After all the festivities of Christmas Day are over, what could be better than to run around the village and hunt a tiny little bird with all your neighbours. This special St Stephen's Day episode explores the strange custom of wren hunting in the British Isles. Hang on to your hats, it's going to be a weird one.

Music
Hunt the Wren, a Manx song
Medieval French tune (known to me as 'Dancing Bears' but YMMV)
The Cutty Wren, to the tune of Green Bushes (thanks A. L. Lloyd!)

References
Many thanks go to two websites: Mainly Norfolk and the Ballad Index, for such detailed information about this song.

Other references include:

Mona Melodies: https://www.manxmusic.com/media/History%20photos/MONA%20MELODIES%202020%20full%20transcription.pdf

Charles Barrow (1820) Mona Melodies https://www.manxmusic.com/media/History%20photos/MONA%20MELODIES%202020%20full%20transcription.pdf

A W Moore (1891) The Folklore of the Isle of Man

George Waldron (1744) The History and Description of the Isle of Man

Vallancy, Charles (1770) Collectanea de rebus hibernicis. T. Ewing, Dublin https://archive.org/details/collectaneadere09vallgoog/page/n1/mode/2up

https://mainlynorfolk.info/ian.campbell/songs/thecuttywren.html

John Aubrey’s Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme https://archive.org/details/remainesgentili01aubrgoog

Muller, S. (1996). The Irish Wren Tales and Ritual. To Pay or Not to Pay the Debt of Nature. Béaloideas, 64/65, 131–169. https://doi.org/10.2307/20522463

This little Irish love song has quite a back story. To trace its origins, we have to travel back in time to a very subversive harp festival, dig into the Irish harper tradition and follow the fortunes of some proper characters. There’s a tiff between an Irish and an English poet, a moody watcher on a hillside, and what does Judy Garland have to do with it all?

Find out in our brand new episode!

Music

The Airy Bachelor, tune collected in Donegal by Herbert Hughes

The Coolin, traditional Irish tune

The Pretty Girl tune as arranged by Edward Bunting in A General Collection of the Ancient Music of Ireland, 1796

Dinogad’s Smock, 12th Century Welsh tune

Eleanor Plunkett, Turlough O’Carolan

Judy Garland sings The Pretty Girl in “Little Nellie Kelly” (1940): Judy Garland: A Pretty Girl Milking Her Cow

Percy Grainger’s version of The Pretty Girl: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPpQ4h26lBM

Beethoven, "Sweet Linnet": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Zpz94lzCoE

Song: The Pretty Girl Milking Her Cow / Lament for Owen Roe O’Neill (according to Clannad)

Sources and references

A general collection of the ancient Irish music: containing a variety of admired airs never before published, and also the compositions of Conolan and Carolan. Edward Bunting (1796) https://archive.org/details/generalcollectio00bunt/page/n11/mode/2up

The Song of O'Ruark, Prince of Breffni https://www.musicanet.org/robokopp/eire/thevalle.htm

Thank you to the contributors to the Mudcat Café whose discussions 25 years ago gave me most of the research I needed for this podcast: mudcat.org: Info: Pretty Maid (Girl) Milking a Cow

Thank you to Stones Barn in Cumbria and the Barnstoners who set me on this course and kept me going.

When a Christmas carol is also a folk ballad you know it's not going to be the usual angels/shepherds/kings extravaganza. This one doesn't disappoint, with a lovely garden, a jealous Joseph and a fruit-related miracle.

But, as ever, all is not as it seems. Continuing the theme of weird Christianity from last month's episode, we get to explore medieval mystery plays and alternative gospels, and in 5th Century Syria we discover a scholarly and forthright Mary who doesn't need an angel to fight her battles for her.

Have a wonderful Christmas!

Music
Verse from Jean Richie’s recording of The Cherry Tree Carol, Kentucky

The Cherry Tree Carol, collected by Maud Karpeles and Patrick Shuldham-Shaw from John Partridge of Cinderford, Gloucestershire (Verse 1)

Verse from a Jean Richie version, Kentucky, recorded by Joan Baez

Instrumental: Version arranged by D Gilbert and W Sandys (19th Century)

Benedicamus Domino (Plainsong, anon)

The Cherry Tree Carol, version sung by Shirley Collins, 1959

Orthodox Chant and Ney (flute) from FreeSounds

References

Royston, Pamela L (1982) "The Cherry-Tree Carol": Its sources and analogues https://scholarworks.iu.edu/dspace/bitstream/handle/2022/1762/15(1)%201-16.pdf?sequence=1

https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-topics/post-biblical-period/the-origins-of-the-cherry-tree-carol/

https://d.lib.rochester.edu/teams/text/sugano-n-town-plays-banns-proclamation

https://www.academia.edu/29076122/The_Origins_of_The_Cherry_Tree_Carol_How_a_Christmas_carol_links_the_modern_Middle_East_and_medieval_England

https://dokumen.pub/mary-and-joseph-and-other-dialogue-poems-on-mary-9781593338398-2011007425-1593338392.html

https://mainlynorfolk.info/lloyd/songs/thecherrytreecarol.html

https://www.hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com/Hymns_and_Carols/Notes_On_Carols/cherry_tree_carol-notes.htm

https://balladindex.org/Ballads/C054.html