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Somerset Wassail (trad​.​)

from Dancing Day: songs for Christmas and Yule by Merry Hadaway

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about

This is one of the English folk songs collected in in the first few decades of the twentieth century by collectors using field recordings. Walter and Harry Sealy of Ash Priors, Taunton, Somerset, sang it for Peter Kennedy in around 1957.

The word “wassail” derives from the Anglo-Saxon toast “wæs þu hæl” (“be thou hale”), and is the name for two traditions in England: the Orchard-Visiting Wassail, and the House-Visiting Wassail. Both may well predate the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity, and given the name they are almost certainly at least pre-Norman. The House-Visiting Wassail, which is what concerns us here, is the tradition from which modern carol-singing arrives, and which has some similarities with modern trick-or-treating. It would generally take place in January rather than December. A group of singers visit the house of a rich neighbour (who might in fact be the lord of the manor), sing carols, and in exchange requested (or sometimes outright demanded!) a gift of food and drink and perhaps some time in front of the fire.

“We Wish You a Merry Christmas” is thoroughly in this tradition, complete with the forceful insistence on figgy pudding! “Somerset Wassail” is rather less forthright, though still fairly unsubtle. ;-)

The Girt (great) Dog of Langport, incidentally, may refer to a geographical feature of Somerset, various mythical black dogs, or possibly even the devil. No one seems to know how or why he burned his tail. :-)

lyrics

1.
Wassail and wassail all over the town,
The cup it is white and the ale it is brown,
The cup it is made of the good ashen tree,
And so is the malt of the best barley.

Chorus.
For it's your wassail and it's our wassail,
And it's joy be to you and a jolly wassail.

2.
Oh master and missus, are you all within?
Pray open the door and let us come in
Oh master and missus a-sitting by the fire
Pray think on us poor travellers a-travelling in the mire.

3.
Oh where is the maid with the silver-headed pin
To open the door and let us come in?
Oh master and missus, it is our desire
A good loaf and cheese and a seat by the fire.

4.
There was an old man and he had an old cow
And how for to keep her he didn't know how,
He built up a barn for to keep his cow warm,
And a drop or two of cider will do us no harm.

5.
The Girt Dog of Langport he burned his long tail
And this is the night we go singing wassail
Oh master and missus now we must be gone
God bless all in this house until we do come again.

credits

from Dancing Day: songs for Christmas and Yule, released December 6, 2014

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Merry Hadaway Stonehaven, UK

Folk singer, ukulele player and songwriter. Queer, disabled, trans, Christo-Pagan, powered by waves and mountains. :-)

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