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Young Orphy
King Orfeo / Orfeo / Young Orphy
[
Roud 136
; Child 19
; Ballad Index C019
; trad.]
John Stickle from Lerwick, Shetland, sang King Orfeo on 28 April 1947 to Patrick Shuldham-Shaw. This was printed in the Journal of the English Folk Dance & Song Society Vol. 5:2 (1947) and in Bronson's Traditional Tunes of the Child Ballads. His BBC recording 18624 that was included on the anthology The Child Ballads 1 (The Folk Songs of Britain Volume 4; Caedmon 1961; Topic 1968) is dated February 1952, though. I don't know if this is a second recording or a mis-dating of the first one. Anyway, this album's booklet noted:
It is a common experience to hear songs and tales in Gaelic about persons kidnapped by the little people, but such ancient lore has almost disappeared in other parts of the west. According to Bronson (p. 275), this melody is also very ancient. “That a tune in the midst of the 20th century be recovered for this whisper from the Middle Ages was as little to be expected as that we should hear a horn from elfinland blowing…” Child printed one version only of the ballad, but when Patrick Shaw went to the Shetland to look for songs he was shown the following text that had appeared in the Shetland Times, written down from the recitation of Bruce Sutherland of Turf House, North Yell, in 1865. The refrain was clearly derived from the Scandinavian original which runs…
Skoven arle grön – Early greens the wood Hvor hjorten han gar arlig – Where the hart goes yearly Still no tune has ever been recorded for the ballad. Then one day Mr Shaw was visiting John Stickle in the island of Unst and the two began talking about nonsense songs. “Have you ever,” said Mr Stickle, “heard anything as nonsensical as this?” Mr Stickle then proceeded to sing him the song here reproduced, and he failed to understand how his London friend could be so excited over a bit of nonsense that he had never been able to get out of his mind.
Archie Fisher sang Orfeo as the title track of his 1970 Decca LP, Orfeo. He noted:>
With the valuable assistance of Martin Carthy I have reconstructed the ballad round the original fragment. The second and fourth lines of the verse are all that remains of what is said to have been its middle Danish origins. Translated they mean “Early greens the wood” and “Where the hart goes yearly”. The atmosphere of the melody was what first attracted me. There is no 3rd or 6th in the scale, as in the calm, noon raga Brindabani Saranga of Gujerat. It was this similarity that suggested the pulsing pedal drone. I felt that the highly narrative text would benefit from a backdrop of saga-strings which would bring out the powerful qualities of the melody. The instrumentals are an Irish-Scottish hybrid completing the trans-ethnic effect, and linking the Aryan-Celtic passage of folk music and folk-tale.
Steeleye Span recorded Orfeo together with the tune Nathan's Reel in 1976 for the last album with their “classic” line-up, Rocket Cottage. Maddy Prior sings in duet with herself.
And Frankie Armstrong sang the ballad in 1996 as Young Orphy on her ballads album Till the Grass O'ergrew the Corn. The sleeve notes commented:>
The ballad of King Orfeo stems from a medieval retelling of the story of Orpheus and Eurydice, in which Eurydice, instead of dying and descending to Hades, is carried of by the King of Elfland, from whose unwelcome attentions she is successfully rescued by her husband's virtuoso musical skills. It has only ever been found in the Shetlands and that infrequently and in very fragmentary form. Astonishingly enough, two tunes for what Bronson describes as “this whisper out of the Middle Ages” were recovered in the middle of the present century, a circumstance, he said, “as little to be supposed as that we should hear “the horns of Elfland faintly blowing”. Brian Pearson thought that there were too few ballads about musicians to let this one disappear altogether, and rebuilt the text into the sort of shape it might have had before its almost terminal battering by time. The sprightly tune is that collected from John Stickle of Baltasound, Unst, by Patrick Shuldham-Shaw in 1947.
