They Ca' My Faither Windy Tam
DESCRIPTION: "They ca' my faither windy Tam, An' my mither gley'd Girsy; An' me mysel', a fine fudgell...." "He bocht to me a paor o' glo'es" and bad the singer wear them because she was a fine fudgell. Similarly, the man supplies gown and shoon
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1873 (Laing correspondence, according to Lyle)
KEYWORDS: clothes nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Emily Lyle, _Fairies and Folk: Approaches to the Scottish Ballad Tradition_, Wissenschaflicher Verlag Trier, 2007, p, 223,(no title) (1 short text)
NOTES [77 words]: A fudgel, or fodgel, according to Alexander Warrack, The Scots Dialext Dictionary, Waverly Books, 2000, as an adjective means plump or fat, and hence as a noun means someone who is fat, or even a fat animal. It may be that the person if pleasant and plump, but it might also be an insult. So is the gift-giver in this song genuinely courting the singer, or making fun of her? Based on the amount of text in Lyle, it doesn't appear possible to be certain. - RBW
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