Hal-an-Tow: Helston Flora Day (Cornwall)

CORNWALL
Obby Oss Festival
Padstow mayday songs 
Helston
Flora Day
Furry Dance
Hal-an-tow

MAY DAY SONG  (May Day Carol) IN ENGLAND
(preface)

The Furry Dance (Flora or Floral dance) takes place on May 8th in Helston in Cornwall. The meaning of Furry is found in the root of the Cornic Gaelic fer = fair, a festival dedicated to Saint Michael. In local folklore, the town’s name Hel (l) -ston(e) comes from a boulder thrown by the Devil at the Archangel during the battle for the town.

Inside the program of the tipical dances there is a sacred representation with historical and mythical theme, which unfolds in a procession starting from the church: the characters are Robin Hood and his Merry Man, Saint George and Saint Michael, which announce the arrival of Spring.

Although the first written accounts of Furry Day date back to the late eighteenth century, according to some folklorists, the festival was a local remembrance-reworking of the Celtic festival of Beltane.

I (1)
Since man was first created
His works have been debated
We have celebrated the coming of the Spring
CHORUS (2)
Hal-an-Tow (3), jolly rumble-O
We were up, long before the day-o
To welcome in the summer, to welcome in the May-o
For summer is coming in and winter’s gone away-o
II (4)
Take ne scorn and wear the horns (5)
It was the crest when you were born
Your father’s father wore it and your father wore it too
III
Robin Hood (6) and Little John
Have both gone to the fair-o
We shall to the merry green wood
To hunt the buck and hare-o (7)
IV
What happened to the Spaniards(8)
That made so great a boast-o?
For They shall eat the feathered goose
And we shall eat the roast-o (9)
V (10)
St Piran showed his care for us
And all our sons and daughters, O.
He brought the book of Christendom
Across the western waters, O
And taught the love of Heaven above
For Cornishmen below.
VI
As for Saint George(11), O!
Saint George he was a knight, O!
Of all the knights in Christendom,
Saint George is the right, O!
In every land, O!
The land where’er we go.
VII
But for a greater than St. George
Our Helston has the right-O
St. Michael with his wings outspread
The archangel so bright-O
Who fought the fiend-O (12)
Of all mankind the foe
VIII
God bless Aunt Mary Moses(13)
With all her power and might-o
Send us peace in England
Send us peace by day and night-o

NOTES
(1) the verse is an addition by Mike Waterson (who however does not appear on the debut album Frost and Fire: A Calendar of Ritual and Magical Songs 1965)
(2) Shirley Collins sings instead following the CHORUS of the Helston tradition:
Hal-an-tow, jolly rumble O
For we were up as soon as any day O
And for to fetch the summer home
The summer and the May O
For summer is a-come O
And winter is a-gone O
(3) The translation of Hal an tow could be “May day garland” (halan = calende) and the same name was attributed to the groups of youths who, early in the morning, went into the woods to cut the branches of the May and brought them to the village dancing and singing for the arrival of Spring.
But many scholars tend to refer to the meaning of “heel and toe,” referring to the dance step of the Morris dancing.
Another interpretation translates it as “pulling the rope” (from the Dutch “Haal aan het Touw” derived from the Saxon) referred to the work of the sailors on the ships but also to the game of tug of war, one of the few survivors from the May Games by Robin Hood. Some interpret all the stanzas in a seafaring key, as if the song were a sea-shanty and explain the term “rumbelow” as the rum in the vessel at the time of the pirates!
(4) from Shakespeare As You Like (IV, II): “What shall he have that kill’d the deer? His leather skin and horns to wear. Then sing him home; Take thou no scorn to wear the  horn; It was a crest ere thou wast  born: Thy father’s father wore it, And thy father bore it: The horn, the horn, the lusty horn Is not a thing to laugh to scorn.
How could one deny the reference to the deer god and, more generally, to the symbolism of the deer as a sacred animal, the bearer of fertility? see more
And yet this stanza is a more recent addition not present in the local tradition. Stephen Winick convincingly argues (cf) that the Watersons and their producer AL Lloyd encountered the juxtaposition of Shakespeare and the Helston carol on page 55 of Reginald Nettel’s 1954 “Sing a Song of England“. His intent was to demonstrate how some customs in “The Abbots Bromley Horn Dance” and “Hal-An-Tow” could derived from the Elizabethan period. But the juxtaposition of the verses on the same page has suggested to some readers (and Winick points out AL Lloyd) to add the stanza in Hal-an-tow.
(5) that is, “accept contempt and wear horns” but in the mythological key would mean exactly the opposite, that is, be proud (Take thou no scorn = do not disdain) of the honor of wearing horns. Yet the Elizabethan audience would have winked and laughed at that point because Shakespeare alludes to the cuckold.
(6) Robin Hood in the Middle Ages was associated with the May festival and its fertility rituals, he is the Green Man the male counterpart of the May Queen.
(7) Shirley Collins sings following the Helston tradition
Robin Hood and Little John,
They both are gone to fair, O
And we will to the merry green wood
To see what they do there, O
And for to chase, O
To chase the buck and doe.
(8) What happened to the Spaniards: the image is ironic about the Spaniards who eat goose feathers by english arrows to whom the roast goose is mockingly due as the winners
(9)  Shirley Collins sings following the Helston tradition
Where are those Spaniards
That make so great a boast, O?
For they shall eat the grey goose feather
And we shall eat the roast-O
In every land-O
The land where’er we go
(10) more recently added verse following the trail of nationalism in reference to the flag of Saint Piran the flag of the county of Cornwall a white cross on a black field.
(11) St George day in many populations of the Mediterranean rural world, represents the rebirth of nature and the arrival of Spring, the Saint has inherited the functions of a more ancient pagan deity associated with solar cults: St. George defeating the Dragon became the solar god who defeats the darkness. see more
(12) In local folklore, the town’s name Hel (l) -ston(e) comes from a boulder (or “hell stone”) thrown by the Devil at the Archangel Gabriel during the battle for the town.
(13) Aunt Mary Moses: Our Lady  Originally, therefore, the invocation was a prayer referring to the goddess of spring. In other versions the sentence becomes “The Lord and Lady bless you”