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FILM,FOLK BALLAD/Ballate popolari,MITI/Mythology,MUSICA CELTICA/ Celtic music

Belle Dame sans Merci, by John Keats in music and film

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John Melhuish Strudwick

In 1819 the English poet John Keats reworked the figure of the “Queen of Faerie” of Scottish ballads (starting with Tam Lin and True Thomas) in turn writes the ballad “La Belle Dame sans Merci”, giving rise to a theme that has become very popular among the Pre-Raphaelite painters, that of the vamp woman who has however already a consideration in the beliefs of folklore: the
Lennan or leman shee – Shide Leannan (literally fairy child) that is the fairy who seeks love between humans. The fairy, who is both a male and a female being, after having seduced a mortal abandons him to return to his world. The lover is tormented by the love lost until death.
Fairy lovers have a short but intense life. The fairy who takes a human as lover is also the muse of the artist who offers talent in exchange for a devout love, bringing the lover to madness or premature death.
The title was paraphrased from a fifteenth-century poem written by Alain Chartier (in the form of a dialogue between a rejected lover and the disdainful lady) and became the figure of a seductive woman, a dark lady incapable of feelings towards the man the which falls prey to its spell. We are in reverse of the much older theme of “Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight”

John William Waterhouse – La Belle Dame sans Merci (1893)

THE SEASONS OF THE HEART

In the ballad there are two seasons, spring and winter: in spring among the meadows in bloom, the knight meets a beautiful lady, a forest creature, daughter of a fairy, who enchants him with a sweet lullaby; the knight, already hopelessly in love, puts her on the saddle of his own horse and lets himself be led docilely in the Cave of the Elves; here he is cradled by the dame, who sighs sadly, and he dreams of princes and diaphanous kings who cry out their slavery to the beautiful lady.
On awakening we are in late autumn or in winter and the knight finds himself prostrate near the shore of a lake, pale and sick, certainly dying or with no other thought than the song of the fairy.
The keys to reading the ballad are many and each perspective increases the disturbing charm of the verses

There are two pictorial images that evoke the two seasons of the heart and ballad, the first – perhaps the most famous painting – is by Sir Frank Dicksee, (dated 1902): spring takes the colors of the English countryside with the inevitable roses in the first plan; the lady has just been hoisted on the fiery steed of the knight and with her right hand firmly holding the reins, with the other hand she leans against the saddle to be able to lean towards the beautiful face of the knight and whisper a spell; the knight, in precarious balance, is totally concentrated on the face of the lady and kidnapped.

caitiffknight
Sir Frank Dicksee La Belle Dame sans merci

The second is by Henry Meynell Rheam (painted in 1901) all in the tones of autumn, which recreates a desolate landscape wrapped in the mist, as if it were a barrier that holds the knight prostrate on the ground; while he dreams of pale and evanescent warriors (blue is a typical color to evoke the images of dreams) that warn him, the lady leaves the cave perhaps in search of other lovers.

Curiously, the armors of the two knights are very similar, but both are not really medieval and more suitable for being shown off in tournaments that on the battlefields. Elaborate and finely decorated models date back to the end of the fifteenth century.

Henry Meynell Rheam La Belle Dame sans merci

BELLE DAME SANS MERCI: a “live action short” by Hidetoshi Oneda

The ballad could not fail to inspire even today’s artists, here is a cinematic story a “live action short” directed by the Japanese Hidetoshi Oneda. The short begins with giving body to the imaginary interlocutor who asks the knight “O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms …” so we find ourselves in 1819 on an island after the shipwreck of a ship and we witness the meeting between the castaway and an old decrepit kept alive by regret ..

THE PLOT (from here) 1819. The Navigator and the Doctor survive a shipwreck only to find themselves lost in a strange forest. The Navigator is challenged by the gravely ill Doctor into pursuing his true passion – art. While he protests, the ailing Doctor dies. Later, the Navigator is beside a lake, where he finds an Old Knight who tells him his story: once, he encountered a mysterious Lady, and fell in love with her. But horrified by her true form – an immortal spirit and the ghosts of her mortal lovers – the Young Knight begged for release. Awoken and alone, he realized his failure. Thus he has waited, kept alive for centuries by his regret. The Navigator considers his own crossroads. What will he be when he returns to the world?

La Belle Dame Sans Merci by Hidetoshi Oneda – 2005

BELLE DAME SANS MERCI IN MUSIC

The first to play the ballad was Charlse Villiers Stanford in the nineteenth century with a very dramatic arrangement for piano but a bit dated today, although popular in his day.
The ballad was put into music by different artists in the 21st century.

Susan Craig Winsberg from La Belle Dame 2008

Jesse Ferguson

Giordano Dall’Armellina from “Old Time Ballads From The British Isles” 2007

Penda’s Fen (Richard Dwyer)

Loreena McKennitt from “Lost Souls” 2018

POETIC READING
 Ben Whishaw

I
O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,
Alone and palely loitering?
The sedge is wither’d from the lake(1),
And no birds sing.
II
O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,
So haggard and so woe-begone?
The squirrel’s granary is full,
And the harvest ‘s done.
III
I see a lily(2) on thy brow thy
With anguish moist and fever dew;
And on thy cheeks a fading rose
Fast withereth too.’
IV
I met a lady in the meads,
Full beautiful — a faery’s child,
Her hair was long, her foot was light,
And her eyes were wild(3).
V
I made a garland for her head,
And bracelets too, and fragrant zone;
She look’d at me as she did love,
And made sweet moan.
VI
I set her on my pacing steed
And nothing else saw all day long,
For sideways would she lean, and sing
A faery’s song(4).
VII
She found me roots of relish sweet
And honey wild and manna(5) dew,
And sure in language strange she said,
“I love thee true (6)		 VIII
She took me to her elfin grot(7),
And there she wept and sigh’d fill sore(8);
And there I shut her wild, wild eyes
With kisses four.
IX
And there she lullèd me asleep,
And there I dream’d — Ah! woe betide!
The latest dream I ever dream’d
On the cold hill’s side.
X
I saw pale kings and princes too,
Pale warriors, death-pale were they all;
They cried – “La Belle Dame Sans Merci”
Hath thee in thrall!”
XI
I saw their starved lips in the gloam
With horrid warning gapèd wide,
And I awoke and found me here,
On the cold hill’s side.
XII
And this is why I sojourn here
Alone and palely loitering,
Though the sedge is wither’d from the lake,
And no birds sing.’

NOTES
1) not by chance the landscape is lacustrine, the waters of the lake are beautiful but treacherous, but it is a desolate landscape and more like the swamp
2) the lily is a symbol of death. The knight’s brow of a deadly pallor is bathed in the sweat of fever and the color of his face is as dull as a dried rose. The symptoms are those of the consumption: the always mild fever does not show signs of diminution, turns on two “roses” on the cheeks of the sick. It is also said that Keats was a toxic addict to the use of nightshade that in the analysis of Giampaolo Sasso (The secret of Keats: The ghost of the “Belle Dame sans Merci”) is represented in the Lady Without Mercy
3) the whole description of the danger of the lady is concentrated in the eyes, they are as wild but also crazy. The rider ignores the repeated signs of danger: not only the eyes but also the strange language and the food (honey wild)
4) the elven song leads the knight to slavery
5) the manna is a white and sweet substance. It is well known that those who eat the food of fairies are condemned to remain in the Other World
6) the fairy is expressed in a language incomprehensible to the knight and then in reality could have said anything but “I love you”; yet the language of the body is unequivocal, at least as far as sexual desire is concerned
7) the elf cave is the Celtic otherworldly (see more)
8) why the fairy is sorry? Would not want to annihilate the knight but can not do otherwise? Does she know that a man’s love is not eternal and that sooner or later his knight will leave her with a breaking heart? Is love inevitably destructive?

LA BELLA DAMA SENZA PIETA’

To the disquieting fascination of the ballad could not escape Angelo Branduardi the Italian Bard, the final part of the melody of each stanza takes the traditional English song “Once I had a sweetheart.”

Angelo Branduardi from La Pulce d’acqua 1977


Guarda com’è pallido
il volto che hai,
sembra tu sia fuggito dall’aldilà…
Vedo nei tuoi occhi
profondo terrore,
che bianche e gelide dita tu hai…
Guarda come stan ferme
le acque del lago
nemmeno un uccello che osi cantare…
“è stato in mezzo ai prati
che io la incontrai
e come se mi amasse lei mi guardò”.
Guarda come l’angoscia
ti arde le labbra,
sembra tu sia fuggito dall’aldilà…
“E`stato in mezzo ai prati
che io la incontrai…”
che bianche e gelide dita tu hai…
“Quando al mio fianco
lei poi si appoggiò
io l’anima le diedi ed il tempo scordai.
Quando al mio fianco
lei poi si appoggiò…”.
Che bianche e gelide dita tu hai…”
Al limite del monte
mi addormentai
fu l’ultimo mio sogno
che io allora sognai;
erano in mille e mille di più…”
Che bianche e gelide dita tu hai…”
Erano in mille
e mille di più,
con pallide labbra dicevano a me:
– Quella che anche a te
la vita rubò, è lei,
la bella dama senza pietà”.

