Yellow, Yellow, What's for Yellow

DESCRIPTION: "Yellow, yellow, What's for yellow, Yellow is the color Of a fairy's umbrella."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1975 (Brady-AllInAllIn)
KEYWORDS: colors | fairy umbrella
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brady-AllInAllIn, p. 65, "(Yellow, yellow)" (1 text)
Roud #38125
NOTES [126 words]: The mention of umbrellas for fairies is rather odd -- I seem to recall hearing that at least some could walk between raindrops. Briggs: Katherine Briggs, An Encyclopedia of Fairies: Hobgoblins, Brownies, Bogies, and Other Supernatural Creatures, 1976 (I use the 1977 Pantheon paperback) has no entry for umbrellas or parasols.
The color yellow is also odd for a fairy in the sense of a magical being. Briggs, pp. 108-111, covers the "Dress and appearance of the fairies." Yellow is almost never a fairy color, and certainly not in Ireland, where the colors are green and (sometimes) red. It makes me wonder if this is really about fairies in the sense of magical creatures -- or whether this is actually a taunt-song against a different sort of fairy. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: BAAI065A

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