Songs and Stories for Halloween and Samhain

In northern European countries everybody traditionally had a festival at the end of October that dealt with the slaughter of animals at a time when the vegetation was dying and there wouldn't be enough food for them anyway. The slaughter of livestock at this time of year made people sad and so they remember the cows that went before and also the people that they used to know. That's why Halloween is a bit gruesome, but it's also a time of feasting and merriment since there is a lot of food.. In Scandinavia, Baltic and Slavic countries it was customary to have a festival and people also went to the cemetery to visit the graves of their dead family members. Often a candle or an oil lamp is left burning at the grave site, and some food or drink may be left for them (in Russia the dead are likely to get a shot of vodka). But for gorey good fun, you have to go to the Celts and the English.

When I was child, we used to sing endless rounds of "Great big gobs of gushy gooey gopher guts..." when we went trick or treating. But I was interested in whether there might be any traditional songs or stories that might have been told at this time of year. This collection of songs for Halloween and Samhain is based on the pagan myth that tells about how the first cow was dismembered by the first man, and the world was created from its body. But whether they actually fit with pagan religion or not these songs and stories all have a certain spooky, ethereal or exotic quality that we associate with Halloween and Samhain and they are almost all very beautiful.

1. The Story of St. Romain and the Gargoyle
This story is a French saint's tale, and explains why there are gargoyles on the walls of northern French cathedrals, although this was surely based on a late Gallic pagan tradition of hanging bucrania (cow skulls) on the walls of the sanctuary. The festival of St. Romain and the Gargoyle was celebrated on May 1st, but the actual feast day of St. Romain is set to Oct. 23, which is close to Samhain so this story can probably be told at this time. Certainly the subject matter is appropriate.

The story of the First Gargoyle tells that a dragon lived in the marsh near the city of Rouen in France. Every day it either ate the mariners or it caused flooding of the river Seine. St. Romain came and made the dragon stop by making the sign of the cross at it with his two index fingers. He was then able to lead it back to town on a rope. Then the poor dragon was killed and its body was burned, but since the head and neck wouldn't burn (because they were used to fire), they were hung up on the side of the cathedral. This was the beginning of gargoyles, which are still used on churches to throw water away from the walls, but now have a purely decorative use on many government buildings in the United States. Whatever the origin or purpose of "gargoyles," it's fun to walk around town and look for the various animal and human heads affixed near the tops of major buildings. The university library in this town has a bunch of human heads around the top of the outside walls, and there are rams heads hanging above the coffee shop. The description of the festival is given in the The Golden Bough, Vol 2, pp. 165-170 and elsewhere. Unfortunately, there's no recording of this story, so you will have to tell it yourself.

Samhain is the name of the Celtic holiday celebrated at the time of the fall animal slaughter and it retains songs and traditions of the ancient pagan festival. I found many of these songs by signing onto my MySpace page and searching for them. You can add them to your own playlist, without having to pay for them, until you decide whether you really like them.

2. Souling Songs
Souling is a folk custom which continues in some areas of England on Samhain, the night of October 31. Children go about in groups and sing Souling Songs and beg for treats, very similar to American Halloween. The traditional request was for Soul Cakes, apparently a kind of cookie made from roasted caramelized sprouted barley. There are many versions of the Souling Songs recorded, including those by John Langstaff, on the Jackfish CD; by the Watersons on the Frost and Fire CD; on A Child's Christmas Revels CD, where it is sung by a children's chorus; and by Linda Adams and Stuart Owen on the Seasons and Ceremonies CD. My favorite version is the Souling Song by the Watersons because I like the entire Frost and Fire CD.

All the versions I could find on the net have the same words (which begin "A soul, a soul, a soul-cake!") but there are better, more traditional words for this song also, such as these:

Soul! Soul! for an apple or two;
If you've got no apple, pears will do,
Soul! Soul! for your soul's sake,
Pray good mistress, a Soul Cake!

An apple, or pear, a plum or a cherry,
Or any good thing to make us all merry.
St. Peter was a good old man,
And so for his sake, give us one.

None of your worst, but one of your best,
So God may send your souls to rest.
Up with your kettles, and down with your pans,
Give us a Soul Cake and we'll be gone!

