Writing in Margins
  • Home
  • The Thumbling Project
    • Type 700 Tales
    • Thumblings
    • Motifs
    • Timeline >
      • Tom Thumb Timeline
    • Film
    • Theater
    • Tom Thumb Weddings
    • Resources
  • The Snowwhite Project
    • As White As Snow
    • Type 709 Tales
  • Lists of Fairies
    • The Little Folk
    • Mermaids
    • The Denham Tracts
    • Individual Fairies
    • Faerie Feast
    • Faerie Fashion
  • Story CSI
    • Ruth Tongue
    • Andrew Lang
  • About and Contact

"Thorn Rosa" - the Sleeping Beauty Song

9/17/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
​One children's singing game, collected in St. Louis in 1944, has an interesting plotline.

LaDora was a pretty girl;
She lived up in a castle high.
One day there came a wicked witch;
She point her stick right in her eye.
She fell asleep a hundred years;
The princess clucked the hinges down;
The princess picked LaDora up,
Tra, la, lala, la, la, lala!

​
It's Sleeping Beauty in song form!

The collector, Leah Yoffie, seemed baffled by the song. She heard it from a little girl who knew it as a "ring game," but found no one else who recognized it. However, other scholars quickly
recognized the song as a variant of "Fair Rosa" or "Thorn Rosa." Here's one version of the lyrics to this song:

Thorn Rosa was a pretty child,
Pretty child, pretty child,
Thorn Rosa was a pretty child,
Pretty child.

She lived up in a castle high...
​
One day there came an ugly witch...

Thorn Rosa slept a hundred years...

A thorny hedge grew giant high...

One day there came a handsome prince...

He broke right through the thorny hedge...

Thorn Rosa wakened at his touch...

They all lived for a hundred years,
A hundred years, a hundred years,
They all lived for a hundred years,
A hundred years.


The song is accompanied by a game, in which a girl playing Thorn Rosa sits at the center of the group. Around her is a small circle of children holding hands, representing the castle. An outer circle of children represents the hedge. A child playing the ugly witch enters the circle to touch Thorn Rosa and put her to sleep. The prince then breaks through the circles and wakes Thorn Rosa. 

The LaDora version seems pretty garbled but is clearly the same song.  Yoffie didn't include the tune, so it can't be compared, but she might have shortened the song. Originally, each line was probably a repeating verse of its own.

​So where did this song come from?


In 1897, Franz Magnus Bohme collected a German version which was somewhat more elaborate. It was titled Dornröschen (literally "Little Briar Rose"), being an adaptation of the Brothers Grimm fairytale. 
​Dornröschen war ein schönes Kind,
schönes Kind, schönes Kind,
Dornröschen war ein schönes Kind,
schönes Kind.
​
Dornröschen, nimm Dich ja in acht
ja in acht, ja in acht,
Dornröschen, nimm Dich ja in acht,
vor einer bösen Fee.
​

Da kam die böse Fee herein,
Fee herein, Fee herein,
da kam die böse Fee herein,
und rief ihr zu.
​
"Dornröschen schlafe hundert Jahr,
hundert Jahr, hundert Jahr,
Dornröschen schlafe hundert Jahr,
und alle mit!"
​
Und eine Hecke riesengroß,
riesengroß, riesengroß,
und eine Hecke riesengroß,
umgab das Schloß.
​
Da kam ein junger Königssohn,
Königssohn, Königssohn,
da kam ein junger Königssohn,
und sprach zu ihr:
​
"Dornröschen holdes Mägdelein
Mägdelein, Mägdelein,
Dornröschen holdes Mägdelein,
nun wache auf!"

Dornröschen wachte wieder auf,
wieder auf, wieder auf,
Dornröschen macht der Königssohn
Zur Königin.

Sie feierten ein großes Fest,
großes Fest, großes Fest,
Sie feierten ein großes Fest:
das Hochzeitsfest.
​
Und alle freuten herzlich sich,
herzlich sich, herzlich sich,
Es freute sich auch herzlich mit
das ganze Land.
​
Thorn Rosa was a lovely child
lovely child, lovely child,
Thorn Rosa was a lovely child
lovely child.

