HAL AN TOW Celtic traditional (music) This is a May Day song. The Britons gained the festival of dancing in the spring from the Romans. They erected their May Poles to Goddess Flora and decorated it on every village green. During the 15th and 16th centuries, May Day plays featured Robin Hood's band of outlaws, and the marriage ceremony of Robin Hood and Maid Marion which turned these two characters into the ritual hero and heroine of the May Day celebrations. One of the ancient customs was to bathe the face in the dew of the morning with the hope that it would make one beautiful. May Poles were noted as late as 1795 in England, though we hope they have made a recent re-appearance. In his Anatomie of Abuses, published in 1583, Phillip Stubbes wrote a graphic and slightly disapproving description of the excesses of May Day and its symbol the May Pole: 'Against May, Whitsunday, or other time, olde men and wives, run gadding over-night to the woods, groves, hills and mountains, where they spend all night in pleasant pastimes; and in the morning they return, bringing with them birch and branches of trees, to deck their assemblies withal. ... But the chiefest jewel they bring from thence is their May-Pole, which they have bring home with great veneration. ... They have twentie or fortie yoke of oxen, every oxe having a sweet nose-gay of flowers placed on the tip of his hornes, and these oxen drawe home this May-Pole (this stinking Ydol, rather), which is covered all over with floures and hearbs, bound round about with strings, from the top to the bottome, and sometime painted with variable coulours, with two or three hundred men, women and children following it with great devotion. And this being reared up ... then fall they to daunce about it, like as the heathen people did at the dedication of the Idols, wereof this is a perfect pattern, or rather the thing itself. I have heard it credibly reported (and that viva voce) by men of great gravitie and reputation, that of forty, threescore, or a hundred maides going to the wood over-night, there have scarcely the third of them returned home againe undefiled.' [CHORUS] HAL AN TOW, JOLLY RUMBLE OH WE WERE UP LONG BEFORE THE DAY OH TO WELCOME IN THE SUMMER TO WELCOME IN THE MAY OH THE SUMMER IS A-COMIN' IN AND WINTER'S GONE AWAY OH TAKE NO SCORN TO WEAR THE HORN IT WAS A CREST WHEN YOU WERE BORN YOUR FATHER'S FATHER WORE IT AND YOUR FATHER WORE IT TOO [CHORUS] ROBIN HOOD AND LITTLE JOHN HAVE BOTH GONE TO THE FAIR OH AND WE WILL TO THE MERRY GREEN WOOD TO HUNT THE BUCK AND HARE OH [CHORUS] WHAT HAPPENED TO THE SPAN-IARD THAT MADE SO GREAT A BOAST OH THEY SHALL EAT THE FEATHERED GOOSE AND WE SHALL EAT THE ROAST OH [CHORUS] THE LORD AND LADY BLESS YOU WITH ALL THEIR POWER AND MIGHT OH AND SEND THEIR PEACE UPON US AND BRING PEACE BY DAY AND NIGHT OH [CHORUS] -- another version ROBIN HOOD AND LITTLE JOHN THEY BOTH ARE GONE TO FAIR O! AND WE WILL GO TO THE MERRY GREEN-WOODS TO SEE WHAT THEY DO THERE, O! AND FOR TO CHASE THE BUCK AND DOE. [CHORUS] WITH HAL-LAN-TOW. RUMBLE-O! FOR WE WERE UP AS SOON AS ANY DAY O! AND FOR TO FETCH THE SUMER HOME, THE SUMMER AND THE MAY O! FOR SUMMER IS A COME, O! AND WINTER IS A GONE O! WHERE ARE THOSE BOLD SPANIARDS THAT MAKE SO GREAT A BOAST O! WHY THEY SHALL EAT THE GREY GOOSE FEATHERS, AND WE WILL EAT THE ROAST, O! IN EVERY LAND, O! THE LAND WHERE'ER WE GO. [CHORUS] -- another version differently titled: SUMER IS ICUMEN IN dating to 1240, as recorded in the Wessex dialect [music] SUMER IS ICUMEN IN, LHUDE SING CUCCU, GROWETH SED, AND BLOWETH MED AND SPRINGTH THE WUDE NU SING CUCCU! AWE BLETETH AFTER LOMB LHOUTH AFTER CALVE CU; BULLUC STERTETH, BUCKE VERTETH MURIE SING CUCCU, CUCCU, CUCCU! WEL SINGES THU CUCCU NE SWIK THU NAVER NU. in modern words: SUMMER IS COME IN, LOUD SING CUCKOO! GROWETH SEED, AND BLOWETH MEAD AND SPRING'TH THE WOOD NOW SING CUCKOO! EWE BLEATETH AFTER LAMB, LOWETH AFTER CALF [the] COW. BULLOCK STRTETH, BUCK VERTETH MERRY SING, CUCKOO; CUCKOO, CUCKOO! WELL SING'ST THOU CUCKOO NOR CEASE THOU NEVER NOW. --