> Folk Music > Songs > Queen Mary’s Men

Queen Mary’s Men / New Year’s Eve Carol / Hagmen-Heigh

[ Roud 4584 ; G/D 3:641 ; Ballad Index MSNR200 ; DT MARYMEN ; trad.]

Sidney Scott and company of North Ronaldsay, Orkney sang the New Year’s carol New’r Even’s Song on 19 July 1955 to Peter Kennedy. A fragment of this BBC recording 22722 (7 of the 27 verses) was included on the anthology Songs of Christmas / Songs of Ceremony (The Folk Songs of Britain Volume 9; Caedmon 1961; Topic 1970). The album’s booklet noted:

Sidney Scott talked as follows about the background of this carol:

The idea was that every man visited every house on Hogmanay (New Year). They had one fellow with a good carrying voice who took the leading part. They sang, just at the door, and they wouldn’t let them in until they finished. Then the lady of the house came out with a big oatcake and broke it over the head of the singer and everybody picked up the fragments. When they came in, they got as much to eat and drink as they liked.

All the fully grown men and the very oldest, as long as they were able, had to be at every house in their own township. There was a leader in every township who was the chief man, and they had to do as he said. 1 think the original idea was, that, if they tried to skip a verse, the oldest man in the company he’d put staff across the singers’ back.

Dan Gorrie, writing about “Summers and Winters in the Orkneys” in 1867, explained the term “carrying horse” and how the company grew in strength as they went from house to house:

The singing-men, at starting, were few in number, but every house visited sent forth fresh relays, and the chorus waxed in volume as the number of voices increased.

The carrying-horse mentioned was the clown or jester of the party, who suffered himself to be beaten with knotted handkerchiefs, and received double rations as the reward of his folly.

County Folk-Lore (III, p. 204) describes a similar custom kept up in Shetland:

In the olden time, on the last night of the old year, 5 young lads, consisting of a gentleman, a carrying-horse, and three others, all disguised, went from house to house singing what was called The New’r Even’s Song and collecting provisions for a banquet on New Year’s night.

The gentleman wore a cap of straw round his neck, a belt of straw round his right arm. It was his duty to sing, which he did, standing outside the door; and when the song was finished, he could enter the house and introduce himself as Vanderigan come from Drontheim (pronounced Dornton).

John Roberts and Tony Barrand with Fred Breunig and Steve Woodruff sang An Orkney New Year’s Carol in 1977 on their Front Hall pageant of Mid-Winter Carols, Nowell Sing We Clear. This track was also included in 1989 on their CD The Best of Nowell Sing We Clear 1975-1986.

Bryony Griffith and Alice Jones sang Hagmen-Heigh in 2023 on their Selwyn album Wesselbobs. They noted:

A Fragment of the Hagmena Song is found in C.J. Davison Ingledew’s The Ballads and Songs of Yorkshire (i860) and Abraham Holroyd’s Collection of Yorkshire Ballads (1892). It was sung as a house-visiting song by the Corporation Pinder at Richmond, North Yorkshire, on New Year’s Eve. Other versions are found mostly in Scotland and since the fragment includes only verses one, six & seven, we have gratefully borrowed some verses from the New’r Even’s Song on The Folk Songs of Britain volume 9, Songs of Ceremony LP (1961), sung by Sidney Scott and company, North Ronaldsay, Orkney, recorded by Peter Kennedy; and Robert Chambers’ Popular Rhymes of Scotland (1841). There is no known tune with the fragment, so Bryony adapted the tune from the New’r Even’s Sang or Hoggeranonie Sang in David Buchan’s Scottish Tradition (1984). The origins of the word ‘Hagmena’, or ‘Hogmanay’, are obscure, and while we don’t want to start a fight, its first official mention as ‘hagnonayse’ can be traced back to 1443…in West Yorkshire.

