What is 'griesley'?

Subject: What is 'griesley'?
From: Naemanson
Date: 01 Oct 00 - 06:42 AM

Halloween is coming. I have been invited to be part of a UNICEF fund raiser telling ghost stories and singing songs at the local UU church. I am learning Griesley Bride for this.

I found the lyrics in the DT so that is no problem. This song needs no instrumentation though an eerie low droning accompaniment from a cello or base might dress it up some.

My only question is what is 'griesley'? What does it mean? Is it a place name or a condition? Is it a racial slur? I assume it's Australia because the song mentions dingoes but that is as far as I can get.

It's important for me to know because I will be singing this for kids (not little ones but not late teens either) and they will ask.

On a related note, I found this on Harry Tuft's Folk Legacy Album Across The Blue Mountains. I see from my search of the threads that the album is being re-released. Whatever happened to Harry? Did he record another album? Sandy, enquiring minds want to know.

Subject: RE: What is 'griesley'?
From: Quincy
Date: 01 Oct 00 - 07:34 AM

An open search on google suggested it was a surname. Encyclopedia Britannica didn't recognise it at all!

best wishes, Yvonne

Subject: RE: What is 'griesley'?
From: Margaret V
Date: 01 Oct 00 - 09:05 AM

I don't know the song you're talking about and didn't find it in the DT when I tried having a look, but I assume griesley is a variant on the word "grisly" which means horrible, or ghastly. It comes from the Anglo-Saxon verb "grisan" which means "to shudder." Hope this fits the context of the song. Margaret

Subject: RE: What is 'griesley'?
From: Naemanson
Date: 01 Oct 00 - 09:15 AM

Margaret, the song is listed in the DT under Griesly Wife. It is the only werewolf song I have ever heard. You explanation certainly makes sense though.

Subject: RE: What is 'griesley'?
From: Naemanson
Date: 01 Oct 00 - 09:16 AM

Oops, my mistake. It's listed as Griesly Bride. Note the spelling of "griesly".

Subject: RE: What is 'griesley'?
From: Margaret V
Date: 01 Oct 00 - 09:21 AM

Ah, found it. Ick, creepy! Margaret

Subject: RE: What is 'griesley'?
From: Naemanson
Date: 01 Oct 00 - 09:30 AM

But it does fit into Halloween.

Subject: RE: What is 'griesley'?
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 01 Oct 00 - 09:41 AM

Here is the entry from Chambers 20th Century Dictionary:

grisly,  griz'li, adj. frightful, ghastly (Spens., Milt. greisly; Spens. griesly, grisely, grysely).  -Also adv. (rare). -n. gris'liness. [O.E. grislic; c.f. grise]

Spenser in particular was fond of using words and spellings that even in the 16th century, when he was writing, were archaic.  The use of griesly nowadays is rather affected, but all the same, it's an interesting-looking song.  No hint of any racial slur here, then, unless we're talking about prejudice against werewolves (or whatever the lady in question actually turned out to be).  There is a bit more information on a previous thread:  Tune Req: Griesly Bride

Malcolm

Subject: RE: What is 'griesley'?
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 01 Oct 00 - 01:41 PM

And I always took it to be a combination of "grisly" and "greasy". Like my ex-wife's cooking.

Subject: RE: What is 'griesley'?
From: Naemanson
Date: 01 Oct 00 - 04:18 PM

Thanks to all for the answers. I now have what I came looking for. Now if I can get over this damn cold I can start to make progress on learning that song.

Subject: RE: What is 'griesley'?
From: Art Thieme
Date: 02 Oct 00 - 07:25 PM

It was a poem written by an Australian poet, John Manifold. I remember him because his name always reminded me of a "replacement part for a toilet". That's how I remembered his name whenever I did this song. The tune is VERY similar (at least the one I use) to the way I did "Fair Margaret And Sweet William" on my 1998 CD. And I did it with a banjo also, just like I did "Margaret". Good song.

Harry Tuft had his solo LP on Folk Legacy Across The Blue Mountains. He's also on Folk Legacy's The New Golden Ring CD with Dave Para and Cathy Barton and Sandy & Caroline Paton. It's a great record---as is Harry's solo LP---now a 'custom cassette' from Sandy.

(I won't tell you how I rememberd Harry Tuft's name ! Some people have tact, others tell the truth.)