3. There is a second Soul Cake Song, which begins "We are one, two, three hearty good lads...." which has been recorded by the Watersons on the Voices of Harmony: English Traditional Songs CD. There is a free MP3 of this song by the Antrobus Soulcakers, recorded by Alan Lomax and available on the Alan Lomax page on the Music Portal webpage. You need to scroll down the page to Folksongs of Britain, Vol. 9, Songs of Christmas, and then you can download an MP3 for free. The song is used in the Cheshire (Rudheath) Souling Play which is next.

4. Souling Plays
Yes, there are entire written plays for celebrating this festival. Back in the 1800's the Soulers or Soul-Cakers were adults and they would go from house to house and perform Souling Plays, and these were written down by early collectors. Some people still do this, some by tradition, and some, such as the Paperbag Mummers in Arlington, Massachusetts as a revival. Of course the grownups would ask for beer and money, not cookies; some don't ask for anything. The practice of Souling is thought to bring good luck to all the houses that are visited. Some versions of the Souling plays have a "Horse" which is actually a horse's skull on a broom handle, manipulated by someone referred to as the "Driver" played by an actual human being. Usually the Driver speaks for the Horse, with a speech that introduces the Horse, here called "Dick":

"In comes Dick and all his men,
He's come to see you once again.
Was once alive and now he's dead,
And nothing but a poor old horse's head!"

Although this play is in English, the use of a horse in this context may show Celtic influence. Aside from the Horse, Souling Plays include the same elements as most English folkplays, a fight between two famous warriors in which one is killed, and then revived by a Quack Doctor, with much silly slapstick humor and jokes. Souling Plays include the Guilden Sutton Play and the Rudheath (Cheshire) Souling Play, named for the geographic areas of England where they were first collected by folklorists in the 1800 and 1900's. There are many such folk plays which for some reason the English refer to as Mummer's plays. Many English folk plays, some with music, are given on the website: Folkplays. The entire script for a souling play, including the words and music for the introductory song is given here: Rudheath (Cheshire) Souling Play.

Modern Samhain Songs
There are several good modern songs for Samhain that you might like.

5. All Soul's Night by Loreena McKennitt, on The Visit CD, is available to buy through the Loreena McKennitt official page. But I found an excellent version of this song on YouTube at All Soul's Night music . And there is another version where you could watch people playing an oude and a hurdy-gurdy. This is a professional quality video (not somebody's cell phone), so I'm not sure why it's on YouTube for free, but the sound quality is excellent.

6. Samain, by Steeleye Span, on the They Called Him Babylon CD. The Last FM domain has this MP3.

7. Samain, by Beltaine on the Bohemian Winter CD is a death metal song in which they are ranting about something. What's Halloween without a little death metal? This can be downloaded from their web site at Beltaine's website or from the Last FM domain if you can find it. Search for (Czech) Beltaine if you need to.

8. All Hallows Eve by Wiccan Ways on the Other Side of Midnight CD, has music that sounds both foreboding and beautiful, but the words are rather sweet if you listen to them. This is Wicca, but the practice fits fairly closely with the Indo-European tradition. I only found this on other people's MySpace playlists, because Wiccan Ways doesn't seem to have a domain of their own. Anyone that likes Beltaine might not like Wiccan Ways, but I like both of them.

Halloween
Halloween is the name of the holiday in English and it was apparently influenced by the Celts in England. This tradition was picked up in the United States. Halloween is a lot more fun than the tradition in a lot of European countries, however, masking and giant parties for adults at this time of year have become popular everywhere now.

9. The Myth of Ymir
Myths are often recited or sung especially at the appropriate festivals because this is considered by the Indo-Europeans to be a way to praise and honor the gods, which is expected to make them happy. The Story of Ymir, the ancient myth of Creation from the First Cow, is told in Old Norse in the Grimnismal 40-41, in the Elder Edda. No seasonal date is connected to this, but since it seems to represent the Indo-European take on the slaughter of cattle at the close of the summer season, it might be told now. The English translation of this is given in the Yama article, as well as an explanation for the forms of this myth in various Indo-European languages. I tried to find a reading of the Old Norse original. Here is the text in case you want to read it yourself:

Ór Ymis holdi
var iorþ um scapvð,
enn or sveita sær,
biorg or beinom,
baðmr or hári,
en or hasi himinn.