BELLE DAME SANS MERCI: GERMAN VERSION

Faun from “Buch Der Balladen” 2009.


“Was ist dein Schmerz, du armer Mann,
so bleich zu sein und so gering,
wo im verdorrten Schilf am See
kein Vogel singt?”
“Ich traf ein’ edle Frau am Rhein,
die war so so schön – ein feenhaft Bild,
ihr Haar war lang, ihr Gang war leicht,
und ihr Blick wild.Ich hob sie auf mein weißes Ross
und was ich sah, das war nur sie,
die mir zur Seit’ sich lehnt und sang
ein Feenlied.Sie führt mich in ihr Grottenhaus,
dort weinte sie und klagte sehr;
drum schloss ich ihr wild-wildes Auf’
mit Küssen vier.
Da hat sie mich in Schlaf gewiegt,
da träumte ich – die Nacht voll Leid!-,
und Schatten folgen mir seitdem
zu jeder Zeit.Sah König bleich und Königskind
todbleiche Ritter, Mann an Mann;
die schrien: “La Belle Dame Sans Merci
hält dich in Bann!”Drum muss ich hier sein und allein
und wandeln bleich und so gering,
wo im verdorrten Schilf am See
kein Vogel singt.”
 English translation (from here)
“What ails you, my poor man,
that makes you pale and humbled so,
among the withered seashore reeds
where the song of no bird is heard (1)?”
“I met a noble lady on the Rhine,
so very fair was she – a fairy vision,
her hair was long, her gait was light,
and wild her stare.I lifted her on my white steed
and nothing but her could I see,
as she leant by my side and sang
a song of the fairies.She led me to her cave house
where she cried and wailed much;
so I closed her wild deer eyes (2)
with four kisses of mine.
She lulled me to sleep then,
and I dreamt a nightlong song!
and shadows follow me since
be it day or night (3).I saw a pale king and his son
knights pale as death, face to face;
who cried out: “The fair lady without mercy
has you in her spell!”Thus shall I remain here alone
to wander, pale and humbled so,
among the withered seashore reeds
where the song of no bird is heard”


NOTES
1) lit “(where) no bird sings”
2) I assume it’s “Aug(en)” instead of “Auf'”
3) the original says “all the time” but I opted for (hopefully) more colorful English

LINK
http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/belle.html http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/k/keats/john/la-belle-dame-sans-merci/
http://noirinrosa.wordpress.com/tag/la-belle-dame-sans-merci/ http://zerkalomitomania.blogspot.it/search/label/Belle%20Dame%20sans%20Merci
http://www.celophaine.com/lbdsm/lbdsm_top.html
http://www.craigrecords.com/recordings/la-belle-dame/

FILM,FOLK AMERICANO/ American Folk,FOLK BALLAD/Ballate popolari,FOLK INGLESE/English Folk

Hanging Johnny : hang, boys, hang

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“Hanging Johnny” is an halyard shanty in which we talk about the hangman who hangs all those who bother him! Immediately, the scholars wanted to find a historical figure who incarnated this executioner in Jack Ketch notorious executioner in the seventeenth century London.

But for the sailors the phrase “hanging Johnny” has a whole other meaning.

THE WORK OF THE HANGED SAILOR

In order to hoist the heavier sails, they followed a strange procedure : the younger and nimble sailors (and less paid as they were apprentices) climbed up on the masthead and, after grabbing a halyard, jumped in the air, hanging like so many hangers. As they descended, they were helped by the efforts of the remaining sailors to slowly reach the deck.
Joys explained that “hanging Johnny” did not refer to a sheriff’s hangman, but instead to nimble young sailors who, when a topsail was to be hoisted, would climb to the masthead and “swing out” on the proper halyard. They would then ride to the deck as the men at the foot of the mast brought them down by their successive pulls. Joys recalled one chanteyman who would always tell the boys when to swing out by shouting up to them, “Hang, you bastards, hang!” Then, while the boys were hanging on the halyard fifty feet or more above the deck, he’d start his song and the crew would make two pulls on each chorus. When the boys hit the deck, they would tail on behind the other men and pull with them until the work was finished.
Joys added that the word “hang” was “the best goddamn pullin’ word in the language, especially on a down haul.” Ashley said the tune was “a bit mournful, but a good one for hoisting light canvas,” noting that the words enabled the sailors to find fault, good-naturedly, with all their real and fancied enemies, “if the work lasted long enough.”  (from “Windjammers: Songs of the Great Lakes Sailors” by Ivan H. Walton and Joe Grimm, 2002 here)

So on Mudcats a heated debate has opened up: “The words “Hang, boys, hang,” are used in a topsail-halliard hoist, when sweating up the yard “two blocks” where, in swaying off, the whole weight of the body is used. The sing-out, from some old shellback, usually being words such as “Hang, heavy! Hang, buttocks! Hang you sons of ——-, Hang.” After setting the topsails, we gave her the main-topgallant sail, which was all she could carry in a heavy head-sea. The decks were awash all day. “…. the chantey was sung with a jerk and a swing as only chanteys in 6/8 time can be sung. While the words were of Negro extraction, yet it was a great favorite with us and sung nearly every time the topsails were hoisted.” (from Frederick Pease Harlow, 1928, The Making of a Sailor, Dover reprint of Publication Number 17 of the Marine Research Society, Salem, MA here)

Definitely a perfect “pirate song”! I found this piece of film about the golden age of the great vessels in which the song is sung.

Oh they call me hanging Johnny.
Away, boys, away.
They says I hangs for money.
Oh hang, boys, hang.
And first I hanged my Sally
and then I hanged my granny.

JOHN SHORT VERSION

Sharp publishes a set of words in which the shantyman does not himself hang people and indeed sings, I never hung nobody. Hugill is adamant (as is Terry) that no shantyman ever claimed that anyone other than himself was the hangman, and that “Sentimental verses like some collectors give were never sung – Sailor John hanged any person or thing he would think about without a qualm.” Checking these ‘some collectors’, one finds several who elect only to hang the bad guys – liars, murderers, etc. – are these the verses Hugill means by ‘sentimental’ or is he having a go at Sharp for the shantyman not being the hangman himself? Sharp’s notebooks show that he recorded from Short the same as he published. It could be that Short is self-censoring but it seems unlikely given that Short seems happy, in various other shanties, to sing text that might not be regarded as genteel (e.g. Nancy, Lucy Long, Shanadore). Short was, however, a deeply religious man and, if this is not simply an early and less developed form of the shanty, then he may have deliberately avoided casting himself as hangman – we will never know! Notwithstanding, and contrary to Hugill’s assertion, there was at least one shantyman who actually sang I never hung nobody.

Collectors’/publishers’ reactions to the shanty are curiously mixed: Bullen merely notes that “shanties whose choruses were adapted for taking two pulls in them… were exceedingly useful”, Fox-Smith that it had an “almost macabre irony which is not found in any other shanty”, and Maitland that “This is about as doleful a song as I ever heard” but, in an almost poetic description points out that “there’s a time when it comes in. For instance after a heavy blow, getting more sail on the ship. The decks are full of water and the men cannot keep their feet. The wind has gone down, but the seas are running heavy. A big comber comes over the rail; the men are washed away from the rope. If it wasn’t for the man at the end of the rope gathering in the slack as the men pull, all the work would have to be done over again.” – Horses for courses! (from here)

Tom Brown from Short Sharp Shanties : Sea songs of a Watchet sailor vol 1


They called me hanging Johnny,
urrhay-i-, urrhay-i-,
They called me hanging Johnny
so hang, boys, hang		 They hanged me poor old father
They hanged me poor old mother
Yes they hanged me mother
Me sister and me brother
They hanged me sister Sally
They strung her up so canny
They said I handeg for money
But I never hanged nobody
Oh boys we’ll haul and hang the ship
oh haul her ropes so neat
We’ll hang him forever,
We’ll hang for better weather,
A rope, a beam, a ladder,
I’ll hang ye all together

ADDITIONAL VERSIONS

Stan Ridgway from  Rogue’s Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs, and Chanteys, ANTI 2006. Masterful interpretation that transforms the shanty into a melancholy folk song