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: What is 'griesley'?
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 02 Oct 00 - 10:29 PM

G'day all,

Manifold, like Spenser, was fond of archaic usages. He is quite familiar to Australian folkies, as he was the editor of the 1964 Penguin Australian Songbook that underpins many revival folkies repertoires. As well, his Bandicoot Ballads series of song broadsheets, produced in the early 1950s, with Ron Edwards' illustrating and calligraphy, were the first movements of an Australian "folk Revival".

He was a poet and a musicologist and his songs need to be treated carefully, since he was fond of noticing archaic modes and usages and emphasising them in his editor's versions of songs. He could also be evasive (and more) with provenance details. I am still tracing the collected reality that lies behind his (well known) version of Moreton Bay. I am sure there are valid insights in his version but it is not exactly what anyone actually sang.

Many of his poems are the distillations of his wartime experiences and range wider than the Australian continent - it almost seems that the reference to dingoes was just to drag this one back into the Australian ambit.

Another interesting poem is The Whistling Kettle - a tale of death by bunyip (Australian spirit creature, sometimes seen as like a yeti or bigfoot, but otherwise more reptillian. The interesting point about this is that it was inspired by the image of a London house, halved by a bomb blast, standing with three walls missing but with a kettle still whistling on the gas stove.

Regards,

bob Bolton

Subject: RE: What is 'griesley'?
From: lamarca
Date: 03 Oct 00 - 05:29 PM

Harry Tuft told us that the haunting tune for "The Griesley Bride" was set by Tom Campbell, who altered Manifold's poem to shorten it somewhat. The full text of the poem was on a wonderful Bush Poetry website called "The Campfyre", but, sadly, that site seems to have gone away...

Harry is alive and well and running The Denver Folklore Center, a music shop in Denver, Colorado (or was last fall when my husband and I visited.) He released a CD with some friends in a band called "Grubstake" a few years ago; it's great!

Subject: RE: What is 'griesley'?
From: Naemanson
Date: 03 Oct 00 - 05:35 PM

Thanks once again for all the info particualrly the info about John Manifold, Bob, and the location of Harry Tuft, lamarca.

Subject: RE: What is 'griesley'?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 03 Oct 00 - 11:41 PM

Harry Tuft's Across the Blue Mountains (click) is now available on CD from Folk-Legacy, and it's a good one. Harry is the usual master of ceremonies at a darn good hootenanny at the Swallow Hill Music Association in Denver. Looks like there's one coming up this Friday, October 6, 7:30 PM.
Almost tempts me to go back to work, so I can spend time in Denver and DC and get all that good folk music.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: What is 'griesley'?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 04 Oct 00 - 11:21 AM

Argh, I can't get into the DT to see the lyrics! WIll have to try later, sounds good. While we're at it... Anybody know what GRUMLY means? As in, and a grumly guest I'm sure was he?

Subject: RE: What is 'griesley'?
From: Margaret V
Date: 04 Oct 00 - 12:21 PM

The OED has grumly as a dialect equivalent to "gumly," which they say means muddy or turbid (obsolete Scottish). I suppose it's possibile he (the selkie)was muddy seeing as he spent so much of his time in the water... though something about this doesn't sound quite right. Hopefully someone else can shed some light on it. Margaret

Subject: RE: What is 'griesley'?
From: Naemanson
Date: 04 Oct 00 - 12:23 PM

Mrrzy, do you mean in the song Great Silky? I always thought that was "grumbly" as in one who grumbles a lot.

Subject: RE: What is 'griesley'?
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 04 Oct 00 - 12:55 PM

Grumly,  adj. fault-finding, irritable, given to grumbling; surly; grim.
Grumly,  adj. thick, muddy, full of dregs; gravelly; unpleasant; unsociable, not affable.
Grumly-like,  adj. forbidding in manner and look.

From Chambers' Scots Dictionary.

Subject: RE: What is 'griesley'?
From: Art Thieme
Date: 12 Nov 09 - 11:24 AM

...and meat is often difficult to chew because it is too griesley!

Art

Subject: RE: What is 'griesley'?
From: Mr Happy
Date: 12 Nov 09 - 11:29 AM

griesley= eye girls!

Subject: RE: What is 'griesley'?
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 12 Nov 09 - 03:07 PM

and see girly