Fairy/faery ballads - help

Subject: RE: Fairy/faery ballads - help
From: Hollowfox
Date: 18 Jul 00 - 04:16 PM

Ian HP, I hope you're still around. Try the book "Folklore in the English and Scottish Ballads" by Lowry Charles Wimberly. It was written in 1928, so it can be a bit "scholarly" (read: stuffy), but it's a good jumping-off point. You'd probably also find just about anything written by Katharine Briggs useful (and much more readable). I'd start with "Encyclopedia of Fairies (Pantheon, 1976)

Subject: RE: Fairy/faery ballads - help
From: MMario
Date: 18 Jul 00 - 03:54 PM

NObody loves a fairy

Subject: RE: Fairy/faery ballads - help
From: Peg
Date: 18 Jul 00 - 03:49 PM

Naemanson; thank you thank you thank you!!! I have been looking for this for years!!!!!

peg

doing a happy dance...

Subject: RE: Fairy/faery ballads - help
From: GUEST,Colwyn Dane
Date: 18 Jul 00 - 12:57 PM

G'Day

One I came across recently:

"Nobody Loves A Fairy When She's Forty"

A product from Arthur Le Clerq and sung by Tessie O'Shea.

Toodle-pip.

Subject: RE: Fairy/faery ballads - help
From: Naemanson
Date: 17 Jul 00 - 09:09 PM

I meant to say you can find it on her album Turn It Around.

Subject: RE: Fairy/faery ballads - help
From: Naemanson
Date: 17 Jul 00 - 09:08 PM

The song is The Knight Of The Rose and it is by Eileen McGann. You can find it Turn It Around. Her website is at http://www.canuck.com/~jscown/mcgann/

I dreamed I saw a garden
A lady she stood there,
Green and white were her garments,
A red rose in her hair,
I said to her, "My lady,
What do you do in here?"
She smiled and said,
"Where would I be,
But watching o'er my dear?"

But watching o'er my dear, my love,
But watching o'er my dear,
She smiled and said,
"Where would I be,
But watching o'er my dear?"

She gently took my hand then,
Her glove was all white lace,
And though we walked through garden paths,
Her small feet left no trace.
More lovely than the roses,
More stately than the trees,
And bloom and bough reached out to her,
And danced upon the breeze.

And danced upon the breeze.
And danced upon the breeze.
And bloom and bough reached out to her,
And danced upon the breeze.

We rested on a hanging bough,
And secrets she revealed,
Of a land where summer always shines,
And wounded hearts are healed,
Where sorrow never lingers,
And nothing causes pain,
Where heart's desire is heart's delight,
Forever and again.

Forever and again.
Forever and again.
Where heart's desire is heart's delight,
Forever and again.

We walked again and mists arose,
Her hand was cold in mine,
When suddenly my mind was filled
With all I'd left behind.
I cried, "Where do you lead me?"
Her eyes filled with despair,
And softly then she disappeared
Into the fragranced air.

Into the fragranced air.
Into the fragranced air.
And softly then she disappeared
Into the fragranced air.

And so now I wander all alone,
And never can find rest,
For she took all my heart's content,
Laid fire within my breast,
No beauty can be rich now,
No music can seem fair,
Until I find my lady with
The red rose in her hair.

The red rose in her hair.
The red rose in her hair.
Until I find my lady with
The red rose in her hair.

Fair breaks your heart doesn't it?

Subject: RE: Fairy/faery ballads - help
From: Peg
Date: 17 Jul 00 - 02:54 PM

Naemanson;

thank you!!! I would REALY appreciate any information you can give me on it...

peg

Subject: RE: Fairy/faery ballads - help
From: Naemanson
Date: 17 Jul 00 - 02:08 PM

Peg - The Knight and the Rose is an Eileen McGann tune. At least she recorded it, I'm not sure if she wrote it. I'll check the CD when I get home.

Subject: RE: Fairy/faery ballads - help
From: Peg
Date: 17 Jul 00 - 01:42 PM

I have been seeking a faery song called "Night and the Rose" for some time (it may also be known as "The Knight and the Rose") by a contemporary songwriter: anyone know it?

Also to add to the other suggestions for faery songs/ballads may I suggest the following:

Tir na Nog (by the band of the same name, I think)
Poison Glen by Clannad
Trip to the Faire by Renaissance (t certainly sounds like there is an element of time warp/disappearance along the lines of faery abduction)
The Stolen Child by Loreena McKennitt
The Stolen Child by The Waterboys?? I think
(both versions based on Yeats' poem)

Subject: RE: Fairy/faery ballads - help
From: Charlie Baum
Date: 17 Jul 00 - 01:43 AM

Beyond the Child ballads in the Digitrad database, you might want to consult a larger collection with more variants (The five-volume Child or the four-volume Bronson if you can get your hands on them). Very often, English versions will have supernatural events in them (including faeries), while the American equivalents purge the supernatural from the plot.

