Lyr Req: Wolves upon the Hill /Wolf Is on the Hill

Subject: Lyr Req: The WolvesUpon the Hill???
From: GUEST,jhlynskey
Date: 28 Dec 02 - 09:37 AM

My Mother-in -law sings several lines from this song from her Southern childhood. She can't remember(at age 85) all of the words nor the name of the song. She remembers "the wolves, the wolves upon the hill....I hear, I hear, I hear them still.....they stole, they stole my child away" It is a really mournful melody. Can anyone help us find more info?
Thanks
Jean

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The WolvesUpon the Hill???
From: Sorcha
Date: 28 Dec 02 - 09:42 AM

Could it be The Wolf is on the Hill? found at Levy. Scroll down to click the next pages.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The WolvesUpon the Hill???
From: GUEST,jhlynskey
Date: 28 Dec 02 - 12:45 PM

Thanks, Sorcha, but I don't think that is the same song. The one you sent is a hunting song, while the one I'm looking for is more of a Mother's lament.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The WolvesUpon the Hill???
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 28 Dec 02 - 01:49 PM

A lot of the old songs have been lost. Save what you can of the words, and tape the melody on a little recorder. American Memory, Randolph (Ozarks) and Brown (North Carolina) don't have anything other than the one Sorcha pointed out. What part of the south?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The WolvesUpon the Hill???
From: MS Mama
Date: 01 Jan 03 - 09:45 AM

Thanks for the idea of taping the melody and words that she knows. Is there any place that collects these partial tidbits of music?

Mom and her family are from Chattanooga, Tennessee for several generations and of Irish descent

Subject: Lyr Add: THE WOLF IS ON THE HILL
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 04 Feb 03 - 10:50 AM

Maybe this isn't the same song, but I'd bet they're both derived from the same source.

Transcribed from the sheet music at http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.music/sm1874.01141

THE WOLF IS ON THE HILL
A Hunting Quartette for Male Voices
Also Arranged for Mixed Voices in the key of (Eb)
Words and Music By C[harles] A. White.
Author of Moonlight on the Lake,
Come Rise with the Lark, Give Me My Own Native Isle
Boston: White, Smith & Company, 298 & 300 Washington St., 1873.
...
The wolf is on the hill.
The wolf is on the hill
We hear him howling still.
We hear him howling still.

Guard your flocks today.
Yes, guard your flocks today.
We'll bring the foe to bay.
We'll bring the foe to bay.

The wolf, the wolf is on the hill.
We hear him howl, is howling still.
And now, and now with beating hearts,
We'll sally forth the foe to kill.

Up the mountainside we go,
Ev'ry man his mettle show.
Crack we'll hear the rifle go,
Bringing down the foe.

Up the mountainside we go,
Ev'ry man his mettle show.
Crack we'll hear the rifle go,
Bringing down the foe.

The wolf is on the hill.
The wolf is on the hill.
We hear him howling still.
We hear him howling still.

Hunt him down with dog and gun.
Hunt him down with dog and gun.
The chase, the chase has now begun.
Baying hounds are on the trail.
Soon they'll bring the foe to bay.
They're true. They never fail.

The wolf is on the hill.
The wolf is on the hill.
We hear him howling still.
We hear him howling still.

The wolf is on the hill.
The wolf is on the hill.
We hear him howling still.
We hear him howling still.

The wolf is on the hill.
The wolf is on the hill.
The wolf is on the hill.
The hill, the hill, the hill, the hill.