February 24th, 2010

WARNING!

IF YOU ARE FIFTEEN OR YOUNGER, THIS POST MAY NOT BE FOR YOUR EYES!

Shoot somewhere else!

Well, it’s time for the big announcement. It is now time to discover what Wren Hunting was really about, and to learn more about what Robin Hood fought! erm, hunted!

Follow up:

We’re going to start with … some Manx traditional dance. Here is what the opinion in Mann was of these dances:

…Certain ritual dances such as Mylcharane’s March, or ‘Cutting off the Fiddler’s Head’, and the Mollag Dance, are still regarded with fear and believed to be magical—’the sort of thing that was a-going a-doing at the old Druids before now,’ as one old lady said []…

What was Mylcharane?

… Possibly this dance should have been placed with the 8-hands, but there are only six actual dancers, the other two ‘characters’ being the fiddler and the ‘Laare Vane’ (White Mare). It is a ritual dance which once used to form part of the New Year ceremonial. Each dancer has two thick sticks, the figures are quick and rather intricate, and at the end the fiddler is ‘killed’ {and} resurrected …[]

Hmm? Well, here’s a little light to throw on the subject. The English & Scottish sword dances were usually performed by 6 dancers, and the Fool/Fiddler was killed at the end. Sometimes there was a Captain to lead the activities. Then the Fool was brought back to life. That is the spine of the Mummer’s Plays, which have since completely degenerated into random fights after which, the slain are miraculously brought back to life!

So, you see here that the English/Scottish/Irish mummer’s plays and/or Sword Dances are based on the same ‘ritual’. This ritual is originally the same as the Manx dance.

The ‘Salmon Leap’. I heard of this dance first as a very difficult and unusual solo dance, then as a figure ending in a dance, and now find it appearing in a curious dance or ceremony performed by the fishermen of Dalby. Characters are the Skipper, the Mate, the Skit (Fool?), and six men. The first three danced a three-handed jig, Skipper and Mate taking the Skit’s hands and forming arches under which he ran. Then all three took each other round waists and led off in a sort of S-shaped procession (moving abreast), with the other six men following in single file, carrying peeled hazel rods in their right hands.

They then formed a circle, and afterwards two files, with the Skipper, Mate and Skit at the top, facing down. The Skit then knelt before the Skipper and Mate, and the other men came up one by one and struck him with their rods. When all had struck him the Skit fell and lay flat on his back, while the men made a ring round him (on the ground?) with their rods, danced round him, and then stood back. During all this the Skipper and Mate stood in place at the top.

The Skit then leapt upright and out over the ring of rods in one movement (the actual Salmon Leap), and danced another three-handed jig with the Skipper and Mate, while the other men bowed to them. At the end the Skipper and Mate lifted the Skit on their locked arms to shoulder level and carried him off and aboard the ship, the rest of the men following, shouting and stamping. I am inclined to think this dance virtually the same as

The ‘Mollag Dance’, which belongs to Castletown, and was also formerly danced by fishermen, though later by men of the town. Here ‘mollags’ (inflated dog-skin bouys), slung, on ropes, were used to chase one dancer and imprison him, and although I have not got nearly such a complete description, certain features of the dance suggest the above. Both dances seem to have inspired great terror in all except those actually taking part in them.

In the Mollag dance,

… they danced round in a circle with a peculiar spiral action of the body, without joining hands, and every now and then they all leapt up together and shouted.

So the shouting & stamping is the same between the Salmon Leap & the Mollag Dance. I would like to point out that stamping the ground during circular dancing is encountered in Arcanul Batrinesk, a Hungarian/Romanian dance which may be related to ‘morris dances’ from more Northern Europe in which the dancer’s faces are blackened with soot & antlers may be worn. This in turn is similar to the English Abbott’s Bromley Horn Dance, which has six dancers who, guess what, wear horns.

Now,
some more about the Salmon Leap dance:

‘It involves characters known as the King, the Queen, and the Skit (Fool?), and a circle of masked male dancers called the Priests, who carry wands of rowan and/or elder wood with which they strike the Skit as he lies on his back within the circle, after which he has to leap upright and out over the linked wands (this is the ‘Salmon Leap’ which gives its name to the dance), and perform a special dance with the King and Queen. The names of these characters are also sometimes given to the stones of the {Ards Stone Circle in Maughold}’

What the heck is the deal with the sticks and what the heck is GOING ON?!

Let’s erm put it this way; sticks were ’symbols’ in the Ancient World, just about everywhere and certainly in Europe. (witness Maypoles)

For instance, here is a passage from Herodotus:

“Their custom is for each man to have many wives, and they make their intercourse with them common in nearly the same manner as the Massagetai, that is they set up a staff in front of the door and so have intercourse.”

