Green Rapunzel and the Green Man
COTGM member Sean Breadin, aka Sedayne, is a professional storyteller, singer of traditional ballads & folk songs and player of diverse & ancient musical instruments. For this years Morpeth Northumbrian Gathering he went again as a Green Man accompanied by Rapunzel. Rapunzel has been singing all her life, with passions encompassing folk, country and classical, holding an impressive CV in all respects. A gifted instrumentalist, she is just as likely to be found singing the ballad of Tam Lin as she is her own compositions or the songs of Laura Nyro. Both went resplendent in green carnival garb. The fantastic mask Sean is wearing is based on a sinister supporter from a Chester Cathedral misericord. His thinking is that a lot of these sort of GM types could well be depictions of medieval carnival masks, so he thought the best thing to do would be to make one (using such traditional mediaeval materials as Ikea packing cases, organic flour, water & toilet paper) to see how such a thing might work in reality.
Wassail!
COTGM member Sean Breadin (Sedayne) sent me a link to a real time improvisation of the wonderful Gower Wassail performed by himself and Rachel McCarron and recorded just the other day. The link is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZYBhP7mUgU and I have reproduced the lyrics below. Members will be aware of Bruce Eatons piece on Wassailing which was reproduced in the November e-newsletter and can be found further back in this blog. It seemed a perfect excuse to pass it on and to take the oppurtunity to raise a glass and wish all members of The Company of the Green Man a fantastic Yuletide……..Wassail!!
Gower Wassail (Traditional / Phil Tanner)
A-wassail, a-wassail, throughout all this town.
Our cup it is white and our ale it is brown.
Our wassail is made of the good ale and cake,.
Some nutmeg and ginger, the best we could get.
Al di dal – al di dal di dal
Al di dal di dal – al di dal di dee
Al de deral – al de derry
Sing too rel I do
Our wassail is made of an elderberry bough.
Although my good neighbour, we’ll drink unto thou..
Besides all on earth, we’ll have apples in store,
Pray let us come in for it’s cold by the door.
We know by the moon that we are not too soon,.
And we know by the sky that we are not too high,.
We know by the star that we are not too far,.
And we know by the ground that we are within sound.
Now master and mistress if you are within
Pray send out your maid with her lily-white skin
For to open the door without more delay
Our time it is precious and we cannot stay
Here’s a health to our Colley and her croo’ed horn
May God send her Master a good crop of corn
Of barley and wheat and all sorts of grain
May God send her Mistress a long life to reign
Now master and mistress – thanks to you we’ll give
And for our jolly wassail as long as we live
And if we should live til another new year
Perhaps we may call and see who do live here
The Company of the Green Man 