--Charlie Baum

Subject: RE: Fairy/faery ballads - help
From: GUEST,Bekki
Date: 17 Jul 00 - 12:04 AM

One of my favorites is an Archie Fisher piece from Shetland called Orfeo which is in Child's collection. His sister Ray played it for us at Scottish Week (Augusta Heritage arts Workshops) some years back. Not sure which album it's on. Theme is about a kidnapping of a king's wife by the Fairy king, and how the king wins her back again by going to the fairy realm and playing music for the fairy court. Archie has also penned a fairy ballad of his own, Witch of the Westmorland, which is lovely. Steeleye Span is an excellent source of fairy ballads-- they have recorded at least 5 that I know of-- Thomas Rhymer, 700 Elves, False Knight on the Road, Tam Lin, The Wee Wee Man. Ray Fisher's Willie's Lady is another good one which deals with magical themes, but not Faery as such.

Subject: RE: Fairy/faery ballads - help
From: GUEST,Phil Cooper
Date: 16 Jul 00 - 11:29 PM

Besides "Tam Lin" there are also the "Outlandish Knight" related ballads, which have a supernatural element, though it is not spelled out. I recall Steeleye Span doing "700 Elves" on one of their recordings as well. I can't think of a whole lot of other traditional songs that deal specifically with fairies. There seems to be quite a few of varying quality in the filk world. Perhaps the telling of fairy stories did not lend itself to the making of songs.

Subject: RE: Fairy/faery ballads - help
From: Rosebrook
Date: 16 Jul 00 - 11:24 PM

Ian, you might enjoy doing a web search on filk music.

Meg Davis wrote the song The Elf Glade, an interesting ballad - minor key with a strong (yet haunting) melody; time changes between 4/4 and 6/4; and lyrics that tell a wonderous story on this subject. You can find this song on her 'Captain Jack and the Mermaid' CD.

(If you like the song, you'll be happy to know that Meg has made friends with one of the oldest inhabitants of the Elf Glade and he, along with his nephew, are helping her to write an in-depth book of their lives and adventures which she hopes to publish in the 'not too distant' future.)

Rose

Subject: RE: Fairy/faery ballads - help
From: Noreen
Date: 16 Jul 00 - 10:38 PM

I posted that before I saw yours Jeri, wasn't trying to correct you! :o) Didn't realise at the time that it was an old thread resurrected- Ian HP is probably long gone if he didn't find anything before now!!

--Noreen

...but Joe did mean to correct Jeri.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Fairy/faery ballads - help
From: Jeri
Date: 16 Jul 00 - 10:10 PM

Whoops - Jeri does Bad HTML again. I meant to put in a link. Thanks to Noreen and her Good HTML!

Subject: RE: Fairy/faery ballads - help
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 16 Jul 00 - 09:13 PM

If any of you go to the Tam Lin web site and explore the "King's Daughter Lady Jane" example (which I don't see as related to the "fairy/faerie" topic, since there is no magical element in the tale), you might like to know that the text quoted there is the one I collected from Sara Cleveland in Brant Lake, New York, and included on her Folk-Legacy record (FSA-33 - now available as a custom cassette with the original booklet). I would be pleased to see the Tam Lin web site credit their source, darn it.

Mrs. Cleveland knew the song as "Queen Jane," although it had nothing to do with the Child ballad of that title, but rather was the only version of "The King's Daughter Lady Jean" (Child 52) ever found in tradition in the United States. Bronson included it in his appendix, since it was collected too late to be in the first volumes of his great work.

Sandy

Subject: RE: Fairy/faery ballads - help
From: Noreen
Date: 16 Jul 00 - 02:12 PM

Hi Ian
Have a look at these pages devoted solely to Tam Lin. Also there are links to related stories and discussion of related themes and motifs.

--Noreen

Subject: RE: Fairy/faery ballads - help
From: Jeri
Date: 16 Jul 00 - 02:07 PM

Missed this thread because I hadn't joined MC yet! Thanks for refreshing it, Lena. I also love the Contemplator site - not only for the music, but for the way it's set up.

Here is a whole website devoted to one ballad - Tam Lin.

Subject: RE: Fairy/faery ballads - help
From: Mrrzy
Date: 16 Jul 00 - 01:34 PM

Also, don't neglect Iolanthe. Lots of great fairies-interacting-with-humans songs, even if they are Gilbert & Sullivan rather than "traditional" folk...

Subject: RE: Fairy/faery ballads - help
From: GUEST,Lena
Date: 16 Jul 00 - 09:14 AM

Probably everyone has replied this already,but have you had a look at the Child's Ballads (etc...)collection?!An online source with lyrics and music can be found at www.contemplator.com/folk.html You can listen to the musics too.

Subject: RE: Fairy/faery ballads - help
From: Susan of DT
Date: 28 Feb 99 - 03:22 PM

@myth will get you an assortment of fairies, witches, unicorns, devil, etc.

Subject: RE: Fairy/faery ballads - help
From: Alice
Date: 28 Feb 99 - 01:22 PM

I can think of 3 that I don't think are in the database
The Shortcut Through the Rosses
The Leprechaun
Monday Tuesday (I wrote English version of the Gaelic song)

don't have time to add lyrics now...

Subject: Fairy/faery ballads - help
From: Ian HP
Date: 28 Feb 99 - 12:34 PM

I have become interested of late in themes in the great fairy ballads such as Tam Lin, etc.. I have tried the database but there is nothing via a straight search or via key words. Can anyone give me a list of titles to search for or any other help?