Poles in front of doors; sounds a bit like Cornish Maypole planting. What’s going on here with the sticks and the man being struck, forced to kneel and being laid on the ground should be obvious. {Homosexual Abuse}

Very striking is that the six dancers, who perhaps once would have worn horns, are called Priests. {Pagan Priests} It’s possible that the role of modern pimps, which comes directly from medieval Europe & the beggar & thief & prostitute community, may have been related to the role of the Pagan Priests. So, I’m calling them Priestly Pimps, if that pleases you.

Unfortunately, this ritual ceremony has words, and even worse, the words indicate a strong British tradition in which the abused man is identified as Little Man John, Little John Man, or Jack boy. Er {Little John} Long ago I figured out that Little John was also called Jacky, Jockey, Sawney etc but it didn’t occur to me what was actually occurring in this folk drama. Partially, that was because all the important parts were evenly distributed throughout the extensive play archives, and were so degenerated that one could just possibly turn a blind eye, taking each play separately. Amass them and sort them; the evidence is strong.

So I’ve sorted them out & reconstructed, from various ballads,* riddling rhymes of Robin Hood, songs & 3 Robin Hood plays—what can ONLY be described as Robin Hood finding Little John after the dirty deed, taking Little John with him, & actually KILLING the main Priest in charge.



And this is the symbolism of the Wren Hunt; birds, any birds, were thought of as symbols of the Sun & thence, fertility. (Post on this coming later) There was actually a part in the fight with the Priest in which Little John shoots him ‘through and through’ I couldn’t fit it into the play because I ran out of time but understand it happened. So now, I hope you see why the first wren-hunt song was Robin & Little John burying someone in the woods …

*Friar Tuck’s fight with Robin, the rose-garland wearing Potter’s fight with Robin after Robin meets his boy Jack, Sir Guy’s fight with Robin, and the Bloody Butcher’s fight with Robin. All of these are very interesting & some have been mutilated by having the pages torn off either at the part of Robin Hood getting angry, or his dangerous fight. And the ‘fight’ is definitely at the Summer Solstice, May Day, etc.

Guy of Gisbourne is not the person you might expect. He is described in the ballad Robin Hood & Guy of Guisborne as being a ‘wight’, i.e., strong, yeoman, and also he is clad in a horse hide, ‘top, tail, & mane.’, not a normal garb by any means. Some of the lines used before Robin & Little John meet him & Robin’s fight with him are parallel to sections in other ballads, leading to the conclusion that this person is not a fixed entity. Robin, for instance, kills 3 different people with practically the same words: Red Roger, The Sheriff, & Sir Guy. When he kills the Sheriff, he’s rescuing somebody; when he kills Red Roger & Guy, the parts immediately preceding it have to do with him & Little John going off into the woods and quarreling over something, (originally Robin’s safety & not archery as in this ballad) an idea which is also found in Robin Hood & the Talking of the Monk, one of the earliest ballads anywhere!

And neither is the ‘Friar’ what you might expect. So very far from the fat Tuck we think of, he’s described in his ballad thus …

A pair of black breeches the yeoman had on,
His cap all shone of steel,
A fair sword and a broad buckeler
Beseemed him very weell.

As compared to the description of Guy …

There were they [a]ware of [a] wight yeoman,
His body leaned to a tree.
A sword and a dagger he wore by his side,
Had been many a man’s bane,
And he was clad in his capull-hide,
Top, and tail, and mane.

Suffice it to say that Robin’s determination, (in the Friar/Potter/Butcher versions), to fight the opposing party, is highly suspect as being 1 with the Guisbourne genre. Everything is always, as I said before, set around Midsummer’s Eve, Robin & Little John ‘to the greenwood are gone’, (this is getting into medieval tune names aagh) & according to the songs, there, in the forest, as they look along the high-way they are ‘aware of’ … {variously}

‘Two black monks’
‘A wight yeoman’
‘Two priests clad all in black’
‘The Friar’ (who is also called a ‘yeoman’!)
A Monk and a little ‘page’ (originally Little John?)
A brave young man
A proud Butcher
A proud Potter

Conclusion? Robin Hood ballads were hovering over the same core legend and borrowing from the same sources. And Guy of Guisbourne is whichever of the above you please, although a horned pagan ‘Friar’ and in horse hide, and completely sinister, will probably be best …!

Horns, remember? In ‘riddling rhyme of Robin Hood’, from the Play the Four Elements, these lines occur (remember our priest is a wren):

He stroke the wren below the horns
That fire sprang out of the pig’s tail

‘Tail’ is a piece of medieval innuendo btw.