The Salts live in a jaunty version

 Stan Ridgway lyrics
I
They call me hanging Johnny,
yay (away )-hay-i-o
I never hanged nobody
hang, boys, hang
Well first I hanged your mother
Me sister and me brother
I’d hang to make things jolly
I’d hang all wrong and folly
A rope, a beam, a ladder,
I’ll hang ye all together
Well next I hanged me granny
I’d hang the wholly family
They call me hanging Johnny,
I never hanged nobody		 II
Come hang, come haul together,
Come hang for finer weather,
Hang on from the yardarm
Hang the sea and buy a big farm
They call me hanging Johnny,
I never hanged nobody
I’d hang the mates and skippers,
I’d hang ‘em by their flippers
I’d hang the highway robber,
I’d hang the burglar jobber;
I’d hang a noted liar,
I’d hang a bloated friar;
They say I hung a copper,
I gave him the long dropper

LINK
http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=72779
http://mainlynorfolk.info/peter.bellamy/songs/hangingjohnny.html
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/20774/20774-h/20774-h.htm#Hanging_Johnny
http://www.contemplator.com/sea/hanging.html
http://www.musicanet.org/robokopp/shanty/thycalme.htm

Celtic Canada,FILM

Row me bullies boys row (Alan Doyle)

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The most recent version of this popular sea shanty comes from the movie “Robin Hood Prince of Thieves” by Ridley Scott (2010), and was written for the occasion by Alan Doyle (front man of the Canadian band Great Big Sea), recalling the melody and the structure of the Liverpool Judies refrain, with a text that remind the typical phrases of these seafaring songs; so obviously everyone adds the verse that he likes.

russel crow crew
I’ll sing you a song, it’s a song of the sea
I’ll sing you a song if you’ll sing it with me
While the first mate is playing the captain aboard
He looks like a peacock with pistols and sword
The captain likes whiskey, the mate, he likes rum
Us sailers like both but we can’t get us none
Well farewell my love it is time for to roam
The old blue peters are calling us home

In Taberna  

Strangs and Stout

CHORUS
And it’s row me bully boys
We’re in a hurry boys
We got a long way to go
And we’ll sing and we’ll dance
And bid farewell to France
And it’s row me bully boys row.
I
I’ll sing you a song,
it’s a song of the sea
Row me bully boys row
We sailed away
in the roughest of waters
And it’s row, me bully boys, row
But now we’re returning
so lock up your daughters
And it’s row, me bully boys, row		 II
Well farewell my love
it is time for to roam
Row me bully boys row
The old blue peters
are calling us home
And it’s row me bully boys row

Barnacle Buoys

I
When we set sail for Bristol
the sun was like crystal
And it’s row, me bully boys, row
We found muddier water
when passing Bridge Water
And it’s row, me bully boys row
Chorus:
And it’s row, me bully boys,
we’re in a hurry, boys
We’ve got a long way to go
And we’ll drink as we glance
– a last look at France
row, me bully boys, row
II
We sailed away
in the roughest of waters
But now we’re returning
so lock up your daughters		 III
So we’ve been away
for many a day now
So we’ll fill out our sails
and drink all the ale now
IV
So we’ll drink and we’ll feast
with no care in the least
And soon, as we’re craving’,
we’ll sail up to Avon
V
As we tied up in Bristol,
me heart was a-thumpin’
Then I found my girl Alice,
who took me a-scrumpin’

and so on!

ITALIAN VERSION: VOGA AMICO MIO VAI

here is the italian versione in the movie


CORO
Voga voga, voga un po’ di più (amico)
un altro po’, dove si va non lo so
Balliamo cantiamo e la Francia lasciamo
voga un altro po’ vai
Voga voga, voga un po’ di più
Voga un altro po’ dove si va non lo so
La Francia non la rivedremo giammai
Voga amico mio vai
E’ tardi oramai voi siete già nei guai
Voga amico mio vai
O voi non scherzate oppure rischiate
Voga voga un po’ di più
Ma non si può stare troppo via dal mare
Voga voga, voga un po’ di più
Partiamo di nuovo per non ritornare
Voga amico mio vai

ARCHIVE:
Liverpool judies (Row bullies row)
‘Frisco
New York
from Robin Hood (Alan Doyle)

LINK
https://thesession.org/discussions/24758
https://www.musixmatch.com/it/testo/Rambling-Sailors/Row-Me-Bully-Boys
http://www.songsterr.com/a/wsa/misc-soundtrack-robin-hood-row-me-bully-boys-chords-s376527
http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=158562
https://reelsoundtrack.wordpress.com/2010/05/15/robin-hood-soundtrack/

FILM,FOLK AMERICANO/ American Folk,FOLK INGLESE/English Folk

Row, bullies, row Liverpool Judies to Frisco

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hells-pavement

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Here is a sea shanty that ended up in the repertoire of pirate songs, and also in the movie “Robin Hood Prince of Thieves” by Ridley Scott (2010) (see film version). The title with which it is best known rather than “Liverpool Judies” is anyway “Row, bullies, row”.

An extremely popular maritime song used as reported by Stan Hugill as Capstan shanty (but also as an forebitter) it is grouped into two main versions (with two different but interchangeable melodies): one in which our sailor lands in San Francisco, the other in New York.
Both versions, however, always end up with the drunken or drugged boy who wakes up again on a ship where he has been boarded by a small group of crimps
Fraudulent conscription takes the name of “shanghaiinge“, especially in the north-west of the United States.

FROM LIVERPOOL TO ‘FRISCO: ROW BULLIES ROW

Probably the most popular version, at least on the web, A. L. Lloyd comments :”The song of the Liverpool seaman who sailed to San Francisco with the intention of staying there, but who got himself shanghaied back to Merseyside again, was a favourite rousing forebitter, sometimes used at capstan work when the spokes were spinning easy.”

The Spinners 1966

Ewan MacColl & A.L. Lloyd

Sean Lennon & Charlotte Kemp Muhl from Son Of Rogues Gallery ‘Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs & Chanteys ANTI 2013 CD1

Assassin’s Creed Rogue (Sea Shanty Edition)

I
From Liverpool to ‘Frisco
a-rovin’ I went,
For to stay in that country
was my good intent.
But drinkin’ strong whiskey
like other damn fools,
Oh, I was very soon shanghaied(1) to Liverpool
CHORUS
singin’ Roll, roll, roll bullies, roll(2)!
Them Liverpool judies (3)
have got us in tow
II
I shipped in near Lasker
lying out(4) in the Bay,
we was waiting for a fair wind
to get under way.
The sailors on board
they was all sick and sore,
they’d drunk all their whiskey
and couldn’t get no more.
III
One night off Cape Horn
I willl never forget,
and It’s oh but a sigh(5)
when I think of it yet.
We was going bows
under the sail’s was all wet(6),
She was runnin’ (doin’) twelve knots wid her mainsky sunset (7).
IV
Well along comes the mate
in his jacket o’ blue(8)
He’s lookin’ for work for them outlaws(9) to do.
Oh, it’s “Up tops and higher!(10)”
he loudly does roar,
“And it’s lay aloft Paddy (11),
ye son of a-whore!”		 V
And now we are sailing
down onto the Line,
when I think of it now,
oh we’ve had a hard (good) time.
The sailors box-haulin'(12)
them yards all around
to catch(beat) that flash clipper  (13)(packet) the Thatcher MacGowan.
VI
And now we’ve arrived
in the Bramleymoor Dock(14),
and all them flash judies
on the pierhead do flock.
Our barrel’s run dry
and me six quid advance,
I think (guess) it’s high time
for to get up and dance.
VII
Here’s a health to our Captain wherever he may be,
he’s a devil (bucko) on land
and a bucko (bully) at sea,
for as for the first mate,
that lousy (dirty) old brute,
We hope when he dies
straight to hell he’ll skyhoot.