Enn or hans brám
gerðo blið regin
Miðgard manna sonom;
enn or hans heila
varo þa in harðmoðgo
scy all um scapvþ.

There is a musical setting of the Elder Edda composed by Jón Leifs. The CD is called Edda-Part 1, Sköpun heimsins (The Creation of the World), and the section for Ymir is sung by Gunnar Gudbjornsson, with the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra. They want you to buy the whole CD, but I did find some free recordings of it on MySpace pages. If you like the music in the Lord of the Rings movie, you will certainly like this. It's very powerful sounding.

English Ballads and Metrical Romances
Other songs in English are less obviously related to the myth of Ymir. Some are ballads where one of the protagonists is named Grim, or Graham, and usually somebody gets dismembered. Some of these texts are in very archaic English and might be too long to sing, but they still might be fun to read in the dark, as long as you can find a flashlight or a candle. They function a bit like ghost stories, with or without music.

10. Sir Cawline
This is a great song but I could not find a single recording of it. The words and music are published on Digital Tradition. This song is known from several sources including Child's Ballads, #61, with the music given from Bronson. In this version, Sir Cawline has to go to Orlange Hill in the middle of the night in the dark of the moon, but in some versions Orlange Hill is called Eldritch Hill. Whoo-o-o-o!!!

11. Grim King of the Ghosts
This song was originally published in 1729 in John Gay's Beggar's Opera. It's actually an old vaudeville song about a guy who is so in love that he wants to die, but ignore that and it's great for Halloween. A version of it is beautifully performed by Quodlings Delight on the Heere Beginneth the Knights Tale CD. This is only available on their site which is actually a MySpace page and you can listen to their song on the Quodlings Delight page.

Here are some of the verses (the ones I liked best).

Grim king of the ghosts, make haste,
And bring hither all your train;
See how the pale moon does waste,
And just now is in the wane.
Come you night-hags, with all your charms,
And revelling witches away,
And hug me close in your arms;
To you my respects I'll pay.

I'll court you and think you fair,
Since love does distract my brain:
I'll go, I'll wed the night-mare,
And kiss her, and kiss her again:
But if she prove peevish and proud,
Then, a pise on her love! let her go!
I'll seek me a winding shroud,
And down to the shades below.

When thus I have raved awhile,
And wearied myself in vain,
I lie on the barren soil,
and bitterly do complain.
Till slumber hath quieted me,
In sorrow I sigh and weep;
The clouds are my canopy
To cover me while I sleep.

Grim king of the ghosts, be true,
And hurry me hence away,
My languishing life to you
A tribute I freely pay.
To the Elysian shades I post
In hopes to be freed from care,
Where many a bleeding ghost
Is hovering in the air.

12. The Erl-King
These poems in various Germanic languages are delightfully spooky. The concept of a soul-stealing Erl-King seems to be borrowed into a Germanic language (Danish) at first from a Mongolian original where the name Erlik Khan is a name of the King of the Dead, seen as corresponding to Yama in Mahayana Buddhism. From the Danish poem it was picked up by Goethe and became a favorite romantic subject, with a setting by Franz Schubert (Erl-koenig, D. 328). There is a copy of this on Franz Schubert page . There are several versions of this on this site, but it doesn't say who is singing (in German) or who is playing the piano. Also if you can't find this song on the net, you can surely borrow a copy of a CD of Schubert music from your local public library. I found it in the juvenile section.

The piano on this is a bit clunky (I'm not Schubert's biggest fan), although it actually represents the sound of the horse running through the woods. But if that's all too much for you, you can just read, preferably by candlelight, the English poem on the same subject by Sir Walter Scott. This makes a great ghost story.

The Erl-King by Sir Walter Scott, (1731-1832)

O who rides by night through the woodland so wild?
It is the fond father embracing his child;
And close the boy nestles within his loved arm,
To hold himself fast, and to keep himself warm.

"O father, see yonder! see yonder!" he says;
"My boy, upon what dost thou fearfully gaze?"
"O, 'tis the Erl-King with his crown and his shroud!"
"No, my son, it is but a dark wreath of the cloud."

The Erl-King speaks
"O come and go with me, thou loveliest child.
By many a gay sport shall thy time be beguiled;
My mother keeps for thee many a fair toy,
And many a fine flower shall she pluck for my boy."

