I know I know it’s been a minute everyone, and that is entirely because ya girl been busy with the beginning of a new school year… also some ADHD other stuff, but busy. All of which leaves very little time for side projects. That said, it’s likely that I’ll only be getting out a new episode once every other week or so for a bit. I mean if I wanted to just present the songs this podcast would take no time at all, but to make it mean something takes time. Anyways, I hope the wait pays off because this one is going to be a longer one. Now, if you’ve been paying attention then you’ll notice that there has been a lot of unplanned pregnancy in many of these songs. The outcomes of which can vary wildly. Sometimes you and the baby get murdered like Polly, sometimes you end up on the street with your kid, only to leave it with some John, but most of the time you just ended up on the street with your kid, only to die early. One of the things we haven’t talked about is abortion because it like everything else we’ve talked about is absolutely nothing new. So today I thought we’d look at a couple of examples of abortion being mentioned and then look at the Granny-women tradition of Appalachia that was a direct descendent of traditional village herbalism and healing. I want to get a quick shout-out to the podcast The Strange South, who gave me a bit of inspiration on this one in their episode 103 Granny Women and Cotton Roots. If you like Southern Urban Legends and mysteries, then please give them a listen. Even if you don’t, and you like that sassy southern lady tone, then please give them a go because they are amazing.
Anyways… abortion. Today we’ll start with a really well-known ballad that is part of the Child collection, Tam-Lin. It’s also one of the songs that got me into this topic in the first place. The Ballad or story of Tam Lin is from the Scottish borderlands, which is the area… as you may have guessed, that is the border between England and Scotland, and it’s a place that is truly overflowing with story and myth, and Tam-lin remains one of the most popular among all the witches, red-caps and pixies. It’s been made into story, song, movie, and book.Here’s one of the reasons I love this song so much. It’s fantastical but also there’s enough truth in it to make one wonder if it is in fact real. That’s the kind of stories I live for, ones where only the thinnest of veils divide between one world and the next.
There’s evidence of the place names in the story. Tam Lin is said in the story to live in CarterHaugh, which letters from 1598 show were held by a Sir Walter Scott of Branxholm, which he had held in lordship for some time. It lies between Branxholm and the village of Lyne, which was held by the de Lyne family until the 1200s when it was settled in marriage to the de Hay’s. Now, the original is in what’s called Scots dialect, which if you aren’t familiar with, can be a bit hard because there are a lot of words that may seem familiar to the average English reader, but unless you are used to reading or speaking it, can cause some confusion. The first mention of the song was from 1549 in The Complaynt of Scotland, but nothing of the song was published until 1769 when fragments appeared in Herd’s Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs:
The Ballad of Tam Lin Child Version 39A
O I forbid you, maidens all',
That wear gold on your hair,
To come or go by Carterhaugh,
For young Tam Lin is there.
There's none that goes by Carterhaugh
But they leave something there,
Either their rings, or green mantles,
Or else their maidenhead.
Janet has kilted her green skirt
A little above her knee,
And she has braided her yellow hair
A little above her brow,
And she's away to Carterhaugh
As fast as she can.
When she came to Carterhaugh
Tam Lin was at the well,
And there she sees his steed standing,
But away was himself.
She had not pulled a double rose,
A rose but only two,
Till upon then started young Tam Lin,
Says, Lady, thou must pull no more.
Why pulls thou the rose, Janet,
And why breaks thou the wand?
Or why comes thou to Carterhaugh
Withoutten my command?
"Carterhaugh, it is my own,
My daddy gave it me,
I'll come and go by Carterhaugh,
And ask no leave at thee."
Janet has pulled her green kirtle
A little above her knee,
And she has braided her yellow hair
A little aboon her brow,
And she is to her father's hall,
As fast as she can.
Four and twenty ladies fair
Were playing at the ball,
And out then came the fair Janet,
The flower among them all'.
Four and twenty ladies fair
Were playing at the chess,
And out then came the fair Janet,
As green as bottle glass.
