LL-L "Songs" 2002.10.15 (01) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 15.OCT.2002 (01) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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 A=Afrikaans Ap=Appalachian B=Brabantish D=Dutch E=English F=Frisian
 L=Limburgish LS=Lowlands Saxon (Low German) S=Scots Sh=Shetlandic
               V=(West)Flemish Z=Zeelandic (Zeêuws)
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From: George M Gibault <gmg at direct.ca>
Subject: Songs

Hi again!

Muckle thanks to Sandy for Jamie Telfer O'The Fair Dodhead. I LOVE border
ballads. (One of my great grandmothers was a Kerr). If you would like to
hear some it is quite hard to find more than one of them on any particular
recording, BUT Fellside Recordings recently released a CD of them which I
found on the Border Heritage website. It is called "Fyre & Sworde" and is
quite wonderful. The notes include a map of the borders with many of the
old border families' domains shown. There are several fine performers, but
Graham Pert's versions of The Death of Parcy Reed and The Battle of
Otterbourne are not to be missed!

Rounder Records has also produced a wonderful 2 CD set of Child Ballads
under the title Classic Ballads of Britain and Ireland, Volumes I and II. A
lot of pure southwestern English and North Eastern Scots dialects are
featured. Those curious about Yorkshire dialect are advised to track down
the recordings of the Watersons.

Thanks to Richard Turner too for his version of Old Bangham. I didn't mean
to suggest that there were
actual gnostics wandering around the Appalachians - only that their ancient
beliefs left traces in the centuries old ballads which had survived
there.  On the other hand, witch lore is a major fact of Appalachian
folklore - and I have always believed that linguistic evidence might cast a
lot of light on the historians' debate over the reality or not of actual
conscious witchcraft practice in medieval Europe and colonial America.

Nor is witch lore restricted to Appalachia/Ozarks and Salem - So-called
"hex signs" (actually anti-hex signs) are still sold tourists in the
"Pennsylvania Dutch" country  based on traditional wheel designs painted on
some barns.)

The older the ballad version - the longer - the bloodier - and the more
supernatural/unorthodox elements are preserved. I agree with Richard that
as I think he intimates, the chorus lines to Banghum strongly suggest a
half remembered Latin incantation. Putting together different variants one
is struck by the number of different supernatural elements spread across
these versions.  A Scottish version from Banffshire has a giant as well as
a killer boar, and names the place as Tore (Thor?) wood. Sam Harmon of
Maryville Tennessee sings blow your horn center (scenter? centaur?) and
refers to the hero as a "jovial hunter" (Jove?) After killing the boar and
finding the bones of five hundred men in its lair:

He meets the old witch wife on the bridge
Begone you rogue you've killed my pig

There is three things I crave of thee
Your hawk and hound your gay lady

These three things you'll not have of me
My hawk my hound my gay lady

He split the old witch wife to the chin
And on his way he went ag'in

Evelyn Purcell, of Farmville, Albemarle County Virginia sang:

Old Bangham blew both loud and shrill
The wild boar heard on Temple hill
Cubby ki, cuddle down
Killy quo quam (remember "hocus pocus" derives from "Hoc ist corpus" in the
Latin mass)

The wild boar came with such a rush
That he broke down hickory oak and ash etc.

A similar version can be heard on "Five Miles Out of Town" Volume II
Rounder 787 sung by Dee Hicks of Fentress County Tennessee. Ray Hicks from
Watauga County North Carolina also did an album of Jack Tales for Folkways
records - a classic of old Appalachian speech. One of these can be seen and
heard on video - "Tall Tales of the Blue Ridge" from Eastern National Park
and Monument Asociation 210 Riceville Road Asheville North Carolina 28805.

Enjoy! George

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