Alison McMorland sang King Orfeo in 2003 on her Tradition Bearers album with Geordie McIntyre, Ballad Tree. In their liner notes they again refer to the newspaper text and to John Stickle's tune.
Malinky sang King Orfeo in 2005 on their Greentrax CD The Unseen Hours. They noted:
The folk version of the tale of Greek lovers Orpheus and Euridice, this ballad was only found in recent memory on the Shetland island of Unst, the most northerly isle; Child collected this from a printed version which appeared in the local press in 1880. The tune we use here was collected by the late Patrick Shuldham-Shaw (folklorist and co-editor of the Greig-Duncan Folk Song Collection) from the singing of John Stickle of Unst in 1952, an amazing discovery after some 70 years, since the tune was considered lost. It is said that Stickle's grandfather was at one time the best fiddler in all of Shetland and composed a number of the popular Shetland tunes played today. Apparently Stickle himself thought the song to be something of a nonsense lyric and was totally unaware of its rarity. The ballad tune scholar, Bertrand Bronson, wrote: “That a tune should in the midst of the twentieth century be recovered for this whisper from the Middle Ages was as little to be expected as that we should hear a horn from elfin-land blowing.” The Norn (Shetland dialect) refrain is fairly close to a mish-mash of modern Scandinavian “skogen arla grøn / hvor hjorten han går årlog” — “early greens the wood, where the stag (hart) goes yearly”. We sing a more Scotticised version than the original Norn, from the singing of Alison McMorland.
(Notes with reference to the Alan Lomax collection Classic Ballads of Britain and Ireland Vol 1 on Rounder Records.)
Fay Hield sang Sir Orfeo
in 2012 as the title track of her CD with the Hurricane Party,
Orfeo.
She noted:
The ballad of Sir Orfeo stems from a medieval retelling of the story of Orpheus and Eurydice, dated to the late 13th or early 14th century. Representing a mixture of the Greek myth with Celtic mythology and folklore concerning fairies, it was introduced into the English culture via the Old French Breton lays. I've found versions recorded by Archie Fisher (1970), Steeleye Span (1976) and Frankie Armstrong (1996), however, I only discovered these after we put together and recorded this one. Here Jon [Boden] and I returned to a translation made by Tolkien (published posthumously in 2003) along with various condensed retellings of the story. The tune was written in the under-used Lydian mode. The “bonny apple tree” is not a species which often appears in this common refrain, but I thought it appropriate as orchard trees are typically grafted—the graft being significant as a point of entry into the otherworld.
Emily Smith sang a shortened version of Malinky's King Orfeo in 2014 on her CD Echoes.
Josie Duncan sang King Orfeo on her and Pablo Lafuente's 2018 album The Morning Tempest. They noted:
Recorded by Archie Fisher in 1970, this Scots ballad comes from the northern-most Shetland Isle, the Isle of Unst, with refrains in Norn. The tale is a retelling of the story of Greek lovers Orpheus and Eurydice (late 13th or early 14th century). In this folk tale, Eurydice does not die but is captured by the King of Elfland. Seven years later her husband, who has been grieving the whole time, wins her back with his wondrous harp playing.
Folk och Rackare sang a related Swedish song, Harpans kraft, in 1979 on their album Anno 1979. They noted [my translation]:
Harpans Kraft has been sung throughout the north. It's available in an early Swedish collection, Petter Rudebeck's Smålendske Antiqviteter from the 17th century. The text in our version is of a later date.
Harpans Kraft probably is a popular rendition of the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydike. Similar rewrites are also found in England, Scotland and the Faroe Islands. There the harp is consequently replaced by the bagpipe and the neck [water spirit] in the Nordic variant has become the “Elf King”, King of Fairies.
In this story you can really talk about the power of music. Sir Peder has really got himself into a fix. He has only one way out—the neck's own weapon—the music.