NOTES
1) The verb “shanghaiinge” was coined in the mid-1800s to indicate the practice of violent or fraudulent conscription of sailors on english and american ships (it was declared illegal by the Seamen’s Act only in 1915!). The shanghaiing was widespread especially in the north-west of the United States. The men who ran this trade were called “crimps”.
The term implies the forced transport on board of the unfortunate on duty, sedated with a blow on the head or completely drunk. Upon awakening the poor man discovers that he has been hired as a sailor on the ship and he can not do anything but keep the commitment. Also written “I soon got transported back to Liverpool”
2) or row (rowe is the Scottish word that stands for roll). The chorus wants to recall perhaps the use as rowing song by the whalers
3) The word “judy” is a dialectal expression of Liverpool to indicate a generic girl (not necessarily a prostitute); flash judies is a girlfriends. In the maritime language it became synonymous with favorable wind. AL Lloyd explains “When the ship was sailing at a fast speed, the sailors would say:” The girls have got hold of the tow-rope today. ”
4) other versions say “I shipped on the Alaska” or “A smart Yankee packet lies out”
5) ‘Tis oft-times I sighs
6) or: She was divin’ bows under with her sailors all wet
7) mainsky sunset is a way to give meaning to another misunderstood word: main skys’l set: or main skysail set- skysail = A set sail very high, above the royals.
8)  a hell of a stew
9) us sailors
10) “Fore tops’l halyards”
11) most of the crews on the packet ship were Irish
12) box-Hauling – a method of veering or jibing a square rigged ship, without progressing to leeward appreciably. It is performed by heading bow to windward until most speed is lost, but steerage way is still barely maintained. The bow is then turned back downwind to the side it came from, aftermost sails are brailed up to spill the wind and to keep them from counteracting the turning force of the foresails, and the ship allowed to pivot quickly downwind without advancing. They are, however, extended as soon as the ship, in veering, brings the wind on the opposite quarter, as their effort then contributes to assist her motion or turning. Box-hauling is generally performed when the ship is too near the shore to have room for veering in the usual way. (Falconer- 1779) from here
13 )the clippers were always competing with each other to obtain the shortest crossing time
14) Bramley-Moore Dock is a port basin on the Marsey River (Liverpool): it was inaugurated in 1848

To listen to the second melody with which the song is matched
Jimmy Driftwood from Driftwood at Sea 1962

PIRATE VERSION

Clancy Brothers version for  “Treasure Island” tv serie

I
On the Hispaniola (1)
lying out in the bay,
A-waitin’ for a fair wind
to get under way.
The sailors all drunk
and their backs is all sore,
Their rum is all gone
and they can’t get no more.
Chorus
Row, Row, bullies, row!
Them Liverpool girls
they have got us in tow. (2)
II
One night at Cape Horn
we was crossing the line
When I think on it
now we sure had a good time
She was divin’ bows under,
her sailors all wet,
She was doin’ twelve knots
with her mainskys’l set.		 III
Here’s a health to the Captain where ‘er he may be,
He’s a friend to the sailor
on land and at sea,
But as for our chief mate,
the dirty ol’ brute
I hope when he dies straight
to hell he’ll sky hoot

NOTES
1) Hispaniola is the schooner purchased by Mr. Trelawney to go in search of the Treasure Island
2) the term has become in the seafaring jargon synonymous with favorable winds that drive home (a fast spinning ship)

ARCHIVE:
Liverpool judies (Row bullies row)
 ‘Frisco
New York
from Robin Hood (Alan Doyle)

LINK
http://www.musicanet.org/robokopp/shanty/liverpol.htm
http://aliverpoolfolksongaweek.blogspot.it/2011/10/27-liverpool-judies.html
http://mainlynorfolk.info/louis.killen/songs/liverpooljudies.html
http://ilradicchioavvelenato.wordpress.com/tag/shanghaiing
http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=16994
http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=62354
http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=158562

Celtic Canada,FILM,LIBRI/Book

Banks of Newfoundland: an offshore bank fishery

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There are several sea songs entitled “the Banks of Newfoundland”, not to be properly considered variations on the same melody, even if they share a common theme, the dangers of fishing or navigation offshore of Newfoundland.

The springtime of the year is come, once more we must away: an offshore bank fishery

“The Banks of Newfoundland” collected by Kenneth Peacock in 1952 from James (Jim) Rice [1879-1958] of Cape Broyle, NL, and published in Songs Of The Newfoundland Outports, Volume 1, pp.108-109, by The National Museum Of Canada (1965): a lyrical song  who tells about the difficult and dangerous life of the fishermen, before the 1992 arrived and the end of the cod fishing in Canada for the exhaustion of the stocks.

Tickle Harbour from Battery Included 1988 (track arranged by O’Byrne / Walsh)
This is one of the many songs collected in Newfoundland by Kenneth Peacock and can be found in his major volume of work, Songs of the Newfoundland Outports. The song describes the seasonal nature of fishing on the Grand Banks. During the early days of its settlement, fishermen would leave their homes in Ireland and England for Newfoundland and spend their summer months fishing “The Banks”, returning to their loved ones in the fall year. Fergus wrote a new melody for every third and fourth line, thereby taking the liberty to evoke a sentiment that he feels adds to the pathos of the song.

I
The springtime of the year is come,
Once more we must away;
Out on the stormy Banks (1) to go,
In quest of fish to stay.
II
Where seas do roll tremendously,
Like mountain peaks so high;
And the wild seabirds around us,
In their mad career go by.
III
Out there we spend our summer months (2) ,
Midst heavy fog(3) and wind;
And often do our thoughts (4) go back,
To the dear ones left behind.
Chorus
From where the wild sea billows foam,
They’re by cold breezes fanned;
Out on the stormy billows,
On the Banks of Newfoundland .		 IV
At midnight when the sky is dark,
And heavy clouds do frown;
It’s then we stand great danger,
Of our craft being soon run down.
V
By some large greyhound of the deep ,
That rushes (5) madly by;
It’s then we trust our lives,
To kind Providence on high.
VI
It’s when those summer toils are o’er,
We return with spirits light;
To see our sweethearts and our wives,
Who helped us in the fight.

NOTES
1) The Grand Banks of Newfoundland are a group of underwater plateaus south-east of Newfoundland roughly triangular in shape often overwhelmed by storms, treacherous and dangerous due to the presence of icebergs and the frequent fog
2) fishing schooners went out to sea in May and did not fall until September
3) The mixing of  the cold Labrador Current with the warm waters of the Gulf Stream helped to create one of the richest fishing grounds in the world, but it’s also causes fog in the area, and before the advent of instrumental navigation, it made the Banks very insidious
4) thoughts are approached to the flight of the sea birds of the previous verse using the same verb “go by” for the birds, “go back” for the thoughts
5) “greyhound of the deep” is not a leviathan or a sea monster, but a cutter, the Newfoundland banks are in fact along the orthodox path, that is the shortest line, which unites Europe and America; postal mails darted at great speeds worried only about their ETA (estimate time arrival). Many dories ended up overwhelmed by their passage.

Cod fishing in the nineteenth century

The technique of fishing vessels set up in the nineteenth century foresaw the use of a particular boat called “Banks Dory” built in a serial way and in large quantities from 1850, flat bottom boats for one or two men depending on the size, transported (stacked on top of each other) on the schooners of the fishermen, ie the mother ships.
The fishing technique foresaw that the ship was anchored in a favourable location and launched the dories into the water, which moved away and fished on their own with the palamites. In the evening the cod caught in the day was cleaned on the bridge of the schooner and salted immediately. In exceptional cases it was also possible to fish directly from the schooner, but hoisting large fish to the side was much more difficult, while the fishing yield was lower. The ship returned to port only when the holds were full of salted cod. If much of the catch was made of this fish, other types of prey were also possible. Raising a halibut on board, which could exceed three meters in length and 100 pounds of weight, put a strain on the stability of the boat…
This type of fishing was used in a massive way up to the First World War and was gradually supplanted, starting from 1930, by the use of motorized fishing boats equipped with refrigerators. (translated from here)

The Fog Warning
“The Fog Warning”, Winslow Homer 1885: the fisherman on the dory is returning to his schooner-mother and looking with the distance that separates him. The sea is rough and the fog bank is rising, it will be a tough race against the clock.
goletta del film Capitani Coraggiosi
The schooner of the film “Captains Courageous” in a fog bank, based on the novel by Kipling in which it is narrated in detail how the life of the cod fishermen takes place in the early 1900s

At the beginning it was fished with the line, and the fish caught were cleaned and put in salt on the schooner. In the nineteenth century the line is passed to the longline (trawl lines )
Fishing lines also long kilometers, each of which equipped with thousands of baited hooks. A very effective technique that allows scary booty. In New England alone, 60,000 tons of cod were caught in 1895. Which seemed to never end. Even a great biologist and researcher like Huxley said: I believe that the fishing of cod, as well as other resources of the great sea, are inexhaustible.. ..(translated from qui)

But the “cod stocks crashed” were just around the corner.