Lyrics

Sidney Scott and company sing the New’r Even’s Song

Guid be to this boldly begging
We are a’ St. Mary’s men
Frae the staiths unto the rigging
For wor lady

Guid bless the guid wife and sae the guid man
Dish and table, pot and pan

This night is guid Nor Even’s Night
And we’ve come here to crave wor right

The morn it is Guid Nor Year’s Day
And we’ve come here to sport and play

And if we get nor what we seek
We’ll tak’ the head o’ your ewe or sheep

May a’ your kye be weel to calf
And every ane ha’e a quey or a calf

May a’ your mares be weel to foal
And every ane ha’e mare or foal

May a’ your ewes be weel to lamb
And every ane ha’e a ewe or ram

May a’ your geese be weel to thrive
And every ane ha’e three times five

May a’ your hens rin in a reel
And every ane twirl at her heel

King Henry he is nor at hame
But he is to the greenwoods game

We ha’e na baith his hawk and hound
And the fair lady Rosamund

We’ll tell you hoo oor queen is dressed
If you will gi’e us o’ your best

She wears upon her well-made head
The golden croon and it fu’ braid

She wears upon her bonnie breist-bane
The glittering brooches many a ane

She wears upon her middle sma’
The gilt and gold and girdles a’

She wears upon her legs her sheen
Stockings of the red tameen

She wears upon her bonnie feet
The cornered shoon that are so neat

War is the guid man o’ this house?
War is he that man?

And why is he no asked before
At the opening o’ the door?

War is the guid wife o’ this house?
War is she that dame?

And why is she no ask before?
We have fu’ cog on the flame (?)

War is the servant lass o’ this house?
War is she that lass?

And why is she no asked before
In sweeping oot the hoose?

War is the servant man o’ this house?
War is he that lad?

And why is he no asked before?
Oot dale and wee a’ sped

This night is Guid Nor Even’s Night
And we’ve come here to claim wor right

Nowell Sing We Clear sing An Orkney New Year’s Carol

Chorus
This is New Year’s Even Night,
We are all Queen Mary’s Men,
And we’ve come here to claim our right:
And that’s before our lady.

The morning, it is New Year’s Day,
And we’ve come here to sport and play:

And if you don’t open up your door,
We’ll lay it flat upon the floor:

Master, get your ale vat,
And give us a couple of pints of that:

Mistress, get your pork ham,
And cut it large, and cut it round,
Be sure you don’t cut off your thumb:

We wish your cattle all may thrive,
To every one, a goodly calf:

We wish your mares, well fare they all,
To every one, a stag foal:

We wish your hens all well may thrive,
And every one lay three times five:

We wish your geese may all do well,
And every one, twelve at her heel:

God bless the mistress and her man,
Dish and table, pot and pan:

Here’s to the one with yellow hair,
She’s hiding underneath the stair:

Be you maids or be you none,
Although our time may not be long,
You’ll all be kissed ere we go home:

Bryony Griffith and Alice Jones sing Hagmen-Heigh

Tonight it is the New Year’s night,
Tomorrow is the day, and,
We are come for our right and our ray,
As we used to in King Henry’s day.
Sing fellows, sing Hagman-heigh.

The very first thing which we do crave,
A bonny white candle we must have.
Bless the good wife and the man,
Dish and table, pot and pan.
Sing fellows, sing Hagman-heigh.

May all your flock be well and lamb,
And every one have a yow or ram.
May all your geese be well to thrive,
And every one have three times five.
Sing fellows, sing Hagman-heigh.

Go to the cupboard if you please,
And bring from there a yow-milk cheese.
And then bring here a sharpening stone,
We’ll sharp our whittles every one.
Sing fellows, sing Hagman-heigh.

May all your swine thrive in the sty,
With many to sell and none to buy.
May all your hens run in a reel,
And every hen twirl at her heel.
Sing fellows, sing Hagman-heigh.

If you go to the bacon-flick,
Cut me off a good bit.
Cut, cut and low beware of your maw,
Cut, cut and round, beware of your thumb.
Sing fellows, sing Hagman-heigh.

If you go to the butter ark,
Bring me a ten mark.
Ten mark, ten pound, throw it down on the ground,
That me and my merry men may have some.
Sing fellows, sing Hagman-heigh.

You know the weather’s snow and sleet,
Stir up the fire to warm our feet.
Our shoon’s made of the fine mare’s skin,
Come open the door and let us in.
Sing fellows, sing Hagman-heigh.

If you go to the wooden pail,
Fetch me back a quart of ale.
We hope your ale is strong and stout,
For us to drink the old year out.
Sing fellows, sing Hagman-heigh.