The theme of the Devil who tries to take a sinner to hell is a classic of the Celtic tales. In the ballad “Devil and the Farmer’s wife” dating back to 1600, the woman deserves the hell for her spiteful and disrespectful behavior; but the devil himself cannot tame her, indeed he risks losing his tranquility.
LITTLE DEVILS
The ballad has spread widely in England, Ireland, Scotland and America with fairly similar text versions, albeit with melodies declined in a different way.
THE DEVIL AND THE PLOWMAN (english version)
Lilli burlero
THE FARMER’S CURSED WIFE (american version)
KILLYBURN BRAE (Irish version)
KELLYBURN BRAES (Scottish version)
The song is also known as “The Women Are Worse Than The Men” already recorded by Tommy Mackem in “From The Archives”, but these hills do not exist in Ireland as the name is a distortion of the Scottish one. The hills of Kellyburn are mounds in Scotland that separate the northern part of Ayrshire from Renfrew.
The Dubliners in A Parcel of Rouges 1976
Tommy Makem
The Irish Rovers in “The Boys Come Rollin’ Home”.
There was an old man in the Killieburn Brae riful riful tidifol-dey there was an old man in the Killieburn Brae had a curse of the wife for the most of his days(1) with me foldadle-dah diddyfol-dah foldadle-dal-da-daldadle-day One day as this man he walked out in the glen well he met the devil says how are you The devil he says ” I have come for your wife for I hear she’s the curse and the bane of your life” So the devil he hoisted her up on his back(2) and away off to hell with her he did whack And when at last they came to hell’s gate well she lifted her stick and she battered his pate There were two little devils(3) there tied up in chains she lifted her stick and she scattered their brains There were two other devils there roaring like bulls well she lifted her stick and she battered their skulls There were two other devils there playing at ball well she lifted her stick and she battered them all So the devil he hoisted her up on his back they were seven years(5) coming and days going back And when they came back to Killieburn Brae well the devil he cried and shouted hooray Says he “my good man here’s your wife safe and well for the likes of herself we would not have been hell” Which proves that the women are worse than the men when they go to the hell they’re thrown out again |
NOTE 1) the sentence wants to underline the less than submissive character of the woman! 2) the image is supported by a vast iconography dating back to the Middle Ages of women straddling the devil 3) the image of the devils literally massacred by the woman is very funny, unfortunately the domestic reality was very different and in general it was women who suffered mistreatment and violences. 4) the game with the ball is a common place of classical ballads that even hell does not escape 5) presumably the old man during the umpteenth quarrel with his wife called the devil to take her to hell; the two must have entered into a seven-year agreement. |