The factory ships and the end of white cod

The first steam trawler used in the Banks dates back to 1905, the trawl runs on the seabed and collects everything it finds, and so from the second post-war period ever larger ships equipped with large cold stores (factory ships) were fishing in an hour as much as a 1500-1600 boat did in one season. It was in this way that in the mid-70s local fishermen obtained from their government the extension of territorial waters up to 200 miles from the coast, excluding foreign ships from the domination of the Great Banks, but instead of safeguarding their fish resources with a fishing sustainable Canadian fishermen ended up using the same instruments such as sonar, to locate the big fish stalls, while the government made predictions more and more distant from reality by setting dangerously high catch quotas and so in 1992 there were no more cod fishing: thousands of fishermen left without work, boats stopped, factories closed. and so in 1992 there were no more cod fishing: thousands of fishermen thrown out of work, boats beached, canneries shuttered.
To date, the cod fishing in Newfoundland has not recovered, today the economy of that country is based on fishing for lobsters and above all on the exploitation of woodland and mining resources. The cod no longer returned. Fish like the capelin, once codfish prey, have now become very common, and eat the newborn cod. Today, this ecosystem is dominated by crabs and shrimps.. (translated from here)

Farming the Sea

In 1979, Jacques Cousteau wrote: “We must plant the sea and herd its animals using the ocean as farmers instead of hunters. That is what civilization is all about — farming replacing hunting.”
The future for fishermen: underwater cultivation of algae and seafood, to create a sustainable ecosystem with open source projects to share, read the testimony of Bren Smith

Farming the Sea: why eating kelp is good for you and good for the environment from Patrick Mustain on Vimeo.

transportation song
working on a  fisher ship
the Eastern Light
captain’s death (american ballad)
shipwreck and rescue on the Banks (Canadian ballad)

 

LINK
https://www.nautica.it/barche-da-pesca/il-dory-dei-grandi-banchi-la-barca-che-scrisse-la-storia-della-pesca/
https://storiedibarche.wordpress.com/una-stagione-di-pesca-al-merluzzo-viaggio-sulle-barche-da-pesca-ai-banchi-di-terranova-dalle-immagini-di-anita-conti-alla-realizzazione-di-un-dory/
http://www.marenostrumrapallo.it/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=576:merlu&catid=53:marittimo&Itemid=160
https://medium.com/invironment/an-army-of-ocean-farmers-on-the-frontlines-of-the-blue-green-economic-revolution-d5ae171285a3
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/bitstream/handle/2149/1647/kenneth_peadock.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
http://gestsongs.com/01/banks2.htm

https://www.heritage.nf.ca/articles/economy/19th-century-cod.php

 

Celtic Canada,FILM,LIBRI/Book

Banks of Newfoundland: once more we must away

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Ci sono parecchie  sea songs dal titolo “the Banks of Newfoundland”,  da non considerarsi propriamente come variazioni su una stessa melodia, anche se condividono un tema comune, i pericoli della pesca o della navigazione al largo di Terranova.

The springtime of the year is come, once more we must away

La canzone “The Banks of Newfoundland” raccolta da Kenneth Peacock nel 1952 da James (Jim) Rice [1879-1958]  di Cape Broyle (Terranova)  e pubblicata in Songs Of The Newfoundland Outports, Volume 1, pp.108-109, dal  The National Museum Of Canada (1965): si racconta in modo poetico della faticosa e pericolosa vita dei pescatori , prima che arrivasse il 1992 e la fine della pesca dei merluzzi in Canada per l’esaurimento degli stock.

Tickle Harbour in Battery Included 1988 (track arranged by O’Byrne / Walsh) Nelle note all’album scrivono: “Questa è una delle tante canzoni raccolte a Terranova da Kenneth Peacock e può essere trovata nella sua più grande raccolta, “Songs of the Newfoundland Outports”. La canzone descrive la natura stagionale della pesca sui Grandi Banchi. Agli inizi della stagione, i pescatori lasciavano le loro case in Irlanda e in Inghilterra per Terranova e passavano i mesi estivi a pescare “sui Banchi”, tornando alle loro famiglie nell’autunno. Fergus ha scritto una nuova melodia per ogni terza e quarta strofa, prendendo così la libertà di evocare un sentimento si aggiunge al pathos della canzone.”


I
The springtime of the year is come,
Once more we must away;
Out on the stormy Banks (1) to go,
In quest of fish to stay.
II
Where seas do roll tremendously,
Like mountain peaks so high;
And the wild seabirds around us,
In their mad career go by.
III
Out there we spend our summer months (2) ,
Midst heavy fog(3) and wind;
And often do our thoughts (4) go back,
To the dear ones left behind.
Chorus
From where the wild sea billows foam,
They’re by cold breezes fanned;
Out on the stormy billows,
On the Banks of Newfoundland .
IV
At midnight when the sky is dark,
And heavy clouds do frown;
It’s then we stand great danger,
Of our craft being soon run down.
V
By some large greyhound of the deep ,
That rushes (5) madly by;
It’s then we trust our lives,
To kind Providence on high.
VI
It’s when those summer toils are o’er,
We return with spirits light;
To see our sweethearts and our wives,
Who helped us in the fight.		 Traduzione italiana Cattia Salto
I
La primavera è di nuovo arrivata,
ancora una volta dobbiamo andare
al largo dei (Grandi) Banchi burrascosi
e restare alla ricerca dei pesci
II
Dove le onde fluttuano enormi
come le cime delle montagne più alte;
e gli uccelli marini  intorno a noi vanno nella loro sfrenata andatura
III
Là fuori trascorriamo i nostri mesi
estivi,
tra la fitta nebbia e il vento,
e spesso i nostri pensieri vanno
alle persone care lasciate indietro.
Coro
Dove le onde del mare  spumeggiano
dalle fredde brezze alimentate;
fuori nelle burrasche tempestose,
sui Banchi di Terranova.
IV
A mezzanotte quando il cielo è scuro,
e  pesanti nuvole si corruscano, è allora che siamo in grave pericolo, e la nostra imbarcazione sarà presto travolta
V
Da qualche grande levriero dell’abisso
che fugge frenetico;
è allora che affidiamo le nostre vite,
alla divina provvidenza.
VI
E quando quelle fatiche estive  finiranno, ritorniamo con animi lieti;
per vedere le nostre innamorate e le mogli, che ci sostengono nella lotta.

NOTE
1) i Grandi Banchi di Terranova: un tratto di mare dal fondale basso a sud-est dell’isola canadese di Terranova, di forma grosso modo triangolare spesso sconvolto dalle tempeste, infido e pericoloso per la presenza di iceberg e la frequente nebbia
2) le golette da pesca uscivano in mare a maggio e non rientravano sino a settembre
3) l’incrocio tra la calda corrente del Golfo e la fredda corrente del Labrador, che sollevano dal fondale le sostanze nutrienti, ne fanno una delle zone più pescose al mondo. Il mescolarsi di acque calde e fredde è causa però anche di nebbia che, prima dell’avvento della navigazione strumentale, rendeva la zona molto insidiosa. (da Wiki)
4) i pensieri sono accostati al volo degli uccelli marini del verso precedente usando lo stesso verbo “go by” per gli uccelli, “go back” per i pensieri
5) il greyhound of the deep non è un leviatano o un mostro marino, quanto una nave passeggeri di linea , i Banchi di Terranova si trovano infatti lungo la rotta ortodromica, cioè la linea più breve, che unisce Europa e America; i postali a vela sfrecciavano a grandi velocità preoccupati solo dei loro ETA (estimate time arrival). Molti dories finivano travolti dal loro passaggio.

La Pesca del Merluzzo nell’Ottocento

La tecnica dei pescherecci messa a punto nell’Ottocento prevedeva l’uso di una particolare imbarcazione detta “Banks dory” costruita in modo seriale e in grande quantità a partire dal 1850, barchette a fondo piatto per uno o due uomini a seconda della dimensione, trasportate (impilate una sopra l’altra) sulle golette dei pescatori cioè le navi-madre.
La tecnica di pesca prevedeva che la nave si ancorasse allargo e calasse a mare i dories, che si allontanavano e pescavano per conto loro con i palamiti. Alla sera il merluzzo pescato in giornata veniva pulito sul ponte della goletta e salato immediatamente. In casi eccezionali era possibile anche pescare con la lenza direttamente dalla goletta, ma issare i grossi pesci a murata era molto più faticoso, mentre il rendimento della pesca era più basso. La nave tornava in porto solo quando le stive erano piene di merluzzo salato. Se gran parte del pescato era costituito da questo pesce,erano anche possibili altri tipi di prede. Issare a bordo una passera (halibut), che poteva superare i tre metri di lunghezza ed i 100 chili di peso, metteva a dura prova le doti di stabilità della barca.,,
Questo tipo di pesca è stato utilizzato in modo massiccio fino alla Prima Guerra Mondiale ed è stato gradualmente soppiantato, a partire dal 1930, dall’uso di pescherecci a motore attrezzati con frigoriferi. (tratto da qui)

The Fog Warning
“The Fog Warning”, Winslow Homer 1885: il pescatore sul dory sta facendo ritorno alla sua goletta-madre  e con lo sguardo misura la distanza che lo separa. Il mare è mosso e il banco di nebbia si sta alzando, sarà una dura gara di forza contro il tempo.
goletta del film Capitani Coraggiosi
La goletta del film “Capitani Coraggiosi” ferma all’ancora per un banco di nebbia, tratto dal romanzo di Kipling in cui si narra in dettaglio come si svolge la vita dei pescatori di merluzzi agli inizi del 1900

All’inizio si pescava con la lenza, e i pesci pescati erano puliti e messi sotto sale sulla goletta madre. Nell’Ottocento dalla lenza si passa alle longline (in italiano i palamiti)
Lenze lunghe anche chilometri, ognuna delle quali attrezzata con migliaia di ami. Una tecnica molto efficace che permette bottini spaventosi. Nel solo New England, nel 1895 furono pescate 60.000 tonnellate di merluzzi. Che sembravano non finire mai. Addirittura un grande biologo e ricercatore come Huxley affermava: credo che la pesca dei merluzzi, così come le altre risorse del grande mare, siano inesauribili…(tratto da qui)

Ma la fine del merluzzo bianco erano dietro l’angolo.

