Flowers o' the Forest, The

DESCRIPTION: Based on a pipe tune lamenting the battle of Flodden: "I've heard them lilting, At the yowes milking, Lasses a-lilting... Noo they are moanin On ilka green loaning. The flowers o' the forest are a' wede away." The song grieves for the men lost
AUTHOR: Words: Jane [Jean] Elliot (1727-1805) / Music: Traditional
EARLIEST DATE: Words supposedly written 1756 (tune probably dates to the sixteenth century)
KEYWORDS: battle death mourning separation Scotland
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sep 9, 1513 - Battle of Flodden. James IV and the pride of Scotland's chivalry die in battle with the Earl of Surrey's English army
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Ford-SongHistories, pp. 87-95, "The Flowers of the Forest" (1 text plus the Cockburn lyrics)
DT, FLWRSFOR*
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 22, #3 (1973), p, 1, "The Flowers of the Forest" (1 text, 1 tune, the Norman Kennedy version, supplied with extremely inaccurate notes)
William & Susan Platt, _Folktales of the Scottish Border_, published 1919 as _Stories of the Scottish Border_, republished by Senate Press, 1999, pp.119-120, "The Flowers of the Forest" (1 text)
Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #197, "The Flowers of the Forest" (1 text)
Michael Brander, _Scottish and Border Battles and Ballads_, 1975 (page references to the 1993 Barnes & Noble edition), pp. 70-71, "The Flowers of the Forest" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3812
RECORDINGS:
Helen Blain, "Flowers o' the Forest" (Pathe 20017, 1916)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Flodden Field [Child 168]" (subject)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Lament for Flodden
NOTES [132 words]: According to Isobel E. Williams, Scottish Folklore, W. & R. Chambers, 1991, p. 52, there is a legend that playing this song always results in a death, so some performers will play it only at funerals.
This is said to have been Jean Elliot's only song, and it was published anonymously. Robert Burns, according to Ford-SongHistories, p. 88, was one of those who correctly recognized that, although the theme was old, the song was contemporary.
There is another set of words, by Alison Cockburn, beginning "I've seen the smiling Of fortune beguiling." This art-song setting is also included by Steve Roud under the number 3812, but I would consider it a separate song, particularly since it gives no evidence of having gone into tradition (or of being worth the paper used to print it). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: BdFlOTF

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