Thorn Rosa, have a care,
have a care, have a care,
Thorn Rosa, have a care
of the bad fairy.

Then came the evil fairy in
Fairy in, fairy in,
Then came the evil fairy in
and called to her.

"Thorn Rosa sleep a hundred years,
hundred years, hundred years,
Thorn Rosa sleep a hundred years,
and all with her! "

And a hedge grew giant high,
giant high, giant high,
and a hedge grew giant high,
around the castle.

And then there came a young king's son,
Young king's son, young king's son,
there came a young king's son,
and spoke to her:

"Thorn Rosa, sweet maiden,
maiden, maiden,
Thorn Rosa, sweet maiden,
now wake up!"

Thorn Rosa woke up again,
up again, up again,
Thorn Rosa made the king's son
​a queen.

They celebrated a great feast,
a great feast, a great feast,
They celebrated a great feast,
the wedding feast.

And everyone was very glad,
Very glad, very glad
And everyone was very glad
​Throughout the land.
Most scholars believe that the song was of artistic origin. It's a play-by-play adaptation of the fairytale. It never appeared until the 1890s, when it was printed in several books, and Bohme said that it was created for use in playschools. Translations simplified the lyrics almost immediately, and modern versions focus on repetition.

An English translation was published in 1908 in 
in Folk Dances and Games by Caroline Crawford. It entered tradition as a popular game, probably usually taught to children by adults. The song appears in the Roud Folksong Index as "Fair Rosa," number 7889. There are multiple variants listed, including "Fair Rosie," "Sweet Rosebud," or even "Forosa."

In 1915, Dagny Pederson and Neva L. Boyd translated a Danish variant. The song still exists in Danish today as "Tornerose var et vakkert barn." Herbert Halpert recorded two New Jersey versions in 1935 - "Thorn Rosa" and "The Princess Slept for a Hundred Years." The same year, over in Ireland, Sam Henry collected "Fair Rosa" in Coleraine, County Londonderry. From Ecuador, "Rosa era linda" appeared in Rique Ran: Games and Songs of South American Children by Mary L. Goodwin and Edith L. Powell (1951). A Belgian version recorded around 1958 runs "La bell' au bois, la bell' enfant." In the 1985 book The Singing Game, Iona Opie listed many versions of the song. 

The song has definitely entered oral tradition since the time it was written. M
ost recently, it has been covered by the children's band The Wiggles under the title "There Was a Princess." 

As a sidenote, in 1883, William Wells Newell printed a couple of songs from Massachusetts and Texas. The basic game is the same - a girl pretends to sleep in the middle of a ring, until a boy breaks through to kiss her. 
Here we go round the strawberry bush,
This cold and frosty morning.
Here's a young lady sat down to sleep,
This cold and frosty morning.
She wants a young gentleman to wake her up,
This cold and frosty morning.
Write his name and send it by me,
This cold and frosty morning.
Mr. ____ his name is called,
This cold and frosty morning.
Arise, arise, upon your feet,
This cold and frosty morning. 

Newell asserts that this song is descended from an old English May-game and suggests it developed from the story of Sleeping Beauty. However, although there are similarities to the Thorn Rosa circle dance, there's a pretty big leap from these lyrics to the Sleeping Beauty plot.

You can listen to a modern version of Dornroschen at Mama Lisa's World, or watch some versions like Thorn Rosa, Fair Rosa, or "There was a lovely princess" (from 1957!) on YouTube.

Sources
  • Böhme, Franz Magnus. Deutsches Kinderlied und Kinderspiel. 1897. pp. 552-553.
  • Halpert, Herbert. "Singing Game Variants of "The Sleeping Beauty." The Journal of American Folklore. 1947. Vol. 60, No. 238.
  • Huntington, Gale and Lani Hermann. Sam Henry's Songs of the People. 2010. page 12. "Fair Rosa/The Sleeping Beauty."
  • McCarthy, William Bernard. Cinderella in America: A Book of Folk and Fairy Tales. 2007. No. 68, pp. 272-274.
  • Newell, William Wells. Games and songs of American children. 1883. p. 224
  • ​Pederson, Dagny and Neva L. Boyd. Folk Games of Denmark and Sweden. 1915, page 32.
  • Roud, Steve. The Lore of the Playground: One hundred years of children's games, rhymes and traditions. 2010. pp. 263-264.
  • Yoffie, Leah Rachel Clara. "Three Generations of Children's Singing Games." Journal of American Folklore vol. 60,  1947, p. 44
0 Comments

Tom Thumb, the Piper's Son

12/26/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
"Tom the Piper's Son" is a nursery rhyme, with the first known version published about 1795 in a London chapbook. The titular Tom steals a pig, is beaten as punishment, and runs away crying.