Le navi industria e la fine del merluzzo bianco

La prima rete a strascico utilizzata in questo tratto di mare risale al 1905, una rete che corre sul fondale e  raccoglie tutto quello che trova, e così a partire dal secondo dopoguerra navi sempre più grandi dotate di grandi celle frigorifere (navi industria) pescavano in un’ora quanto una imbarcazione del 1500-1600 faceva in una stagione. Fu così che a metà degli anni ’70 i pescatori locali ottennero dai loro governi l’estensione delle acque territoriali fino alle 200 miglia dalla costa, escludendo le navi straniere dal dominio dei Grandi Banchi, ma invece di salvaguardare la loro risorsa ittica con una pesca sostenibile i pescatori canadesi finirono per utilizzare strumenti ancora più sofisticati come i sonar, per localizzare i grandi banchi di pesce, mentre il governo faceva previsioni sempre più lontane dalla realtà fissando quote di pescato pericolosamente alte e così nel 1992 non c’erano più merluzzi da pescare: migliaia di pescatori rimasti senza lavoro, barche ferme, fabbriche di conserve chiuse.
A tutt’oggi la pesca al merluzzo a Newfoundland non si è più ripresa, oggi l’economia di quel paese è basata sulla pesca alle aragoste e soprattutto sullo sfruttamento delle risorse boschive e minerarie. I merluzzi non sono più tornati. Pesci come i capelin, un tempo prede dei merluzzi, oggi sono divenuti molto comuni, e mangiano i merluzzi appena nati. Quell’ecosistema oggi è dominato da granchi e gamberi. (tratto da qui)

La coltivazione del Mare

Nel 1979 Jacques Cousteau scriveva: “Dobbiamo coltivare il mare e allevare le sue specie animali, usando il mare da agricoltori invece che da cacciatori. In questo consiste lo sviluppo della civiltà – l’agricoltura che sostituisce la caccia”.
Il futuro per i pescatori: coltivazioni subacquee di alghe e frutti di mare per creare un ecosistema sostenibile con progetti open source da condividere, da leggere la testimonianza di Bren Smith

Farming the Sea: why eating kelp is good for you and good for the environment from Patrick Mustain on Vimeo.

transportation song
la pesca sui Banchi
the Eastern Light
morte del capitano (ballata americana)
naufragio e soccorso sui Banchi (ballata canadese)

 

FONTI
https://www.nautica.it/barche-da-pesca/il-dory-dei-grandi-banchi-la-barca-che-scrisse-la-storia-della-pesca/
https://storiedibarche.wordpress.com/una-stagione-di-pesca-al-merluzzo-viaggio-sulle-barche-da-pesca-ai-banchi-di-terranova-dalle-immagini-di-anita-conti-alla-realizzazione-di-un-dory/

https://www.internazionale.it/reportage/bren-smith/2016/06/30/alghe-mare-orti-subacquei

http://www.marenostrumrapallo.it/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=576:merlu&catid=53:marittimo&Itemid=160
https://auspace.athabascau.ca/bitstream/handle/2149/1647/kenneth_peadock.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
http://gestsongs.com/01/banks2.htm

https://www.heritage.nf.ca/articles/economy/19th-century-cod.php

FILM,Gaelico scozzese/ SCOTTISH GAELIC,LIBRI/Book,TURISMO IN SCOZIA/ Scotland travelling

Outlander book: giving a new wife a fish

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FROM OUTLANDER BOOK
Diana Gabaldon

In the first book of the Outlander saga written by Diana Gabaldon chapter 16 Jamie recites, the day after their wedding, an old love song to Claire, giving her a fish.

“A good size,” he said proudly, holding out a solid fourteen-incher. “Do nicely for breakfast.” He grinned up at me, wet to the thighs, hair hanging in his face, shirt splotched with water and dead leaves. “I told you I’d not let ye go hungry.”
He wrapped the trout in layers of burdock leaves and cool mud. Then he rinsed his fingers in the cold water of the burn, and clambering up onto the rock, handed me the neatly wrapped parcel.
“An odd wedding present, may be,” he nodded at the trout, “
“It’s an old love song, from the Isles. D’ye want to hear it?”
“Yes, of course. Er, in English, if you can,” I added.
“Oh, aye. I’ve no voice for music, but I’ll give you the words.” And fingering the hair back out of his eyes, he recited,
“Thou daughter of the King of bright-lit mansions
On the night that our wedding is on us,
If living man I be in Duntulm,
I will go bounding to thee with gifts.
Thou wilt get a hundred badgers, dwellers in banks,
A hundred brown otters, natives of streams,
a hundred silver trout, rising from their pools

A nighean righ nan roiseal soluis

Alexander Carmichael in his “Carmina Gadelica” Vol II, reports the fragment of this old Scottish Gaelic song, translating into English, and assuming that the author was a Macdonalds of the Isle of Skye. (a clan renowned for the poetic fame of its exponents of prominence)
Skye is probably the island of the Hebrides more similar to the land of Avalon, privileged location of many fantasy films, but more recently a inflated destination for mass tourism (with all the negative aspects of high prices, streets overcrowded by tourist buses and even to the most inaccessible destinations you risk finding yourself in a large company)


English translation *
I
Thou daughter of the king of bright-lit mansions,
On the night that our wedding is on us,/If living man I be in Duntulm
I will go bounding to thee with gifts.
II
Thou wilt get an hundred badgers dwellers in banks,
An hundred brown otters native of streams,
Thou wilt get an hundred wild stags that will not come/ To the green pastures of the high glens.
III
Thou wilt get an hundred steeds stately and swift,
An hundred reindeer  intractable in summer,
And thou wilt get an hundred hummelled red hinds,
That will not go in stall in the Wolfmonth of winter
 Scottish Gaelic
I
A nighean righ nan roiseal soluis (1),
An oidhche bhios oirnne do bhanais,
Ma ’s fear beo mi an Duntuilm (2)
Theid mi toirleum (3)  da d’earrais.
II
Gheobh tu ciad bruicean tadhal bruach,
Ciad dobhran donn, dualach alit,
Gheobh tu ciad damh alluidh nach tig
Gu innis ard ghleannaidh. (4)
III
Gheobh to ciad steud stadach, luath,
Ciad bràc (5) bruaill an t-samhraidh,
’S gheobh tu ciad maoilseach (6) maol, ruadh,
Nach teid am buabhall am Faoileach (7) geamhraidh

NOTES
* Alexander Carmicheal
1) roiseal soluis= fine bright light or display of light,
2) Duntulm  (Scottish Gaelic: Dùn Thuilm) is a township on the most northerly point of the Trotternish peninsula of the Isle Of Skye. The village is most notable for the coastal scenery coupled with the ruins of Duntulm Castle,
3) tòirleum: leum bras
4) Diana Gabaldon concludes the poem by adding a verse that recalls the comic situation created between the two protagonists “a hundred silver trout, rising from their pools”
5) bràc= brae= Beurla (reindeer)
6) bean an fhèid
7) Faoilteach

The symbolism of matrimonial gifts is evident: the abundance of herds is auspicious for the fertility of the couple.

LINK
http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/cg2/cg2106.htm
http://www.electricscotland.com/books/pdf/carminagadelicah02carm.pdf
http://luideagbheag.blogspot.com/2016/11/a-nigheann-righ-nan-roiseal-soluis.html

https://www.thecastlesofscotland.co.uk/the-best-castles/scenic-castles/duntulm-castle/
https://50sfumaturediviaggio.com/2017/07/01/isola-di-skye-informazioni-generali/
https://50sfumaturediviaggio.com/2017/06/30/isola-di-skye-4-giorni-tra-le-nuvole/

FILM,Gaelico scozzese/ SCOTTISH GAELIC,LIBRI/Book,TURISMO IN SCOZIA/ Scotland travelling

Outlander: i regali dello sposo

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Read the post in English  

DAL LIBRO LA STRANIERA

Diana Gabaldon

Nel primo libro della saga Outlander scritto da Diana Gabaldon il capitolo 16 Jamie recita,  il giorno dopo il loro matrimonio, una vecchia canzone d’amore a Claire, dandole una trota appena pescata con le mani.
“E una vecchia canzone d’amore, viene dalle Isole. Vuoi sentirla?”
“Si, certo. Ehm in inglese, se puoi” aggiunsi.
“Oh, aye. Non sono granchè intonato, ma posso dirti le parole” E, togliendosi le ciocche dei capelli dagli occhi, recitò:
“Tu, figlia del re dei castelli illuminati a giorno,
la sera del nostro matrimonio,
se ancora uomo vivo sarò a Duntulm,
a grandi balzi verrò da te pieno di doni.
Avrai cento tassi, che dimorano in riva ai fiumi,
cento lontre brune, native dei torrenti..

