Easter Snow

DESCRIPTION: The singer sees a beautiful girl and asks her to come home with him to "Easter Snow." He says she will see foxhunters and other exciting things. She tells him that she is pledged to another who lives far from Easter Snow
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection hunting
FOUND IN: Ireland Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 128, "Easter Snow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H66, pp. 369-370, "Wester Snow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-MaritimeFolkSongs, p. 43, "The Easter Snow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tunney-StoneFiddle, pp. 29-30, "Easter Snow" (1 text, 1 tune)
OBoyle-TheIrishSongTradition 10, "Estersnowe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2122
RECORDINGS:
James Connors, "The Plains Of Easter Snow" (on ITMA/CapeShoreNL)
Paddy Tunney, "Easter Snow" (on IRPTunney03)
Brigid Tunney, "Easter Snow" (on IRTunneyFamily01, FSBFTX13)
NOTES [164 words]: There is a lot going on behind the scenes of this commonplace (even banal) text. "Easter Snow" or its variants is conceded to be a folk variant of "Estersnoew," a region in Roscommon. This in turn is a wearing-down of a Gaelic name -- but Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland (based on Petrie Coll) gives the Gaelic as "Iseart Nuadhain," while Henry/Huntington/Herrmann list the title in Petrie/Stanford as "Diseart Nuadhain, nó Sneachta Cásga." In any event, it appears that there is a Gaelic tune and a Gaelic name behind the song. - RBW
Paddy Tunney and O'Boyle have a different ending. The singer says, "I'll roll you in my morning cloak and I'll bring you home to Easter Snow." The fair maid replies, "Go home, acquaint your parents and indeed kind sir, I'll do the same And if both our parents give consent neither you nor I will bear the blame." In The Stone Fiddle, Paddy Tunney says he learned the song from his mother but her recording does not include that last verse. - BS
Last updated in version 5.0
File: HHH066

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