From: Faulconess@aol.com
Message-Id: <ea60d4d5.361aadf8@aol.com>
Date: Tue, 6 Oct 1998 19:55:36 EDT
To: minstrel@pbm.com
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Subject: minstrel: Tam Lin
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Ihon,

The original, untainted Northumbrian lyrics?  I would have to really, really
dig for them.  :::blush:::  

If you are familiar with the folk-rock group Fairport Convention (they're
contemporaries of Steeleye Span, and sang the same type of music) they did a
passingly good rendition of the song too.  My problem is, they took a few
creative liberties to modernize it:  changing lyrics like "As fast as she
could hie" to "As fast as go can she"....words like "aboon" to "above", etc.

I used to have the period lyrics handy, when I was taking my Early & Medieval
Lit class in college;  my prof held up that song as a prime example of what
the Northumbrian dialect of Middle English looked and sounded like.  (This is
what was spoken in medieval northern England, and simultaneously in Lowland
Scotland--in the places where they weren't speaking Scots Gaelic, natch!)
It's also the same dialect that "Twa Corbies", "Twa Sisters,"  "Sir Patrick
Spens", and many of our best early, DOCUMENTED English-language ballads were
written in.

The source my prof used was a book of transliterated 14-century manuscripts,
which I believe he had to get through inter-library loan, using two of his
children as collateral.  :) :) :).  The title escapes me, sadly.  But my first
step would be to go to the Web, use a good search engine, and punch a search
phrase like "Ballads Middle English Manuscripts", or something like that.

Better yet, I 'll tell you what;  I have an old college mate who happens to be
pursuing a doctorate in medieval studies, and her thesis is on period ballads.
;)  I will forward your request to her.  I'm sure she has the lyrics, and can
give you several different tunes to sing them to!  (If others are also
interested, I can post her response openly to the list.)

Yours In Service to the Dream,
^v^ Fionna Ni Caisidhe of the Firebrand
House Celestia, GDH, Aethelmearc

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