Help: The Green Grass Grows all Around

Subject: RE: Help: The Green Grass Grows all Around
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 18 Jan 22 - 08:07 AM

Tree in the Wood is the most common published title and one I tend to use most. Definitely PD. I can take the date back much earlier than 1877. A version appeared on a broadside c1800 (song 1 of 2 Excellent New Songs) printed in London, ref British Library 11606 aa.24 (7) 1 The Tree on the Hill (probably much earlier). The Pitts broadside referred to by Mick can be dated c1800 to 1819. Randall of Stirling printed a version 'A New Song Called Oral Valley' in 1805 which can be seen on the National Library of Scotland site. There are later printings as well by Pearson of Manchester. There is enough difference amongst these versions to suggest they derive from something earlier.

BTW 'New' means nothing in such cases. It was simply a sales ploy.

Subject: RE: Help: The Green Grass Grows all Around
From: clueless don
Date: 18 Jan 22 - 07:27 AM

There are any number of songs, similar to The Green Grass Grows All Around, that build with each verse - The Barley Mo, When I first Came to this Land, There's a Hole in the Bottom of the Sea, and on and on.

Subject: RE: Help: The Green Grass Grows all Around
From: Felipa
Date: 17 Jan 22 - 05:27 PM

a Danish version: Langt udi Skoven (Tree in the Forest)
https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=41159

a Yiddish version: Funem Sheynem Vortsl Aroys https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=57991#3639949 (a long thread, Funem Sheynem Vortsl Aroys was added in Oct. 2021)

Subject: RE: Help: The Green Grass Grows all Around
From: GUEST,MCP
Date: 15 Nov 01 - 03:11 AM

Gardiner collected a similar version of the Everlasting Circle in Cornwall in 1905 (in Marrowbones). Sharp collected several verson, as indeed did most of the early English collectors, under varios titles The Tree Song/The Tree In The Wood/The Everlasting Circle/Down In The Lowlands/The Tree In The Bog/The Rattling Bog. Earliest printed in these collections was from Mason 1877 (a Devon version), but Kennedy (Folksongs of Britain & Ireland) refers to an undated Pitt broadside, which may be earlier.
Mick


Marrowbones version:
Now in the grove there was a tree
And so fine a tree as ever you did see
And the tree was in the wood
Where the green leaves grows around, around, around
Where the green leaves grows around

Succeeding verses having:
Now in this tree there came a limb
Now in this limb there came a branch
Now in this branch there came a nest
Now in this nest there came an egg
Now in this egg there came a bird
Now of this bird there came a feather
Now of this feather there came a bed
Now of this bed there came a maid
Now of this maid there came a man
Now by this man was planted a seed
Now of this seed there came a tree

Subject: RE: Help: The Green Grass Grows all Around
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 14 Nov 01 - 11:44 PM

CUFresno gives the earliest date of the Rattling Bog as 1877. It has also been called The Endless Circle. According to them, it has been found in England, Scotland, Wales, Canada and the USA.

Subject: RE: Help: The Green Grass Grows all Around
From: Bev and Jerry
Date: 14 Nov 01 - 11:10 PM

It also goes by the title "A Tree in the Woods". It's from Ireland where it's usually called "Rattlin' Bog".

Bev and Jerry

Subject: RE: Help: The Green Grass Grows all Around
From: Sorcha
Date: 14 Nov 01 - 10:59 PM

Hi. The Kididdles site has it as Unkown/Unattributed. That site is fairly strict about copyrighted material, so I would say it is PD. No clue about the other questions......sorry.

Subject: The Green Grass Grows all Around
From: GUEST,The Singing Storyteller
Date: 14 Nov 01 - 10:42 PM

Hi. I'm trying to find out if the song "The Green Grass Grows all Around and Around" has an author or is in the public domain. It is on a Pete Seger album with no credits. Also where does the song come from and how old is it. Thanks Eric