A nighean righ nan roiseal soluis

Alexander Carmichael nel suo “Carmina Gadelica” Vol II, riporta il frammento di questa vecchia scottish song in gaelico scozzese, facendone la traduzione in inglese, supponendo che l’autore sia stato un Macdonalds delle Isole (clan rinomato per la fama poetica dei suoi esponenti di spicco) dell’isola di Skye.
Skye è probabilmente  l’isola delle Ebridi più simile alla terra di Avalon, location privilegiata di molti film fantasy e non, e più recentemente meta inflazionata del turismo di massa (con tutti gli aspetti negativi dei prezzi gonfiati, le strade sovraffollate dai bus turistici e anche alle mete più impervie rischiate di trovarvi in numerosa compagnia)

I
A nighean righ nan roiseal soluis (1),
An oidhche bhios oirnne do bhanais,
Ma ’s fear beo mi an Duntuilm (2)
Theid mi toirleum (3)  da d’earrais.
II
Gheobh tu ciad bruicean tadhal bruach,
Ciad dobhran donn, dualach alit,
Gheobh tu ciad damh alluidh nach tig
Gu innis ard ghleannaidh.
III
Gheobh to ciad steud stadach, luath,
Ciad bràc (5) bruaill an t-samhraidh,
’S gheobh tu ciad maoilseach (6) maol, ruadh,
Nach teid am buabhall am Faoileach (7) geamhraidh

traduzione inglese *
I
Thou daughter of the king of bright-lit mansions (1),
On the night that our wedding is on us,/If living man I be in Duntulm (2)
I will go bounding to thee with gifts.
II (4)
Thou wilt get an hundred badgers dwellers in banks,
An hundred brown otters native of streams,
Thou wilt get an hundred wild stags that will not come/ To the green pastures of the high glens.
III
Thou wilt get an hundred steeds stately and swift,
An hundred reindeer intractable in summer,
And thou wilt get an hundred hummelled red hinds,
That will not go in stall in the Wolfmonth of winter
 Traduzione italiana**
[Tu, figlia del re dei castelli illuminati a giorno,
la sera del nostro matrimonio
se ancora uomo vivo sarò a Duntulm, a grandi balzi verrò da te pieno di doni.
II
Avrai cento tassi, che dimorano in riva ai fiumi,
cento lontre brune, native dei torrenti]
Avrai cento cervi
che non andranno
sui verdi pascoli degli altopiani.
III
Avrai cento destrieri maestosi e dal piè veloce,
cento renne difficili da trattare in estate
Avrai cento cervi rossi senza corna
che non andranno nella stalla nel mese invernale di Gennaio.

NOTE
* Alexander Carmicheal
** Cattia Salto fuori dalle [ ]
1) letteralmente roiseal soluis= fine bright light or display of light, se fosse una fiaba verrebbe voglia di tradurre come “re della schiera luminosa” e prosegue “la notte del nostro matrimonio è alle porte”
2) Duntulm Castle è un castello diroccato su uno spuntone di roccia sulla costa settentrionale di Trotternish , nell’isola di Skye. Sede del clan Mac Donald di Sleat a partire dal Seicento è stato abbandonato  nell’anno del 1730.
3) tòirleum: leum bras
4) Diana Gabaldon conclude il poema aggiungendo un verso che richiama la situazione comica creatasi tra i due protagonisti “cento argentee trote, che saltano dagli stagni”
5) bràc= brae= Beurla (reindeer)
6) bean an fhèid
7) Faoilteach

Il simbolismo dei doni matrimoniali è evidente: l’abbondanza degli armenti è benaugurale per la fertilità della coppia.

FONTI
http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/cg2/cg2106.htm
http://www.electricscotland.com/books/pdf/carminagadelicah02carm.pdf
http://luideagbheag.blogspot.com/2016/11/a-nigheann-righ-nan-roiseal-soluis.html

https://www.thecastlesofscotland.co.uk/the-best-castles/scenic-castles/duntulm-castle/
https://50sfumaturediviaggio.com/2017/07/01/isola-di-skye-informazioni-generali/
https://50sfumaturediviaggio.com/2017/06/30/isola-di-skye-4-giorni-tra-le-nuvole/

FILM,FOLK AMERICANO/ American Folk,FOLK INGLESE/English Folk

Heave away, my Johnny sea shanty

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Leggi in Italiano

The second sea shanty sung by A.L. Lloyd in the film Moby Dick, shot by John Huston in 1956, is a windlass shanty or a capstan shanty. As we can clearly see in the sequence, crew action the old anchor winch.
Kenneth S. Goldstein commented on the cover notes of the album “Thar She Blows” by Ewan MacColl and A.L. Lloyd (1957)”A favourite shanty for windlass work, when the ship was being warped out of harbour at the start of a trip. A log rope would be made fast to a ring at the quayside and run round a bollard at the pierhead and back to the ship’s windlass. The shantyman would sit on the windlass head and sing while the spokesters strained to turn the windlass. As they turned, the rope would round the drum and the ship nosed seaward amid the tears of the women and the cheers of the men. This version was sung by the Indian Ocean whalers of the 1840s“.

The song starts at 1:50, when the catwalk is pulled off and the old spike windlass is activated, model replaced by the brake windlass around 1840



There’s some that’s bound for New York Town
and other’s is bound for France,
Heave away, my Johnnies, heave away,
And some is bound for the Bengal Bay
to teach them whales a dance,
and away my Johnny boys, we’re all bound to go.
Come all you hard workin’ sailors,
Who round the cape of storm (1);
Be sure you’ve boots and oilskins,
Or you’ll wish you never been born.
1) the curse of every sailor at the time of sailing ships: Cape Horn

This sea shanty presents a great variety of texts even with different stories, so sometimes it is a song of the whaleship other times a song of emigration. (a collection of various text versions here).

WHALING SHANTY: HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNY (JOHNNIES) – WE’RE ALL BOUND TO GO

Dubbing Cape Horn was a feared affair by sailors, being a stretch of sea almost perpetually upset by storms, a cemetery of numerous unlucky ships.
The wind dominated the bow, so the ship was pushed back for days with the crew exhausted by effort and icy water that was breaking on all sides.

Louis Killen from Farewell Nancy 1964  “capstan stands upright and is pushed round by trudging men. A windlass, serving much the same function, lies horizontally and is revolved by means of bars pulled from up to down. So windlass songs are generally more rhythmical than capstan shanties. Heave Away is usually considered a windlass song. Originally, it had words concerning a voyage of Irish migrants to America. Later, this text fell away. The version sung here was “devised” by A. L. Lloyd for the film of Mody Dick”

Assassin’s Creed Rogue

I
There’s some that’s bound for New York town,
And some that’s bound for France;
Heave away, my Johnny heave away.
And some that’s bound for the Bengal Bay,
To teach them whales a dance;
Heave away, my Johnny boy
we’re all bound to go.		 II
The pilot he is awaiting for,
The turnin’ of the tide;
And then, me girls, we’ll be gone again,
With a good and a westerly wind.
III
Farewell to you, my Kingston girls (1),
Farewell, St. Andrews dock;
If ever we return again,
We’ll make your cradles rock.
IV
Come all you hard workin’ sailor men,
Who round the cape of storm;
Be sure you’ve boots and oilskins,
Or you’ll wish you never was born.

NOTES
1) Kingston upon Hull (or, more simply, Hull) is a renowned fishing port from which flotillas for fishing in the North Sea started from the Middle Ages. In the song, the departing ships also head for the Indian Ocean (see routes )

Barbara Brown & Tom Brown  from Just Another Day 2014, from the repertoire of the seafaring songs of Minehead (Somerset) collected by Cecil Sharp from only two sources – the retired captains Lewis and Vickery.

trad and Tom Brown verses
I
As I walked out one morning all in the month of May,
Heave away, me Johnny, heave away,
I thought upon the ships and trade that sailed out of our bay,
Heave away, me jolly boys, we’re all bound away.		 II
Sometimes we’re bound for Wexford town and sometimes for St. John,
And sometimes to the Med we go, just to get the sun.
III
We’re running to St. Austell Bay, with coal we’re loaded down;
A storm came down upon us before we reached Charlestown.
IV
There’s dried and pickled herring we’ve shipped around the world,
Two hundred years of fishing, until they disappeared.
V
It’s green oak bound for Swansea town, it’s salt we bring from France,
But it’s down into the Indies to lead those girls a dance.
VI
With a cargo now of kelp, me boys, for Bristol now we’re bound,
To help them make the glass, you know, all in that famous town.
VII
Flour and malt and bark and grain are on the Bristol run;
The Jane and Susan beat them all in eighteen-sixty-one.
VIII
We’ve sailed the world in ships of fame that came from Minehead hard,
And Unanimity she was the last from Manson’s Yard.