There was another, longer poem about a Tom the Piper's Son, which dealt with him playing music wherever he went, but this is less known and has nothing to do with the more well-known version.

The Ballad Index's writeup mentions a Lincolnshire text:
Tom, Tom, the baker's son
stole a wig, and away he run;
The wig was eat, and Tom was beat,
And Tom went roaring down the street.
​

A wig was a kind of bun, explaining what it had to do with a baker's son, how a boy could carry it easily, and how it could be eaten. The notes suggest that this version is the original. It makes sense that someone could have heard the poem, thought of the other kind of wig, and corrected it to the more edible "pig." 


So the "pig" and "piper" elements could be simple oral mutations picked up as different people recited it, although it's impossible to say. There are a couple of versions, however, that particularly piqued my interest.

Tom Thumb the piper's son, 
Stole a pig, and away did run ; 
The pig was eat, and Tom was beat, 
Till he ran crying down the street. 

(From Gammer Gurton's Garland (1810) p.35)

And yes, in that version, it's Tom Thumb. It doesn't take much to go from "Tom, Tom" to "Tom Thumb." "Tom, Tom" is a bit too repetitive. "Tom Thumb" has more of a natural rhythm, and "thumb" is closer to rhyming with "son," at least in my accent.

I find it interesting how these two seem to build in severity. The wig-and-baker version suggests a closer connection, perhaps that Tom was in a bakery run by his family, and that they punished him for his misbehavior. The pig-and-piper version gives more distance - Tom lacks even a faint claim to the pig. Thus the images in the shet music, with a policeman seizing Tom for his theft.


This trend goes even further in a more violent version from Grey County, Ontario, published in The Journal of American Folklore in 1917.
Tom Thumb, the piper's son,
Stole a goose and away he run;
The goose got caught, and he was shot, 

And that was the end of the piper's son.
0 Comments

    About

    Researching folktales and fairies, with a focus on common tale types.

    ​The Thumbling Project is a collection of different versions of Tom Thumb and Thumbelina from around the world.
    The Snow White Project ​is a similar list.


    ​​
    Text © Writing in Margins

    RSS Feed

    Archives

    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015

    Categories

    All
    Africa
    America
    Analysis
    Arabian Nights
    Astronomy
    Beauty And The Beast
    Boy Man
    Boy-Man
    Changelings
    Christmas
    Cinderella
    Dwarves
    Fairies
    Fairy Debunking
    Flood Myth
    General Tom Thumb
    Hans Christian Andersen
    History
    Hop O' My Thumb
    Issunboshi
    King Arthur
    Kirikou
    Little Red Riding Hood
    Mermaids
    Miniature Wedding
    Nang Ut
    Nursery Rhymes
    Perrault
    Peter Pan
    Pinocchio
    Puss In Boots
    Queen Mab
    Rapunzel
    Research
    Review
    Rumpelstiltskin
    Sleeping Beauty
    Snow White
    Tam Lin
    Tatterhood
    The Schools Collection
    The Three Little Pigs
    The Thumbling Project
    Thumbelina
    Tom Thumb
    Werewolves

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Home
  • The Thumbling Project
    • Type 700 Tales
    • Thumblings
    • Motifs
    • Timeline >
      • Tom Thumb Timeline
    • Film
    • Theater
    • Tom Thumb Weddings
    • Resources
  • The Snowwhite Project
    • As White As Snow
    • Type 709 Tales
  • Lists of Fairies
    • The Little Folk
    • Mermaids
    • The Denham Tracts
    • Individual Fairies
    • Faerie Feast
    • Faerie Fashion
  • Story CSI
    • Ruth Tongue
    • Andrew Lang
  • About and Contact