Hal-an-Tow - Traditional English spring folk song (based on Watersons ver. - see description below)

Right, so this is NOT the Hal-an-Tow as sung at annual May celebrations in Helston, Cornwall. This Hal-an-Tow is the Hal-an-Tow as sung by The Watersons and other folk revivalists, based on the Helston Hal-an-Tow and with some similarities but definitely NOT the Hal-an-Tow as sung in Helston.

I've based my version on a recording by the above mentioned group The Watersons (definitely have a listen to their version - it's proper good) and, after doing a fair bit of research on this song, I'm more or less sure that the first verse sung here ("Since man was first created...") was actually written by Mike Waterson. The second verse ("Take the scorn..." ) seems to be lifted from Shakespeare's 'As You Like It' (Act 4, Scene 2) and in my digging around I found a fascinating (if you're into that kind of thing) theory about how Shakespeare ended up sneaking into the middle of this song as sung by folk revivalists - here's a link: https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2017/0...

The third verse ("Robin Hood and Little John...") I heard elsewhere (and included because who doesn't like a bit of Robin Hood?) but it does seem to be closer in words to the traditional Helston Hal-an-Tow. The fourth verse is also sung by The Watersons and is the only verse I've heard them sing that has similar words to the Helston version. There's a huge amount of discussion about all of this online - it goes back at least 20 years, so be careful - here's another link: https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadi...

Thanks to Sophie for her lovely vocal accompaniment!

#EnglishFolkSong #FolkMusic #SpringCelebration


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