None of the lines in the play is fabricated, though in the Robin Hood section a few are transposed to actual talking lines from mostly descriptive ballads. All occur in some place, and are in similar stories from the engrained myth of Robin Hood. They have only been reasonably brought together in the most fitting way to display the medieval innuendo. Throughout, I provide links to the various sources they come from; I haven’t finished linking all of them yet, but they’re all from British oral literature as documented. I am sorry for gaps that may occur in the links; it is simply due to the confusing mass of this project and forgetting from whence you copied what!

Last note: Daggers, staves, swords & noses are one piece of innuendo, and bows, purses or pots are the opposing.

I am titling this:

The Playe of Littil Iohn & Robin Hode, not at al fitting to be plaied durrring the Unmery Monthe of Maye*

*Here’s a clue verse and a half, from Robin Hood’s fight with the Cutted Friar: (Friars were btw considered rather fertile in Old English songery)

But how many merry monthes be in the yeere?
There are thirteen in May.
The midsummer moone is the merryest of all,
Next to the merry month of May.

In May, when mayds beene fast weepand,
Young men their hands done wringe,

(MS torn off)
Begins again:

I’le … pe (sleepe? deepe?) ….
Over may noe man for villanie
I’le never eate nor drink, Robin Hood said,
Till I that cutted friar see.

Repeat:

The Playe of Littil Iohn & Robin Hode

{Enter Little John}

Here comes I, Little Man John,
If any man’ll fend I lets ‘im come on.
Whether I rise or whether I fall
I am the best amongst you all.
So room! Room! Listen what I say.
My name is Little John!
And I’ve come to clear the way!
Our king stands waiting at the door
He swears and tears he will come in
With his sword and buckler by his side
I fears he will pierce my skin.
If our King has his will,
His glittering sword will soon me kill.
How can I be merry and free
When bone of my arm is out of place,
And he maun put his nose where my bone should be?
If he comes and meets me here,
He’ll put his spear in through my ear,
He shall bind me in his belt
He will lay me down upon the ground
And thrash me like a whelp.
He will make my bones like mice bones,
Like the bones of little rats.
For a Fool I know I am
Indeed and so do you.
For fools and little children
For most parts speaks true.
I know he is no fool; he is some stout,
Why he will do more by one inch of candle
Than I can perform while ten pound burn out.

{The King, bursting in with all his men}

Here comes I, Sir Guy!
And here I have a dagger.
What man can stand
Under my deadly hand?
I am a King of high renown,
I’d be sorry to be offended
With a saucy ragged clown.

Jack

Guy

Jack

Stabbing is the least I fear.

Guy

{Jack, pointing across imaginary stream}

I’ll cross the water, the hour of five!
And I’ll meet you there, dead or alive!

Guy

Hold on, Hold on, Little John,
Thou talkest very bold,
Be your blood ever so hot
Thee knows not what man thee’s got
And I shall quickly make it cold.
Me myself and seven more
Fought and killed eleven score.
Eleven score of well armed men
That’ll never rise to fight again.
Many such battles I’ve been in.
In less than three rounds with me
I’ll bring thee to thy bended knee
And fetch off thy head.

Jack

Hoop, Scoop, thou lie
I care not if I die
So stand off master
And let nothing more be said!
For if you talk again
My sword shall break thy head!

Guy

How canst thou break my head
Since it is clothed wi’ steel
My back* is made of huckle bone [could be ‘breeches are’]
No man can make me yield.

Jack

Here I walk and here I stand,
Here I take my sword in hand.
Take out your sword and try.

Guy, taking out his sword and gripping the point of Jack’s.

I will conquer and you must die.
Take out your pot and play.
I’ll ram my dagger through your heart
And make you die away.
For I will punch you to the ground,
Where I mean to lay your body down.

Jack, gripping Guy’s sword

You shall find me ready, too!

Guy

And who but I so well as you.

Jack

Mind your hits and guard your blows,
Or off comes your great ugly nose

King Guy fighting Jackboy

Hollo, Jack, you blocked up your master’s eyes last night,
and now thou art fighting him upon this holy ground.

Jack

I live in hope, I will buy a pound of leather
And nail a dog’s tail and your nose together.

Guy

Thou silly ass, I put my nose where the tail should be?

Jack

Nay I thee defy thou lord of pole
Thy nose standeth like a maypole tree.

Guy

A maypole tree, you saucy rogue!
My sword is made of the metal free.
If you would like to taste of it,
I’ll give it unto thee.