NEWFOUNDLAND VERSION

Genevieve Lehr (Come And I Will Sing You: A Newfoundland Songbook # 49) was released by Pius Power, Southeast Bight,  in 1979 Genevieve Lehr writes “this is a song which was often used to establish a rhythm for hauling up the anchors aboard the fishing schooners. Many of these ‘heave-up shanties’ were old ballads or contemporary ones, and very often topical verses were made up on the spur of the moment and added to the song to make the song last as long as the task itself.”

The Fables from Tear The House Down, 1998 a cheerful version with a decidedly country arrangement

I
Come get your duds(1) in order ‘cause we’re bound to cross the water.
Heave away, me jollies,
heave away.
Come get your duds in order ‘cause we’re bound to leave tomorrow.
Heave away me jolly boys,
we’re all bound away.		 II
Sometimes we’re bound for Liverpool,
sometimes we’re bound for Spain.
But now we’re bound for old St. John’s (2) where all the girls are dancing.
III
I wrote me love a letter,
I was on the Jenny Lind.
I wrote me love a letter and I signed it with a ring.
IV
Now it’s farewell Nancy darling, ‘cause it’s now I’m going to leave you.
“You promised that me you’d marry me, but how you did deceive me.(3)”

NOTES
1) duds in this context means “clothes” but more generally the large canvas bag containing the sailor’s baggage
2) Saint John’s, known in Italian as San Giovanni di Terranova for the Marconi experiment, is a city in Canada, capital of the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, located in the peninsula of Avalon, which is part of the Newfoundland island
3) clearly a “flying” verse taken from the many farewells here is Nancy answering

 

broadside ballad: The Banks of the Sweet Dundee ( Short Sharp Shanties)
 emigration song: The Irish girl or Mr Tapscott

LINK
http://www.shanty.org.uk/archive_songs/heave-away,-my-johnnies—kingston.html
http://mainlynorfolk.info/lloyd/songs/heaveawaymyjohnny.html
http://www.kinglaoghaire.com/lyrics/722-heave-away-my-johnny
http://www.wtv-zone.com/phyrst/audio/nfld/05/heave.htm
http://www.wtv-zone.com/phyrst/audio/nfld/36/heave.htm
http://www.wtv-zone.com/phyrst/audio/nfld/24/heave.htm
http://www.wtv-zone.com/phyrst/audio/nfld/02/heave.htm http://aliverpoolfolksongaweek.blogspot.it/2011/07/13-were-all-bound-to-go.html
http://www.umbermusic.co.uk/default.htm

FILM,FOLK AMERICANO/ American Folk,FOLK INGLESE/English Folk,LIBRI/Book

Blood Red Roses, a whale shanty

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Leggi in italiano

Ho Molly, come down
Come down with your pretty posy
Come down with your cheeks so rosy
Ho Molly, come down”
(from Gordon Grant “SAIL HO!: Windjammer Sketches Alow and Aloft”,  New York 1930)

To introduce two new sea shanties in the archive of Terre Celtiche blog I start from Moby Dick (film by John Huston in 1956) In the video-clip we see the “Pequod” crew engaged in two maneuvers to leave New Bedford, (in the book port is that of Nantucket) large whaling center on the Atlantic: Starbuck, the officer in second, greets his wife and son (camera often detaches on wives and girlfriends go to greet the sailors who will not see for a long time: the whalers were usually sailing from six to seven months or even three – four years). After dubbing Cape of Good Hope, the”Pequod” will head for Indian Ocean.
It was AL Lloyd who adapted  “Bunch of roses” shanty for the film, modifying it with the title “Blood Red Roses”. It should be noted that at the time of Melville many shanty were still to come

Albert Lancaster Lloyd, Ewan MacColl & Peggy Seeger

It’s round Cape Horn we all must go
Go down, you blood red roses, Go down
For that is where them whalefish blow
Go down, you blood red roses, Go down
Oh, you pinks and posies
Go down, you blood red roses, Go down
It’s frosty snow and winter snow
under’s many ships they ‘round Cape Horn
It’s your boots to see again
let you them for whaler men

oswald-brierly
Oswald Brierly, “Whalers off Twofold Bay” from Wikimedia Commons. Painting is dated 1867 but it shows whaling and the Bay as it was in the 1840s

Assassin’s Creed Rogue (Nils Brown, Sean Dagher, Clayton Kennedy, John Giffen, David Gossage)


Me bonnie bunch of Roses o!
Come down, you blood red roses, come down (1)
Tis time for us to roll and go
Come down, you blood red roses, Come down
Oh, you pinks and posies
Come down, you blood red roses, Come down		 We’re bound away around Cape Horn (2), Were ye wish to hell you aint never been born,
Me boots and clothes are all in pawn (3)/Aye it’s bleedin drafty round Cape Horn.
Tis growl ye may but go ye must
If ye growl to hard your head ill bust.
Them Spanish Girls are pure and strong
And down me boys it wont take long.
Just one more pull and that’ll do
We’ll the bullie sport  to kick her through.

NOTES
1) this line most likely was created by A.L. Lloyd for the film of Mody Dick, reworking the traditional verse “as down, you bunch of roses”, and turning it into a term of endearment referring to girls (a fixed thought for sailors, obviously just after the drinking). I do not think that in this context there are references to British soldiers (in the Napoleonic era referring to Great Britain as the ‘Bonny bunch of roses’, the French also referred to English soldiers as the “bunch of roses” because of their bright red uniforms), or to whales, even if the image is of strong emotional impact:“a whale was harpooned from a rowing boat, unless it was penetrated and hit in a vital organ it would swim for miles sometimes attacking the boats. When it died it would be a long hard tow back to the ship, something they did not enjoy. If the whale was hit in the lungs it would blow out a red rose shaped spray from its blowhole. The whalers refered to these as Bloody Red Roses, when the spray became just frothy bubbles around the whale as it’s breathing stopped it looked like pinks and posies in flower beds” (from mudcat here)
2) Once a obligatory passage of the whaling boats that from Atlantic headed towards the Pacific.
3) as Italo Ottonello teaches us “At the signing of the recruitment contract for long journeys, the sailors received an advance equal to three months of pay which, to guarantee compliance with the contract, it was provided in the form of “I will pay”, payable three days after the ship left the port, “as long as said sailor has sailed with that ship.” Everyone invariably ran to look for some complacent sharks who bought their promissory note at a discounted price, usually of forty percent, with much of the amount provided in kind. “The purchasers, boarding agents and various procurers,” the enlisters, “as they were nicknamed,” were induced to ‘seize’ the sailors and bring them on board, drunk or drugged, with little or no clothes beyond what they were wearing, and squandering or stealing all sailor advances.

Sting from “Rogue’s Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs, and Chanteys” ANTI 2006. ♪
The textual version resumes that of Louis Killen and this musical interpretation is decidedly Caribbean, rhythmic and hypnotic ..


Our boots and clothes are all in pawn
Go down, you blood red roses,
Go down
It’s flamin’ drafty (1) ‘round Cape Horn
Go down, you blood red roses,
Go down
Oh, you pinks and posies Go down,
you blood red roses, Go down		 My dear old mother she said to me,
“My dearest son, come home from sea”.
It’s ‘round Cape Horn we all must go
‘Round Cape Horn in the frost and snow.
You’ve got your advance, and to sea you’ll go
To chase them whales through the frost and snow.
It’s ‘round Cape Horn you’ve got to go,
For that is where them whalefish blow(2).
It’s growl you may, but go you must,
If you growl too much your head they’ll bust.
Just one more pull and that will do
For we’re the boys to kick her through

NOTES
1) song in this version is dyed red with “flaming draughty” instead of “mighty draughty”. And yet even if flaming has the first meaning “Burning in flame” it also means “Bright; red. Also, violent; vehement; as a flaming harangue”  (WEBSTER DICT. 1828)

Jon Contino

“Go Down, You Blood Red Roses” is a game for children widespread in the Caribbean and documented by Alan Lomax in 1962

(second part)

LINK
http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/11/debunking-myth-that-go-down-you-blood.html
http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/11/coming-down-with-bunch-of-roses-lyrics.html

http://songbat.com/archive/songs/english-americas/blood-red-roses
http://mainlynorfolk.info/lloyd/songs/bloodredroses.html
http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=34080 http://www.well.com/~cwj/dogwatch/chanteys/Blood%20Red%20Roses.html
http://www.wtv-zone.com/phyrst/audio/nfld/36/blood.htm http://will.wright.is/post/1367066738/jon-contino