| Author | Topic: Add: Farewell to Tarwathie | |
| dmcg | Posted - 15 Apr 06 - 08:35 am | |
Farewell to Tarwathie, adieu Mormond Hill, And the dear land of Crimond, I bid you farewell; I'm bound out for Greenland and ready to sail, In hopes to find riches in hunting the whale. Adieu to my comrades, for a while we must part, And likewise the dear lass who fair won my heart; The cold ice of Greenland my love will not chill, And the longer my absence, more loving she'll feel. Our ship is well rigged and she's ready to sail. Our crew they are anxious to follow the whale; Where the icebergs do float and the stormy winds blow, Where the land and the ocean is covered with snow. The cold coast of Greenland is barren and bare, No seed time nor harvest is ever known there; And the birds here sing sweetly on mountain and dale, But there are no sweet birds to sing to the whale. There's no habitation for a man to live there, And the king of that country is the fierce Greenland bear; And there'll be no temptation to tarry long there, With our ship bumper full we will homeward repair. Source: Singing Together, Spring 1986, BBC Publications | ||
| Jim Irvine | Posted - 16 Apr 06 - 11:36 pm | |
Good song Dave. I used to sing this many years ago but had almost forgotten it. Can you advise on the following? Looking at the reference in Folktrax I see the following: ROUD#2562 - GREIG-DUNCAN 1 1981 #15 p33 (words only) - SEEGER-McCOLL SI 1960 p63 Lloyd: John Sinclair, Durban, S A 1938 -- I understand most of this except the bit about John Sinclair of Durban - Can you advise? | ||
| Malcolm Douglas |
Posted - 17 Apr 06 - 05:22 am | |
Peter Kennedy's lists are designed for people who already know what they mean. Everybody else should ignore them, or do lots of background reading. They are not always right anyway; but at all events will usually need explaining. I have tried to persuade Joe Offer not to copy-and-paste the things at the Mudcat, because I believe that they confuse more people than they help. The reference is explained in MacColl-Seeger, Singing Island, p 111 (note): 56. Farewell to Tarwathie - Contributed by A L Lloyd, who learned it from John Sinclair, a native of Ballater, in Durban, South Africa, 1938. | ||
| Joe Offer | Posted - 04 May 06 - 07:31 am | |
...but for those of us who have gradually learned to understand the folktrax listings, they're a good basis for further work. Here's the version from Greig-Duncan, Vol 1, p. 33, #15. It's only slightly different from what's above, but the differences are interesting and there's an extra verse. No tune. Farewell to Tarwathie, adieu Mormond Hill, Dear land of my fathers, I bid you farewell; I'm bound for Greenland and ready to sail, In hopes to find riches in hunting the whale. Adieu to my comrades, a while we must part, Likewise the dear girlie, who has won my heart; The cold ice on Greenland my love will not chill, The longer my absence, the stronger love's thrill. Awhile I must leave you and go to the sea, Wish luck to the bonnie ship I'm going wi'. And when I am sailing upon the wide main, Be cheerful and happy till I come again. Our ship she is well rigged, and ready to sail. Our crew they are anxious to follow the whale; Where the icebergs float and the stormy winds blow, Where the land and the ocean is covered with snow. The cold land of Greenland is barren and bare, No seed time or harvest is ever known there; The birds here sing sweetly on mountain and dale, But there's nae a birdie to sing to the whale. There's no habitation for a man to live there, And the king of that country's the fierce Greenland bear; There'll be no temptation to tarry long there, With our ship bumper full we'll homeward repair. singer: John Milne Edited By Joe Offer - 04 May 06 - 07:34 am Joe Offer | ||
| Malcolm Douglas |
Posted - 04 May 06 - 08:45 pm | |
Once you've got around their idiosyncracies then yes, they can be very useful. On a related subject, the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library website goes "live" this weekend (officially; the "under development" site has been accessible for a while) with searchable indexes of some of the library's major MS collections, a selection of Cecil Sharp's photographs of singers he met, and the full Roud Folk Song Index. http://library.efdss.org/ Edited By Malcolm Douglas - 04 May 06 - 08:47 pm | ||
| dmcg | Posted - 04 May 06 - 10:13 pm | |
Excellent news, Malcolm: I've just spent a few minutes browsing it ... but worth a thread of its own, don't you think? | ||
| Jon Freeman | Posted - 02 Oct 07 - 11:30 am | |
Received via "contact us": I have just read the discussion notes on this song Folk Songs and Ballads of Scotland' ISBN That place does exist and the details could surely | ||
| GEST | Posted - 03 Oct 07 - 02:15 am | |
Since Malcolm feels confirmation is not necessary, I'll just remove my post. Edited By GEST - 03 Oct 07 - 10:17 pm GEST Songs Of Newfoundland And Labrador | ||
| Malcolm Douglas |
Posted - 03 Oct 07 - 09:45 am | |
No need for confirmation; this has been common knowledge for the last hundred years, pretty much, though perhaps late 20th century singers of 'folk songs' have often failed to notice that. Gavin Greig noted: 'This song was sent by Mr John Milne, Maud, with a note on its history. It was written, he says, by George Scroggie in the fifties of the last century. Scroggie was married to Mr Milne's aunt, and was at one time miller at Federate in the parish of New Deer ... 'Tarwathie' is a very favourable specimen of Scrobbie's [sic] versifying powers.' April 1908. The editors of the Greig-Duncan Folk Song Collection also provide the following reference: 'cf George Scroggie, The Peasant's Lyre: A Collection of Miscellaneous Poems (Aberdeen, 1857), pp 73-5.' Quite why our anonymous correspondent should have felt it necessary to tell us that Tarwathie is a real place I can't imagine. Of course it is real; just as real as Greenland. | ||
| Jim Irvine | Posted - 05 Oct 07 - 12:50 am | |
It may have been that 'anon' was referring to Fedderate and not to Tarwathie! I have taken a renewed interest in songs from the north-east since I discovered how many of my family were farmers in that area. | ||