Hello folks,
I’m nervous & excited about sharing this with you: my first offering of ‘Songs for the Season’. It’s taken me some months to get to this point. Reason being, I’ve been developing the courage & confidence to do so. I’ve been holding myself up to impossible standards, trying to be perfect. Recording, deleting, re-recording. Waiting until I had the ‘proper’ equipment. Of course, once I got the gear the equipment didn’t work. All that to say, in the process of trying to be like Beyonce I lost sight of what I love most about traditional singing. Traditional singing isn’t perfect or polished. It’s human. It’s from the heart. It’s raw and honest. Hopefully, this is what you’ll hear. The recording isn’t perfect & I will never be, but this song is special and I love singing it. I think that’s reason enough to share.
It may well be 13 days after Samhain itself but we are still very much in the season of Samhain. I’ve been wondering which song to share with you and have decided on this: ‘She moves through the Fair’ by Anne Briggs. A haunting & beautiful version of it’s ancient counterparts. I hope I do Anne justice.
She Moved Through the Fair was first collected in Donegal by poet Padraic Colum (1881-1972) and musicologist Herbert Hughes (1882-1937). A three verse version of She Moved Thro’ the Fair was published in 1909 in Hughes’ book Irish Country Songs Volume I with the source given as “Pádraic Colum; Adapted from an old ballad; County Donegal”. The tune is in mixolydian mode. A four verse and somewhat different version of She Moved Through the Fair was published in in 1922 in Colum’s book Wild Earth and Other Poems; that book doesn’t mention the song’s traditional origin.
For folks who don’t follow the Celtic wheel of the year, Samhain (pronounced Sow-En) is a Gaelic festival on 1 November marking the end of the harvest season and beginning of winter. The darker half of the year. It is also the Irish name for November. Celebrations begin on the evening of 31 October. This is about halfway between the autumnal equinox & winter solstice. It is one of the four Gaelic seasonal festivals along with Imbolc, Bealtaine, & Lughnasa. Historically it was widely observed throughout Ireland, Scotland & the Isle of Man.
Samhain is believed to have Celtic Pagan origins, and some Neolithic passage tombs in Ireland and Britain are aligned with the sunrise at the time of Samhain. The early literature says great gatherings and feasts marked Samhain when the ancient burial mounds were open, which were seen as portals to the Otherworld.
With any song comes stories. Something I’m told time and time again by my dear friend and ballad mentor Linda Williamson: the widower of renowned Duncan Williamson, Scottish Traveller & Seanchaí. The story of this song, is that of a much longer ballad that I am learning in both the Scottish Traveller & Irish Traveller ballad traditions. I think this song is more palatable to the attention spans of folks who aren’t used to listening or following 13 verse ballads…We’ll warm up to that eventually.
You will find my version of this song is much slower than Anne’s version. It isn’t deliberate. But, I do find once I’ve metabolised a song & it’s worked through my system that elements of it’s original form shift. In the same manner stories do. I sing in a traditional fashion, minus the Gaelic. By that, I mean I sing without instruments, acapella. Just me & the song.
The story of ‘She moves through the Fair’ is very ancient and it shows up in multiple ways in multiple myths & folktales. It goes something like this, a young lover is visited by their estranged, dead partner. The couple reacquaint with one another briefly, before the dead lover is beckoned to return to the grave. ‘She moves through the Fair’ is uncannily familiar to the story of Lady Margaret & her young love William. (The title of the longer ballad I’m learning.)
A version of this motif; the captured/dead lover also appears in the story of Young Tambling. Infact, the Scottish traveller ballad of Lady Margaret is a re-telling of Tambling, whose roots are said to track back to the region of the Scottish borders. Now, if you’ve read my herbal post on Hawthorn, you might remember the ballad I shared in that post—‘Thomas The Rhymer’, sang by the great Ewan MacColl, this ballad is also said to originate from the Scottish Borders. Thomas the Rhymer tells the story of a young prince who one day, sat beneath a hawthorn tree is summoned by the Fairy Queen. Thomas sojourns for 7 years in the fairy realm, however, 7 years in the fairy realm feels like an afternoon in the mortal world. On his return to the mortal world he discovers how long he has been gone & that he has been gifted the power of prophecy. In Tambling, we meet a young prince who has been held captive by a fairy queen. It is Margaret, Lady Margaret who sets the young prince free. I might be wrong here, but I do believe that ‘She moves through the Fair’ nods toward this ancient narrative arc. Perhaps the song is a fractured piece of the Irish Travellers version of Lady Margaret.
Tambling, Thomas the Rhymer, She moves Through the Fair and both the Scottish & Irish tellings of LAdy Margaret weave a cloth made from very similar thread.
Part of learning ballads is also learning the stories they capture. Linda tells me that ballads were a condensed version of much larger, complex stories. Ballads were a way stories could be shared & retained, often the ballads themselves would be accompanied by intricate dances that communities would participate in. After researching for some time and getting lost in the labyrinth of Lady Margaret & who she was, I contacted Linda. Unsurprisingly, Linda shared with me:
“Margaret is no earthly maiden. But Surya the daughter of the Sun goddess from the lore of Vedic culture. She is constant, true and the epitome of courage. Lord William is Soma the Moon. They are married when the Earth enters its winter, dark time -- and most happily wed at New Moon or at Full Moon -- when from Earth we see on the western horizon Surya the Sun setting very near/or simultaneously with Soma the Moon rising on the Eastern horizon.” Linda Williamson, 2023.
It seemed fitting then, to start with a song that encapsulates unity, hope & beauty in the midst of darkness.
I hope you’ve enjoyed reading and listening.
Samhain blessings,
HM
This is magnificent. Thank you!