Jack

Stand off, stand off, you dirty dog!
Or by my sword you’ll dee*. [die]

Guy, wounding Jack in the leg

Down Jack, down to the ground you must go.
Now you are dead and in your gore
You will never rise to fight me more.

Jack on the ground

You dirty dog, you are mista’en!
I’m a little hurt, but I am not slain!
I will lay me down and bleed awhile,
Then I’ll rise and fight with you again!

Guy

To fight wi’ me you are not able
You with my sword I will dishevel
I’ll fill thy body full of holes
And make thy buttocks fly.

Jack

Out alas! Cruel man, what hast thou done!

Guy

Why should I not thee kill
My honor to maintain?
If you could do so, I’m sure you’d do the same.

Jack

I tell you what I’d do!
If once on my two legs I stood,
I’d fight you up to the knees in blood!

Guy

On the ground thou lie, and the truth I’ll tell to thee,
If thou dost rise again then thy butcher I will be.

{Exeunt all save Jack}

Jack

Fie, fie, I am slain!
On the floor my body’s lain!
Is there a doctor to be found
To raise me up from the ground?

Robin Hood, bursting in with all his merry men at his back.

How now, how now! Here I am!
What’s thy will with me?

{Jack, rolling over and complaining}

O horrible, how horrible,
The like was never seen,
Or never done before!
A man knocked out of seven senses, into seventeen,
And out of seventeen, into four score!
Not by bucks, nor yet by bears,
One of the devil’s whirligigs blowed* me up in the air.

{Standing over him concernedly}
Robin

Jack boy, is thy bow i broke? Or hath any man done thee wriguldy wrag?

{Little John, looking up at Robin}

Oh help oh help thou doctor neat and good
For God’s love help thou me and staunch my blood.

Robin

Well I can cure the itch, the stitch,
the palsy and the gout,
If the Old Man’s in, I can quickly fetch’m out.

{Robin inspecting him}

Let me see, are thy pots whole and sound?

{pulls out bottle}

I have a small bottle in my breek pouch full of Inky-Pinky.*
Here Jack, take a little nip *[’small’ liquor]
To the huckle bone of thy hip.
and a little to thy nose
And here’s a little to thy bum.

Jack

Robin

Jack

There’s a hole in’t you may turn your neive ten times round in it!

a’ the loons save ane, but he ran, and wadna stand.

Jack

Art thou Robin Hood?

Robin

And seven years been in the wood.

Robin Hood

Now, listen, Jack boy, what man hath your bow brake???

Jack

Well hearken to me you merry men all
Of an adventure I shall you tell.
I met with a friar the sooth to say,
He is actually not yet three miles
Passed along that way.
Me thought he took my bow me fro
Which does my heart much woe.
For there were stripes two or three;
I cannot tell who had the worse,
Lightly leapt the friar me within
And fro me he took my purse.
Not for twenty pounds of gold so red
I wager you shan’t break his head.

{Robin, heatedly arising}

If I be Robin alive in this land,
To the greenwood we tow* shall go, [two]
And before I’ll ever eat nor drink
I trust to work him woe!

Jack

O nae, o nae, by my fay* [faith]
Robin Hood that may not be!
Without half a hundred of thy wicht bowmen
You take to go with ye.
For that wicht* yeoman [strong]
well can a strong bow draw
He’ll beat thee and thy merry men all
Set them on a raw.* [row]

{In passion}

Robin

To hear a man is but to hear him speak,
And, if it were not for the bursting of your bow John,
I would your head break!
Thee may stay here if thee be ‘fraid!

Jack

Jack

No in sooth, master.

{Wilkin, coming forward}

What is your name, poor fellow?

Jack

In my own country, at home, men calls me Little John Reynold Greenleaf and also they sometimes calls me Mildner. Don’t you know me?

{Robin, stomping on Will’s boot}

How sayest thou, Jack boy, wilt thou be my man?
To do me the best service that thou can?
I will thee give gold and fee
If that thou will dwell with me,
And also here is a good horse, and a wight at that.

Jack

Now so God me help, and by my true lewty*! [loyalty]
I will be the best friend
That ever yet had ye!

Robin

Thou shalt dwell with me
All this twelve months and more
I shall thee teach an outlaw to be
Under the green wood hore*. [ancient]

{Robin Hood, pulling Little John up by the hand}

Arise, arise, bold fellow,
I long to see thee stand,
Open your eyes and look about,
I will take you by the hand.

