April 2021 Robin Hood and the Three Squires

 Robin Hood and the Three Squires

I had some brilliant Science Teachers at school, and between them they led me into a career as a Secondary School Science teacher. There were two other teachers who had  a great effect on my life though. Mr. Cary was our Music Teacher. I didn't do music to 'O' Level, but instead was assigned to the 'non-exam group' who had one 40 minute lesson of music every other week. Mr. Cary clearly despaired of teaching us anything complex, so instead each week he gave out books of folk songs and we spent 40 minutes singing those, often with him taking requests for our 'favourites'.

The other teacher was our brilliant English teacher, Mrs. Elliott who taught both English Language and English Literature, my best two subjects at 'O' Level, despite my decision to head Science-wards. For Literature we had to study Robert Graves' book 'English and Scottish Border Ballads' (I held up my dog-eared copy in the story session). Under her tuition I came to love the stories in those ballads, and much later began to connect them with the folk songs and tunes that I was hearing in Folk Clubs in the Sixties and Seventies. If Science has dominated my professional life, Folk song and story-telling have dominated much of the rest of it. So, thank you Mr. Cary, and thank you Mrs. Elliott. I owe you both a lot!

The ballad which I built my story around was 'Robin Hood and the Three Squires', one of the ancient 'Childe Ballads'. The version I sing is remembered from a Cheltenham-based group called the Songwainers who performed locally in the late Sixities and sadly there are no current recordings of them. They had shortened it considerably and used a lot of variations of tune and harmony so that it worked as a 'song'. The words are copied below:

Robin Hood and the Three Squires

There are twelve months in all the year
As I’ve heard many men say
But the merriest month in all the year
It is the month of May

Now Robin Hood was to Nottingham gone
With a link and a down and a day
Until he came to a fair lady
Was a weeping all on the highway
 
What news what news my fair lady,
what news I do thee prey
it’s of my three sons in Nottingham town
today are condemned for to die
         
And what have they done, my fair lady
I prey now come tell unto me
Oh it is for killing the King’s fallow deer
That they are condemned for to die.
 
Now Robin Hood is to Nottingham gone
With a link and a down and a day
Until he met with a simple old beggar
Was a-creeping all on the highway
 
What news what news you simple old beggar
What news I do thee prey
It’s of three squires in Nottingham town,
Today are condemned for to die
 
Come change your apparel with me old beggar
Come change your apparel with mine
Here are twenty pieces of good broad gold
Go feast thy brethren with wine

Then he put on the old beggar’s coat
It was patched both black blue and red
By the truth of my body cried bold Robin Hood
I’ll wear these bags of bread
 
So Robin Hood is to Nottingham gone
With a link and a down and a day
Until he met with the Lord High Sheriff
Was standing all by the highway
 
A boon a boon cried bold Robin Hood
A boon I ask it of thee
That as for the deaths of these three squires
Their hangman I might be
 
Soon granted, granted  the Lord Sheriff said,
soon granted unto thee
and you shall have all their gay clothing
and all of their white money
 
Oh I’ll have none of their gay clothing
And none of their white money,
But three short blasts on my bugle horn
That their souls to heaven might flee
 
He put the horn unto his lips
And blew blasts loud and shrill
And a hundred and ten of bold Robin Hood’s men
Came tripping over the hill
 
Whose men whose men the Lord Sheriff cried
Whose men, whose men are these?
Oh they are mine and none of thine
And they’ve come for the Squires all three
 
They took the gallows from out the town
and set it up in the glen
They’ve hung the Sheriff of Nottingham
And taken their own three men.




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Storytelling

Storytelling: A famous storyteller once said, "There are three things which are necessary to storytelling. One is the story, the second is the story-teller, and the third is an audience  Each of these is equally important and if any one of them is not present and fully engaged, the process will simply not work." Storytelling is a unique art and a unique experience in which you, the listener are every bit as important as the Storyteller or the story. Unlike books, television, cinema or even the Theatre, all of which are wonderful, Storytelling only works properly if someone is listening. This is why at the end of my storytelling sessions I usually leave time for the audience to ask questions about the story and what happened in it. This on-line storytelling session is experimental, partly because I don't think that the technology will easily allow this conversation to take place. I'm sorry about that, but would invite any who has listened to send me an email with any q...
Read more

February 2021 Lambton's Worm

 Lambton's Worm 4th February I come from Newcastle originally, and still visit the magical Northumbrian coast each summer. Being very involved in folk music therefore, it was inevitable that I would become interested in the Northumbrian Smallpipes. My set was made by David Burleigh, now retired but until recently a prolific pipe maker. If you asked him how long it took him to make a set of pipes he would always say, 'well, there are two answers to that, a week, and nine years' What he meant was that he turned out a set of pipes once a week, but each set was nine years in the making due mainly to the need to season the wood at each stage of the process. The tune I played was meant to be 'Brafferton Village' but it morphed into another tune called 'Crawley Dene' without my permission. Brafferton Village was written by Kathyrn Tickell, something of a phenomenon on the instrument. If you want to hear her playing the tune, go to  Brafferton Village/Walsh's Ho...
Read more