When I get to my own country
I shall lie down and sleep;
I shall watch in the valleys
The long flocks of sheep.
And then I shall dream, for ever and all,
A good dream and deep.

Subject: RE: 'sing Golier'..Whazzit?
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 28 Sep 00 - 10:35 PM

"Golier" seems to be a surname. There is also a "de Golier" and variant spellings. I found numerous examples using www.google.com. Don't know if this helps; it may be a coincidence.