{He starts to his feet moaning and holding the lumbar regions of his back.}

{Robin, being of assistance}

Busk thee and make thee boon’ [bound]
Cast off thy coat of grey,
thy kirtle, thy hoze and shoon.
Lay it by upon a stane—
Lap thyself well in this green mantle
Put on a claithing* of green. [clothes]
And here is a bent bow,
Made all of a trusty tree
And take thee arrows in thy hand
Thirty good arrows and three …
And stiffly by me stand
Ready for to fight!
For be the knave never so stout
I will rap him on the snout
And put him to flight!

{Robin, setting off}

Follow after and I’ll thee do no villainy.
For I will never eat nor drink
Till that cruel priest I see!!

{after a while}

Now stay here, in the ferns, Jack,
until you hear my horn blow.
Come then at a braed.* [quickly]

{Guy strays in}

{Robin, seizing Guy by the gullet.}

I bid thee stand full still!
Or else I can thee kill!

Guy

Stand off! Stand off!
Fellow, what is thy will?

Robin

This seven year, cruel priest,
Nae yede I* this fast on foot. [came I not]
I make mine avow to God, priest, it is nat for thy good.

Guy

If ye be better man than I,
Thy servant will I be.
But if I be better man than ye—
Knave shalt thou surely be!
And I will give thee buffets three!

Robin

It shall soon be tried whether is the better man then, priest.
Thou’st not better deal buffets
For I have but to blow my horn
And I have someone else that will join me.

Guy

Blow on, blow on, fine fellow, without any doubt!
I hope that thou give such a blow till both thine eyes start out!

{Little John dashes in}

{Guy in confusion}

Whose man art thou, then? that is come to prate with me?

Little John

Friar, I will not lee*; I am bold Robin Hood’s man. [lee—lie]
I had leiver* meet with the devil of hell [leiver—rather]
Friar the sooth* as I thee tell [sooth—truth]
Than meet with you
In a morning, or I drink.

Guy

Get thee gone, saucy Jack!
If thou make many words
I will give thee on the ear!

Robin

Hark, priest what I shall say;
Over this water thou shalt me bear.
The bridge is born away.

{getting up on Guy’s back}

Guy

Well upon a priest’s back and have even in.

Robin

Nay!
Have over.

Guy

Now am I, Guy, without,
And thou, Robin, within,
To lay thee here I have no great doubt …

{Throws Robin over, splash}

Now art thou, Robin, without, and I, Guy, within,
Lie there, knave!

{Guy, laughing}

Choose thee, choose thee, fine fellow,
Whether thou wilt sink or swim!

{Robin, rising in spluttering wrath}

Evil mot* thou thrive! i would betray no lad alive! [may]
Thou lousy friar, what hast thou doon*? [done]

Guy

But set a knave over the shoon*. [shoes]

{Robin, drawing his bow at Guy}

Therefore shalt thou die!

Guy

If thou beest a good fellow, as men do thee call,
Lay away thy bow!
And take thy sword and buckler* in thy hand [small round shield]
And see what shall befall.

Robin

A fall and a fall thou shalt receive of me

Robin

As long’s the sword that hangs by my side {emended fr/Jock the Leg}
I’ll fight unto the death before one foot I’ll flee.

Guy

I draw my brown brand

{Robin out with sword sharply}

And I take another in hand.

Guy

I turn me round about,
Thou hast a little wild blood in thy head goodfellow,
thou’st have it letten out.

Robin

He that does that deed
I’ll count him for a man;
But that while that I will
draw my sword
And fend it if I can.

Guy

Shake my hand, before you dee*. [die]

Robin

No I come to fight most desperately.

Guy

It’s nae eleven on the bell

Robin

We’ll do ill deeds anew ere night
Though it were strucken twel’.
Little John! where art thou?

Little John

Here master, I make God avow,
I told you, master, so God me save,
That you should find Sir Guy a knave!

{Fight}

Guy

O pardon me, pardon me,
And I will be thy slave!

Little John

Cut off his head, master,
And throw him into his grave!

Robin

Now I have the mastery here,
Off I smite this sorry swere* [man]
And in my hand his head will bear.
And now Little John,
I have the head, so you have the feet,
And we’ll bury him into the ground.

* ‘blowed me’ — here is, from the ‘New Dictionary of the Canting Crew in its several tribes of Gypsies, Beggers, Thieves, Cheats &c.,’, circa 1699 AD, England, a few definitions of the word ‘blow’—

Blow-er, a Mistress, also a Whore.
Blowing, the same.
Blow-off-on-the-grounsills, to lie with a Woman on the Floor or Stairs.

To blow, therefore, means to have sex with. Everything perfectly clear? I wonder what ‘whirligig’ means … another Scottish euphemism, perhaps?

Apparently Robin fought … [[homo]sexual abuse]

Smiles from Sherwood!

Adele : ) : ) : )