Nora Creina (I)

DESCRIPTION: "Nora Creina, see the flowers, The lovely flowers that all seem'd perish'd" "Nora Creina, see the birds We thought forever flown away, love." "Nora Creina! Nora dear! Thus my love is thine forever... And still more fondly for the parting..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster) (the name was in use by 1833)
KEYWORDS: love separation flowers bird
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 198, "Nora Creina, See the Flowers" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Nora Creina (II)" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
The New Policeman (File: GrD1750)
The Song of the Trap, Part IV (File: AnSt079)
Lansell's Case (by Charles R. Thatcher) (Anderson-ColonialMinstrel, p. 106)
Lesbia hath a beaming eye (Nora Creina) (by Thomas Moore) (Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 37)
Murphy's Weather Eye ("Murphy has a weather eye, He can tell whene'er he pleases If it will be wet or dry") (TimFinigansWakeSongster, p. 49)
NOTES [165 words]: I am not sure that this is traditional in itself, but the tune has been used so many times, for so many things, that I thought it belonged in the Index. Certainly the name is well-known; there is a place in Australia called "Nora Creina," There were several ships by that name, including a fictional one; in the last paragraph of the Sherlock Holmes story "The Resident Patient," a ship by this name was said to have been lost with all hands off the coast of Portugal, taking with it three murderers who had fled the scene of the crime.
The tune, in addition to the SAME TUNE items mentioned, was reportedly used by Beethoven.
"Nora Creina" does not seem to be proper Irish, but it has been suggested that it is a corruption of "Nora of my heart" or perhaps "Wise Nora." There is a Mudcat thread discussing all of this. The description is from one of the texts quoted there -- the one that seemed the most "tradition-ish."
A different "Norah Creina" is on p. 17 of PaddysTheBoySongster. - RBW
Last updated in version 7.1
File: RcNorCre

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