Dawning of the Day (II), The

DESCRIPTION: "At early dawn I once had been Where Lene's blue waters flow"; there "I met a maid in the greenwood share At the dawning of the day." He courts her for her beauty. He asks her to be his; she declares "False man, for shame, why bring me blame?" and flees
AUTHOR: Original Irish Gaelic text "Fáinne Geal an Lae" translated by Edward Walsh (1805-1850) (source: Wikipedia; Hoagland)
EARLIEST DATE: 1860 (LoversIrishSongs)
KEYWORDS: love courting rejection
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
LoversIrishSongs, p. 61, "The Dawning of the Day" (1 tex)
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), p. 194, "The Dawning of the Day" (1 text)

Roud #34653
NOTES [118 words]: "The Dawning of the Day (I)" [Laws P16] and "The Dawning of the Day (II)" have the same general plot but are given separate Roud numbers, presumably because the latter at least is a translation of the Irish ""Fáinne Geal an Lae." I would probably have considered them the same song, but I follow Roud in splitting them. However, it's likely that a few versions, particularly fragments, are mis-filed. The key to identifying a song as "The Dawning of the Day (II)" is the first few line of the Edward Walsh translation: "At early dawn I once had been Where Lene's blue waters flow." Also, it seems to be a pretty well expurgated version, in which the woman rejects the man before he gets very far with her. - RBW
Last updated in version 7.0
File: LoIS061A

Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index Song List

Go to the Ballad Index Instructions
Go to the Ballad Index Bibliography or Discography

The Ballad Index Copyright 2025 by Robert B. Waltz and David G. Engle.