<span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"> </span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">L O W L A N D S - L - 30 May 2007 - Volume 01</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">=========================================================================</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">From: </span><span id="_user_felix.huelsey@gmx.de" style="color: rgb(0, 104, 28); font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Felix Hülsey <<a href="mailto:felix.huelsey@gmx.de">felix.huelsey@gmx.de
</a>></span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Subject: LL-L "Traditions"</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Hi all,</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Kevin wrote:</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">></span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">> I don't know about the Lowlands specifically, but in the</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">> English-speaking world there is the nursery rhyme that children chant to</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">> ladybirds/ladybugs (usually only the first line, or perhaps the first
</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">> two lines):</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">></span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">> Ladybird, ladybird, fly away home,</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">> Your house in on fire and your children are gone,
</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">> All except one and that's little Ann,</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
> For she crept under the frying pan.</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">That reminds me of the German nursery rhyme about the Maikäfer
</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">(according to Wikipedia, the English word is "cockchafer (or may bug, as</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">it is colloquially called, or sometimes billy witch or spang beetle,</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">particularly in East Anglia)")
</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Maikäfer, flieg</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
Dein Vater ist im Krieg</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Dein' Mutter ist in Pommerland</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
Pommerland ist abgebrannt</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Maikäfer flieg</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">My translation:</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Cockchafer, fly</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">your father has gone to war</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">your mother is in Pomerania</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Pomerania was burned down</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Cockchafer, fly</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">It is not about the same insect, ladybird is Marienkäfer in German, but</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
maybe there is a connection?</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">According to this site</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<a style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://www.dradio.de/dlf/sendungen/lyrikkalender/616545/" target="_blank">http://www.dradio.de/dlf/sendungen/lyrikkalender/616545/
</a><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">the rhyme came in use during the 30-year-war (1618-1648) which also</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
destroyed Pomerania and killed two thirds of its population.</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Kind regards from Cologne
</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Felix</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
----------</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
From: R. F. Hahn <<a href="mailto:sassisch@yahoo.com" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">sassisch@yahoo.com</a>></span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
Subject: Traditions<br><br>Hi, Felix! Thanks. You tied this song into this thread much more smoothly that I would have done.<br><br>The connection between this song and the Thirty-Year War is what I learned about many years ago. That war (which began as a religious war but then escalated,
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirty_Year_War">en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirty_Year_War</a>) was one of the most horrendous, albeit not in actual numbers, in terms of civilian suffering, much of it in terms of starvation and disease. Apparently, it truly traumatized people to a great extent, so much so that much folklore and many folksongs can be traced back to it.
<br><br>Another German song of those times is the following.<br></span><div style="text-align: center; font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br><table style="border-collapse: collapse;" id="AutoNumber1" border="0" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="3">
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<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="2"><b>Es geht ein dunkle Wolk herein</b><br><br>
Es geht ein dunkle Wolk herein;<br>
mich deucht, es wird ein Regen sein,<br>
ein Regen aus den Wolken<br>
wohl in das grüne Gras.<br><br>
Und kommst du, liebe Sonn, nit bald,<br>
so weset alls im grünen Wald,<br>
und all die müden Blumen,<br>
die haben müden Tod.<br><br>
Es geht ein dunkle Wolk herein,<br>
es soll und muß geschieden sein;<br>
ade, Feinslieb, dein Scheiden<br>
macht mir das Herze schwer.</font>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="2"><b>A Gloomy Cloud Is Drawing Near<br>
</b><br>
A gloomy cloud is drawing near.<br>
Me thinks it will be raining here<br>
From all those gloomy rain clouds<br>
Into the green, green grass.<br><br>
And dost thou, sun, not come this day<br>
All things in green woods must decay,<br>
And all the weary flowers<br>
Must suffer weary death.<br><br>
A gloomy cloud is drawing near.<br>
This is the time of parting, dear.<br>
Farewell, sweet love, thy leaving,<br>
Heavy it makes my heart.</font>
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<p style="text-align: right; font-style: italic;" class="MsoNormal" align="right"><font size="1">©2007,
Translation: R. F. Hahn</font></p></td>
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</div><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br>Music:<br>MIDI: </span><a style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;" class="linkification-ext" href="http://tinyurl.com/2lesu3" title="Linkification: http://tinyurl.com/2lesu3">
tinyurl.com/2lesu3</a><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">MP3: </span><a style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;" class="linkification-ext" href="http://tinyurl.com/2tfpyq" title="Linkification: http://tinyurl.com/2tfpyq">
tinyurl.com/2tfpyq</a><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">MP3: </span><a style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;" class="linkification-ext" href="http://tinyurl.com/3yjtom" title="Linkification: http://tinyurl.com/3yjtom">
tinyurl.com/3yjtom</a><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Sheet music (PDF): </span><a style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;" class="linkification-ext" href="http://tinyurl.com/2pcqo9" title="Linkification: http://tinyurl.com/2pcqo9">
tinyurl.com/2pcqo9</a><b style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br><br></b><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Information (German): <a href="http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunkle_Wolken">de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunkle_Wolken
</a><br><br>Regards,<br>Reinhard/Ron<br><br><br></span>