"O father, my father, and did you not hear
The Erl-King whisper so low in my ear?"
"Be still, my heart's darling--my child, be at ease;
It was but the wild blast as it sang though the trees."

The Erl-King speaks
"O wilt thou go with me, thou loveliest boy?
My daughter shall tend thee with care and with joy:
She shall bear thee so lightly through wet and through wild,
And press thee, and kiss thee, and sing to my child."

"O father, my father, and saw you not plain
The Earl-King's pale daughter glide past through the rain?"
"Oh yes, my loved treasure, I knew it full soon;
It was the grey willow that danced to the moon."

The Erl-King speaks
"O come and go with me, no longer delay,
Or else, silly child, I will drag thee away."
"O father! O father! now, now, keep your hold,
The Erl-King has seized me--his grasp is so cold!"

Sore trembled the father; he spurr'd through the wild,
Clasping close to his bosom his shuddering child.
He reaches his dwelling in doubt and in dread,
But, clasp'd to his bosom the infant was dead.

Songs of Tam Linn, Thomas the Rhymer and Orpheus are included here. These songs and stories may be borrowed (Orpheus certainly is) and they have no obvious connection to the Anglo-Saxon name Grim, but they have eerie themes such as abduction by Kings and Queens of Faerie and travel to an Other World. Some of the ballads include an explicit statement that the events in the songs took place at All Hallow's Eve.

13. Tam Lin
A number of versions of this ballad are known from various sources, among them Child Ballad #39; with the music given from #39, p. 327 vol. I in Bronson. There is a good recording of it sung by Sandy Denny with Fairport Convention on the Liege and Lief CD, which can be found at Tam Lin.

14. Thomas the Rhymer
There are several versions of this ballad too, including a version from the Child Ballads. A recording (with some rather heavy handed electric guitar) is available from Steeleye Span on the Now We are Six CD. A lighter version is on the Lark in the Morning CD and can be found here: Thomas the Rhymer

Versions of Eurydice and Orpheus
This story is obviously based on the well-known Greek god or hero Orpheus, in which his wife Eurydice dies, or is abducted by Pluto and Orpheus must negotiate with the gods for her return. The story was borrowed into English as early as the 1300's. The Greek original is altered to fit with English culture (possibly with Welsh influence). One of the earliest versions is the metrical romance Sir Orfeo by the author of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight which is too long to perform, although the BBC made a film of it.

15. King Orfeo
This is a great ballad and adapted to medieval English culture with Pluto turned into the King of Faerie. At least one version was collected in the Shetland Islands. The words are given in the Child Ballads #19; with the music in Bronson #19, p. 275, Vol. 1. This has the very old-fashioned type of intertwined chorus where the second and fourth line of each verse are actually taglines. When Eurydice is abducted, it is reported to King Orfeo that:
The King of Fairies with his dart,
green the wood grows early
has pierced your lady to her heart!
where the hart runs yearly.

There are so many great recordings of this, I couldn't choose between them. Among them is the one by Venereum Arvum on the Scwan Urla Grun CD, a 12 minute version with great music. Another version is by the group Alva, with vocals by Vivien Ellis who is from the Shetland Islands, and sings in the beautiful Shetlands dialect on the Love Burns In Me CD. And there is a very short version by Carol Wood on the Chaucer Songbook CD, sung in English I can understand. I found these floating around on MySpace pages, where they can be listened to for free. This is a very easy song to learn.

16. Orphic Operas
More formally there are some 64 operas about Eurydice and Orpheus, starting with La Favola d'Orfeo by Monteverdi, first performed in 1607. It's too much to include all of these but you might be interested in a few choice selections.

One of the outstanding pieces of music from the Gluck version of Orfeo ed Euridice 1762 is the Dance of the Blessed Spirits. This is in the form of a ballet in Elysium. You can see a performance of the ballet on YouTube at at Pina Bausch's production of 2008 . But for my money (free), there is a very beautiful and affecting performance of the music just using flute and piano on YouTube by Tony Lin and Ben Morrison.

