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King Orfeo

from There & Back by Quilty

/

about

This folksong version of the «Orpheus in the Underworid» story comes from the Shetland Islands. The text appeared in a newspaper in the early part of the Nineteenth Century. The tune and five verses were collected by Patrick SHULDHAM SHAW in 1947 from a fine song carrier called John STICKLE of Unst (one of the Shetland Isles).

The retrain lines are old Norse, as the Shetland once belonged to Norway, so the dialect still contains a certain amount of Norwegian Nords.

lyrics

KING ORFEO

The king he is a-hunting gone - Scówan earla grunn
And left his lady all alone - Whar yetta han granórlac.
I wish he'd never gone away
For his lady cold as death do lay...

The king of fairies with his dart
has pierced his lady to the heart...
So after them he has gone
When he got there, 'twas a block of stone...

- O you come in into our hall. And you come in among us all.

So he's gone in into the hall. And he's gone in among them all.
Then he's taken out his pipes to blow
and all his heart was dole and woe.

And first he played the notes of noy, and then he played the notes of joy.
And then he's played the gabber reel that would have made a sick heart heal.

- O what will you have? Pray, to us tell...
- I’ll have my Lady Isabel...
- You take your lady and you go home...
And you be lord of all your own...

So he's taken his lady and he's gone home... Scówan earla grunn
And now he's lord over all his own - Whar yetta han granórlac.

credits

from There & Back, released February 1, 2018
lead vocal: Ian & Malcolm

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Malcolm Wray Ireland

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