Scarborough Fair

[Méav_4EVER]

I have been trying to find Méav singing Scarborough Fair. Is her version on a CD?

[willow-jeeves]

As far as I know, there isn't a recording of Méav singing Scarborough Fair.  It's not on the three solo cds or "Celtic Dreams" the CD with Anúna. 

I know she's made recordings with other musicians, so it might be on one of theirs.

[Kimberly AJ]

Speaking of this song, it's a traditional folk from England like the legend tells me.

[Siobhan]

She sings it in the Iceberg interview if you haven't heard that! (Doubt you haven't, though.)   

[Méav_4EVER]

Yeah I found it there! I just wanted it on CD.

[Kimberly AJ]

I've listened to those different versions in those times.

[Texas Chava]

And if you really want to go back in time, you can listen to the Simon and Garfunkle version! 

[Kimberly AJ]

Did they ever write it?

[Maggie]

Did they ever write it?

Simon & Garfunkel did an arrangement of it, after Paul Simon learned it from an English Folk Singer, Martin Carthy.

The song was taken from an old Scottish song The Elfin Knight, which had been around since 1670.

The Fair at Scarborough in Yorkshire has been around since the Charter granted by King Henry III in 1253, to extend from the Feast of the Assumption August 15th to Saint Michael's Day, September 29th.
That was a long Fair!
When I was a little girl, we used to go to Scarborough for a week every year, and often went to a Fair there, where children played games around the Harbour.
There were old traditional games with a spinning top, like the dradel that Jewish children play with.

[Kimberly AJ]

So that must be a traditional song. I can make up a CD single that contains this song.

[zankoku]

I heard in also by a couple of ladies called Penny and Jean back in teh late 50's also.

Jim

[Kimberly AJ]

Penny and Jean? Did they even perform it originally?

[zankoku]

They weren't that old.

Here is some  info I found

During late medieval times the seaside resort of Scarborough was an important venue for tradesmen from all over England. It was host to a huge 45-day trading event, starting August 15, which was exceptionally long for a fair in those times. Merchants came to it from all areas of England, Europe, Norway, Denmark, the Baltic and the Byzantine Empire. Scarborough Fair originated from a charter granted by King Henry III of England on 22 January 1253. The charter, which gave Scarborough many privileges, stated "The Burgesses and their heirs forever may have a yearly fayre in the Borough, to continue from the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary until the Feast of St Michael next following". Naturally, such a large occasion attracted a lot more than just tradesmen, they needed to be entertained and fed, therefore large crowds of buyers, sellers and pleasure-seekers attended the fair. Prices were determined by ‘Supply and demand’, with goods often being exchanged through the barter system. Records show that from 1383 Scarborough’s prosperity slumped.

In the early 17th century competition from other towns' markets and fairs and increasing taxation saw further collapse of the Fair until it eventually became financially untenable. The market was revived again in the 18th century, but due to intense competition Scarborough Fair finally ended in 1788.

The traditional 'Scarborough Fair' no longer exists but a number of low-key celebrations take place every September to mark the original event.Scarborough Fair in July 2006 witnessed Medieval Jousting Competitions, hosted by English Heritage in addition to the usual attractions.


[edit] The ballad
The song tells the tale of a young man, who tells the listener to ask his former lover to perform for him a series of impossible tasks, such as making him a shirt without a seam and then washing it in a dry well, adding that if she completes these tasks he will take her back. Often the song is sung as a duet, with the woman then giving her lover a series of equally impossible tasks, promising to give him his seamless shirt once he has finished.

As the versions of the ballad known under the title "Scarborough Fair" are usually limited to the exchange of these impossible tasks, many suggestions concerning the plot have been proposed, including the hypothesis that it is a song about the Plague. In fact, "Scarborough Fair" appears to derive from an older (and now obscure) Scottish ballad, The Elfin Knight (Child Ballad #2), which has been traced to 1670 and may well be earlier. In this ballad, an elf threatens to abduct a young woman to be his lover unless she can perform an impossible task ("For thou must shape a sark to me / Without any cut or heme, quoth he"); she responds with a list of tasks which he must first perform ("I have an aiker of good ley-land / Which lyeth low by yon sea-strand"), thus evading elfin rape.

As the song spread, it was adapted, modified, and rewritten to the point that dozens of versions existed by the end of the 18th century, although only a few are typically sung nowadays. The references to "Scarborough Fair" and the refrain "parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme" date to nineteenth century versions, and the refrain may have been borrowed from the ballad Riddles Wisely Expounded, (Child Ballad #1), which has a similar plot.

Jim

[Maggie]

I love Scarborough...
It was a neat place for a holiday as a child, lots to do, a castle on the hill, a harbour with a few kid's rides, a lighthouse, fishing boats you could ride in, nice sandy beach to play on, donkeys to ride.


I didn't appreciate the history of the place until years later.
Then I found out the Vikings in their awesome Ships had invaded this very coast....and rampaged inland to York.
When I was a child, there were huge concrete cubes, which were supposed to stop tanks, all along the beach, and pillboxes with slits in them for guns......built to repel another expected invasion, which thank God did not come.
We played hide and seek in the pillboxes, and also war games.

WWII pillboxes along the Yorkshire Coast near Scarborough: (I don't know why the arrow is there)

[Kimberly AJ]

Is that the where they're doing a lot of fun in England?