And then there is the sarcastic and cynical version Orpheus in the Underworld by Jacques Offenbach, first performed in 1858. Here Eurydice is so bored with her fiddle-playing husband Orpheus that she begs to die. This operetta descends (in more ways than one) into the Moulin Rouge version of Classical Mythology. In Offenbach's satirical skewering of Gluck's opera, the Dance of the Blessed Spirits is replaced by an Infernal Galop, which everyone knows as the CanCan (No. 53 the Chaconne). Here the "underworld" of classical mythology is equated to the demimonde of Paris. Once the Parisians got over the shock of this turn of events, people let up on romantic operas about Orpheus and Eurydice for a while.

You might also be interested in the movie Orphée made by the Dadaist director Jean Cocteau in 1950. This movie was made on no budget during the Second World War, so the effects are clever but not elaborate. When the servants of the Princess of Death come, they are riding motorcycles and wearing leather. With fabulous French style, this movie might inspire you to some flights of fancy for your next costume. And may I just take a moment and remember Frank McKenzie, the manager of the student movie house at the UM many years ago. I hope his soul is troubling the living somewhere today.

17. The Story and Song of Yemaya
Yemaya is an orisha or goddess in the Santeria (Voodoo) religion. The story of Yemaya is told in Cakes for the Queen of Heaven by Shirley Ann Ranck where it was excerpted from Jambalaya by Luisa Teish, a Santeria priestess who speaks Yoruba and lives in New Orleans. Yoruba is a language of West Africa, and yet the story of Yemaya seems to correspond to the myths of Yama/Ymir which are known in various Indo-European languages, though the nature of the connection is not clear.

The song of Yemaya has been recorded in dozens of versions and they are all great in an exotic world-beat sort of way. It is popular throughout the Caribbean and is found in Cuban and Creole music. My favorite version is sung by Nurudafina Pili Abena on the Ancient Mothers CD, put together by Robert Gass and the Wings of Song, a women's chorus. Other great versions are by Beth Nielsen Chapman on the Prism, The Human Family CD, and by Deva Premal on the Music for Yoga CD, where it sounds like a lullaby. The last is not spooky enough for Halloween, but I liked it anyway. The Beth Nielsen Chapman version is available for a free listen at the all off MP3 page. Search for Yemaya and click on Prelisten Track. This is supposed to be a low quality version, but it still sounds good.

18. St. James Infirmary Blues
And finally, since we have managed to work our way back to New Orleans with a resident voodoo priestess, I feel free to suggest another version of the St. James Infirmary Blues. There are many versions of this, but my favorites today are by Cab Calloway.

First I recommend the song Minnie the Moocher, for a free listen. This is a great song that has nothing to do with Halloween, but see the video for an excuse to include it anyway.

Second, I want to recommend Cab Calloway's version of the song St. James Infirmary Blues also available for free. This version has the muted sax that I am so fond of and the song might just be pressed into relevance, based on St. James as the patron saint of trauma victims.

But the thing I most want to recommend here are the 1920's Talkertoons videos of Betty Boop with Cab Calloway singing his hit songs Minnie the Moocher and St. James Infirmary Blues. These are available on YouTube, for example, at Betty Boop in SnowWhite , and elsewhere (or just google Cab Calloway Minnie the Moocher, etc.). I don't have a clue why anybody would make a cartoon with Betty Boop as SnowWhite and Cab Calloway rotoscoped into KoKo the Clown singing the St. James Infirmary Blues, but both of these videos are full of ghosts and the music is fabulous, so of course they are appropriate for Halloween. The two videos together only add up to about 8 minutes, so try to download these or at least give a listen.

I hope these are enough good songs that you can put together a playlist of music suitable for the season, and on that note, I think I'll give it a rest.

References
Bronson, Bertrand Harris, The Traditional Tunes of the Child Ballads, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 1959,

Child, Frandis James, The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1882-1898 (and subsequent editions).

Frazer, James George, The Golden Bough, MacMillan & Co. Ltd., London, 1919-1920, (12 vol. edition), includes many descriptions of traditional folk festivals.

Grimnismal 40-41, (Poetic Edda). This version is quoted from p. 21, The Prose Edda by Snorri Sturluson, translated by Arthur Gilchrist Brodeur, The American-Scandinavian Foundation, Oxford University Press, London, 1923.

Puhvel, Jaan, Analecta Indoeuropaea, (a collection of articles), publ. by Innsbrucker Beitrage zur Sprachwissenschaft, Innsbruck, 1981.