Silver apples of the Moon: The Wandering of Aengus

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The song of wandering Aengus (Silver apples of the Moon) was published in 1899, in the collection of poems “The Wind among the reeds” by William Butler Yeats (1865-1939).

AENGUS: Celtic God of Love

Aengus (Oengus)  is the god of love of Irish mythology, belonging to the mythical ranks of the Tuatha De Dannan, eternally young ruler of the Brug na Boinne near the banks of the river Boyne. It is said of him that he fell in love with a beautiful girl seen in a dream and, sick with love, looked for her for a long time before finding and taking her to his kingdom (see the story).

In poetry, however, the character is a young mortal (perhaps the poet himself) in search of his poetic inspiration or the most ancestral side of knowledge. He tells of his initiation into the past, because he became old, in the perennial search for beauty, or poetic enlightenment, embodied by the girl with the apple blossoms in her hair.

The Wandering of Aengus: Silver apples of the Moon

The first to put the poem “The Wandering of Aengus” into music was the same Yeats on a melody composed by Eugène Arnold Dolmetsch: in 1907 he published his essay ‘Speaking to the Psaltery’ in which the poem is recited bardically, sung with the accompaniment of the psaltery; Yeats wrote about the melody of ‘The Song of Wandering Aengus’: “ taken down by Mr. Arnold Dolmetsch from myself,’

Burt Ives with the title The Wandering of Old Angus  in ‘Burl Ives: Songs of Ireland‘ Decca DL 8444 (ca. 1954) in the liner notes the Yeats melody is credited (‘Burl Ives learned to chant this William Butler Yeats poem from the late actress Sara Allgood.’) a cappella

Judy Collins with the title ‘Golden Apples of the Sun’  – Golden Apples of the Sun 1962. “Learned from the singing of Will Holt, this stunning song is a musical setting of a W. B. Yeats poem ‘The Song of the Wandering Angus’. The haunting melody is probably the composition of Richard Dyer-Bennet. It is not a folk song, it tends to be an art song. It has a traditional feeling about it; the repetitiveness gives you the impression of an incantation, which the poem does too. Of her learning it I had heard the song almost two years ago..

I lived with the Golden Apples of the Sun almost a year-and-a-half before I ever sang it, and then it burst out one day – almost of its own accord – while I was visiting friends. It took me a long time to assimilate it, but now it’s part of me. I feel that the song has something to do with what people want – what they don’t have – and sometimes the desire for these things is almost as satisfying as the getting.'” Collins sings it dreamily with a touch of melancholy and the accompaniment of the acoustic guitar.

Donovan from H. M. S. 1971 The melody is by him

Richie Havens from “Mixed Bag II” 1974 with his very personal way of playing the guitar, in a remake of Donovan’s piece

Christy Moore from “Ride On” 1986
“I was backstage at Woodstock talking to Jimi when Richie ambled past and hearing my Kildare accent enquired about Aongus and the origin. I told him about Brother Lazerian trying to teach us the beauty of Yeats til it was time for Richie to go  on. I heard a rumour that Judy Collins wrote the tune but I got a horrid bollockin in Coolara House one night for suggesting same. Apparently twas Queen Maeve herself that wrote the tune for this one and taught it to Joe Dowd in a dream one night.” (cf)

Paul Winter & Karen Casey from Celtic Solstice 1999

Jolie Holland in Catalpa 2003 American songwriter who combines American folk with country

Waterboys from “An Appointment with Mr Yeats” 2011
an almost spoken version of Mick Scott that closes with the dreamy melody of the flute, like a gust of wind

Tirill in “Nine and Fifty Swans” 2011 Tirill Mohn ex-White Willow in un album tutto dedicato a Yeats

Eoin O’Brien & Darragh Keary 2013

Sedrenn  (Elisa Vellianiti and Christine Mérienne) from De l’autri cotè 2013 (the review of the cd here) ♪ music by Elisa Vellianiti

Robert Lawrence & Jill Greene (music by Jill Diana Greene) 2016

I I went out to the hazel wood because a fire was in my head(1) and cut and peeled a hazel wand(2) and hooked a berry to a thread. II And when white moths were on the wing and moth-like stars were flickering out I dropped the berry in the stream(3) and caught a little silver trout(4). III When I had laid it on the floor I went to blow the fire aflame But something rustled on the floor and someone called me by my name. IV It had become a glimmering girl with apple blossom(5) in her hair who called me by my name and ran and vanished through the brightening air V Though I am old with wandering through hollow lands and hills lands I will find out where she has gone and kiss her lips and take her hands. VI And walk among long dappled grass and pluck till time and times are done the silver apples of the moon the golden apples of the sun (5).

NOTES 1) it’s the fire what characterizes the visionary experience of shamanism (see). In the book “The Fire in the Head” (2007) Tom Cowan examines the connections between shamanism and Celtic imagination, analyzing the myths, the stories, the ancient Celtic poets and narrators and describing the techniques used to access the world of the shamans. So the protagonist approaches the waters of the river to practice a ritual that allows him to travel in the Other World. 2) the hazelnut is the fruit of science and falls into the sacred spring, where it is eaten by salmon / trout (which becomes the salmon of knowledge). 3) most likely it is the Boyne River. According to mythology, Brug na Boinne or “Boyne River Palace” is the current Newgrange. Dimora del Dagda and then the son Aengus (Oengus) and the most important gods. The mound rises on the north bank of the Boyne River, east of Slane (County Meath). 4) A reference to a mythological tale by Fionn Mac Cumhaill (salomon of knowledge). Even the trout is considered by the Celtic tradition as a guardian spirit of the waterways, and represents the Underworld, which it is materially embodied under the gaze of the poet in a young girl from the Other World, in a sort of dream or vision ( aisling) that disappears when the day is cleared: the poet tells us he will dedicate his life to chasing that girl or to reach (in life) the Other World 5) The apple tree and its fruit are always present in the Otherworld and most of the time it is a female creature to offer the golden apple to the hero or the poet. The apple is the fruit of immortality but also of death, of eternal sleep. The access (in life) to the Other Celtic World is an honor reserved for poets, semi-divine heroes and a few privileged visitors (sometimes ravished by fairies for their beauty), Yeats hopes to be able to feed on Avalon apples and obtain the gift of immortality (poetic).

Aengus il vagabondo

Angelo Branduardi from “Branduardi canta Yeats” 1986 music by Donovan, text-poetic translation by Luisa Zappa

Fu così che al bosco andai, chè un fuoco in capo mi sentivo, un ramo di nocciolo io tagliai ed una bacca appesi al filo. Bianche falene vennero volando, e poi le stelle luccicando, la bacca nella corrente lanciai e pescai una piccola trota d’argento. Quando a terra l’ebbi posata per ravvivare il fuoco assopito, qualcosa si mosse all’improvviso e col mio nome mi chiamò.

Una fanciulla era divenuta, fiori di melo nei capelli, per nome mi chiamò e svanì nello splendore dell’aria Sono invecchiato vagabondando per vallate e per colline, ma saprò alla fine dove e`andata, la bacerò e la prenderò per mano; cammineremo tra l’erba variegata, sino alla fine dei tempi coglieremo le mele d’argento della luna, le mele d’oro del sole.

LINK
http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=44244http://branoalcollo.wordpress.com/2011/07/11/le-metamorfosi-di-yeats/http://lebuoneinterferenze.blogspot.it/2010/02/le-mele-della-notte.htmlhttp://www.ilcerchiosciamanico.it/articoli/p2/123/il-regno-sotto-le-acque-il-recupero-dello-sciamanesimo-celtico-di-sharon-paice-macleod.html