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The Cruel Mother/The Willow Tree

Track Information

Original Track ID

SA1979.21.A1

Original Tape ID

SA1979.021

Summary

Antitheses in supernatural song; the symbolism of colour; anecdote about Travellers' reaction to purple.

[Beginning lost.] Stanley Robertson comments on the antithesis between the thorn and the rowan in 'The Cruel Mother' and sings a verse. The meaning of the colour green is discussed, and Stanley sings some lines from 'The Willow Tree', where green willow is worn as a sign of mourning.

Old Travellers wore purple rather than black as the colour of mourning. David Clement tells an anecdote about an Irish friend who liked to wear purple. When he turned up to meet some Travellers in Kintyre they were terrified of him: they thought he was the Devil.

Item Notes

The dialogue song 'The Willow Tree' (beginning "How now, shepherd? What means that") is found in early 17th-century Scottish and English collections, and in the Skene Manuscript; it also appears later in Percy's 'Reliques of Ancient English Poetry' (1765).

See:
'Reliques of Ancient English Poetry' vol. 2 (T. Percy, 1906) pp. 270-271
'A Pedlar's Pack of Ballads and Songs' (J. Maidment & W. H. Logan, 1869) pp. 349-350
'The Ballad Literature and Popular Music of the Olden Time' vol. 1 (W. Chappell, 1855) p. 377

Recording Location

County - Aberdeenshire

Parish - Aberdeen

Village/Place - Aberdeen

Language

English

Collection

SoSS

Classification

R9 GD193 GD194 GD1910 C20

Source Type

Reel to reel

Audio Quality

Good