Lyrics
John Stickle sings a fragment of King Orfeo | Steeleye Span sing Orfeo |
---|---|
Will ye com in into our ha'? And we'll come in into your ha', First you played the notes o' noy, And then you played a good old gabber reel, |
There was a King lived in the West, The King he has a-hunting gone The King of Faerie with his dart So after them the King has gone Chorus: The King of Faerie, with his rout, “Come ye into the Faerie hall, (Chorus) “Oh what shall I give you for your play?” The Faerie King said “Be it so, (Chorus) |
Malinky sing King Orfeo | Emily Smith sings King Orfeo |
There lived a lady in yon Haa |
There lived a lady in yon Haa |
The king, he has a-huntin' gane |
The king, he has a-huntin' gane, |
The Elfin King wi' his dairt, |
The Elfin Knight took oot his dart, |
When the king cam hame at noon |
When the king cam hame at noon |
His nobles untae him they said, |
His nobles unto him they said, |
“Noo they've taen her life frae me | |
The king, he's ca'd his nobles a' | |
But when the lords were fa'n asleep | |
Noo awa tae the woods he's gane |
He's awa intae the wood |
He sat there for seiven years |
He sat there for seven years |
Some did ride and some did ging, |
Some did ride and some did ging, |
The company, they then made their way | |
Noo he set him doon fu'l wae, |
He sat doon so full o' wae |
First he played the notes o' noy, |
First he played the notes o' noy |
An' then he played the guid gabber reel |
Then he played the gaber reel |
There cam a boy frae oot the ha', | |
The Elfin King tae him did say, |
The Elfin Knight to him did say, |
“For my play I will ye tell, |
“For my pay I will thee tell |
“My sister's son, the unworthy thing, | |
”Noo ye can tak yer lady hame |
“You can take your lady hame |
Frankie Armstrong sings Young Orphy | Fay Hield sings Sir Orfeo |
Young Orphy was a piper man, He could play a fish out of the stream He could charm an otter from the flood Oh so sweet his notes did run, Young Orphy's gone out to the west; She'd lips as sweet as honeycomb; Young Orphy's to the greenwood gone The King of Elfland he rode by, And with his keen and wanton dart He's took her off despite her will And when young Orphy he's come home, “Oh weary day that you did ride! Young Orphy tore his yellow hair: He's dressed himself in beggar's clothes He searched high, he searched low, Till at dead of night he's come He's tuned his pipe and played a reel He's played a jig, he's played a slide, “Come ye down into out hall, He's gone down into their hall The King of Elfland he sat there Out spoke the King of Elfinland, “I'm just a poor old piper man; He's took out his pipes to blow, He's played fleet, he's played sweet, He's played the stars out of the sky, And last he's played that ranting reel “Now beggar man come name your fee! “That pretty lass sits by your side, “Oh a wickeder thing it cannot be She's as fair as a summer day, “A wickeder thing, so have I heard, “Then take her off and go you home, He's let his dirty rags down fall He's took fair Suzy by the hand How sweet the birds sang in the grove But oh how sweeter was the play |
Sir Orfeo was a valiant knight, He played upon his harp so sweet, As it fell out all on a day, But as she lay a-sleeping there Chorus: Sir Orfeo is a-hunting gone And as the sun was setting low A-searching high and searching low (chorus) Sir Orfeo is a-wandering gone No costly robes upon his back, Sir Orfeo is a-wandering gone His nails are grown like ravens' claws, (chorus) One day as he played on his harp so sweet The King of Elfland blew his horn For in the midst of the elfin host And filled with fear and love and hope (chorus) There's fifty lords and ladies fair There's not one soul can please the King He played upon his harp so sweet, “Your music so entrances me, “I'll take not land, nor jewels nor gold, (chorus) Sir Orfeo is a-riding gone There's twenty guards drew fast around There's not one soul believes his tale Then up and stepped a little foot page He's played upon his harp so sweet, They filled the hall with music fair, (chorus) |
Links
See also the Mudcat Café thread Pronunciation of Gaelic/Norn in 'King Orfeo'.