I've been in a traditional music kind of mood for the past two weeks or so; it's all I've been listening to. I enjoy folk music. The natural rhythms and heavy reliance on vocal and instrumental talent are quite relaxing. I find it's a welcome break from all the auto-tuned techno crap ol' Chainsaw Charlie's been churning out lately (It's a W.A.S.P. reference). So, anyway, I've been listening to a ton of folk music. And then I got to thinking, "Hey, this stuff's loaded with references to local legends and superstition--just the kind of stuff this blog's supposed to be about." Then I decided, even though I'm
supposed to be doing driver's ed (I'll get to that later), I should really post something. My absence isn't fair to the five people out of our world's seven billion who actually read this blog. I figured I could make this one about the stories told in a few popular (and not-so-popular) folk ballads. I'm starting with the collection of Francis J. Child, hence the title of this entry.
"Scarborough Fair," or "The Elfin Knight"
The details of the song vary from version to version, but the gist is the same: A man tells a woman that he'll marry her if she can perform several impossible tasks, such as making a cambric shirt without any seams, washing it in a dry well, and finding an acre of land between the sea and the shore. The progressive metal band Queensryche did an awesome cover of the ballad, which was where I first heard it:
http://youtu.be/lcwQlGjNqrs
"Lord Randall"
I had to write a report on this one, so I know it like the back of my own hand. Lord Randall comes home tired and desperate for a bed, only to have to suffer his mother's incessant interrogation. He answers her inquiries about his whereabouts with short, blunt sentences, stating that he'd been in the greenwood eating dinner with his true love. A little later, he reveals that he fed his leftovers to his hawks and hounds, who sickened and died. At this, his mother exclaims, "I fear you've been poisoned, Lord Randall, my son!" And he answers, "Yes, I've been poisoned; mother make my bed soon..." His mother then wants to know what he'll leave to his family when he dies. He gives his brother his lands, and his mother and sister gold. His mother asks what he'd leave to his true love, and he replies, "I leave her hell and fire". There is some speculation that it was actually a fairy in the guise of his true love who poisoned him, as punishment for trespassing in the greenwood.
"The Great Silkie of Sule Skerry"
A traditional ballad from the Orkney Islands, the song starts off with a woman singing to her young child that she doesn't know who his father is. That night (or soon after), a strange man enters her house, introducing himself as the father of her child, and he is, in fact, a silkie, a mysterious being that takes the form of a man on land and a seal in the water. He asks the woman to marry him, and she refuses. He then gives her a nurse's fee for raising his child and takes the baby with him, but not before telling her that she'll eventually marry a gunner who will one day kill him and their child. Broadside Electric did a really cool cover:
"Geordie"
"Geordie" is Child Ballad 209, in which a woman laments the arrest and pending execution of her true love, Geordie, for one of a number of crimes, depending upon the version (poaching, theft, murder, treason, etc.). She goes to the judge to plea for a pardon, saying that she'd freely part with every single one of her children if he'd only "spare the life of Geordie." The judge tells her that he cannot pardon Geordie, and the man must hang. In some versions, however, gracious people donate money to help pay his ransom.