Out then spake an old grey knight,
Lay over the castle wall,
And says, Alas, fair Janet, for thee,
But we'll be blamed all'.
"Hold your tongue, ye old fac'd knight,
Some ill death may ye die!
Father my babe on whom I will,
I'll father none on thee."
Out then spoke her father dear,
And he spoke meek and mild,
"And ever alas, sweet Janet," he says,
"I think thou are with child."
"If that I am with child, father,
Myself alone shall bear the blame,
There's never a laird about your hall,
Shall get the babe's name.
"If my love were an earthly knight,
As he's an elfin grey,
I would not give my own true-love
For no lord that you have.
"The steed that my true love rides on
Is lighter than the wind,
With silver he is shod before,
With burning gold behind."
Janet has kilted her green kirtle
A little above her knee,
And she has braided her yellow hair
A little above her brow,
And she's away to Carterhaugh
As fast as she can.
When she came to Carterhaugh,
Tam Lin was at the well,
And there she found his steed standing,
But away was himself.
She had na pu'd a double rose,
A rose but only two,
Till up then started young Tam Lin,
Says, Lady, thou pulls no more.
"Why pulls thou the rose, Janet,
Amoung the groves so green,
And all to kill the bonny babe
That we got us between?"
"O tell me, tell me, Tam Lin," she says,
"For Christ’s sake that died on tree,
If ever you was in holy chapel,
Or Christendom did see?"
"Roxbrugh he was my grandfather,
Took me with him to dwell
And once it fell upon a day
That woe did me betide.
"And once it fell upon a day
A cold day and a snell,
When we were from the hunting come,
That from my horse I fell,
The Queen o' Fairies she caught me,
In yon green hill do dwell.
"And pleasant is the fairy land,
But, an eerie tale to tell,
At at the end of seven years,
We pay a tithe to hell,
I am so fair and full o flesh,
I'm feard it be myself.
"But the night is Halloween, lady,
The morn is Hallowday,
Then win me, win me, an ye will,
For well I know ye may.
"Just at the mark of midnight hour
The fairy folk will ride,
And they that would their true-love win,
At Miles Cross they may abide."
"But how shall I thee know, Tam Lin,
Or how my true-love know,
Amang so many unknown knights,
The like I never saw?"
"O first let pass the black, lady,
And soon let pass the brown,
But quickly run to the milk-white steed,
Pull you his rider down.
"For I'll ride on the milk-white steed,
And I nearest the town,
Because I was an earthly knight
They give me that renown.
"My right hand will be gloved, lady,
My left hand will be bare,
Cockt up shall my bonnet be,
And kaimed down shall my hair,
And thae's the takens I gie thee,
No doubt I will be there.
"They'll turn me in your arms, lady,
Into an ask and adder,
But hold me fast, and fear me not,
I am your child's father.
"They'll turn me to a bear so grim,
And then a lion bold,
But hold me fast, and fear me not,
And ye shall love your child.
"Again they'll turn me in your arms
To a red hot band of iron,
But hold me fast, and fear me not,
I'll do you no harm.
"And last they'll turn me in your arms
Into the burning coal,
Then throw me into well water,
O throw me in with speed.
"And then I'll be your own true-love,
I'll turn a naked knight,
Then cover me with your green mantle,
And hide me out o sight."
Gloomy, gloomy was the night,
And eerie was the way,
As fair Jenny in her green mantle
To Miles Cross she did go.
At the mark of the midnight hour
She heard the bridles sing,
She was as glad at that
As any earthly thing.
First she let the black pass by,
And soon she let the brown,
But quickly she ran to the milk-white steed,
And pulled the rider down.
So well she minded what he did say,
And young Tam Lin did win,
Soon covered him with her green mantle,
As blythe's a bird in spring
Out then spoke the Queen o Fairies,
Out of a bush o broom,
"Them that has gotten young Tam Lin
Has gotten a stately-groom."
Out then spoke the Queen o Fairies,
And an angry woman was she,
"Shame betide her ill-far'd face,
And an ill death may she die,
For she's taken away the bonniest knight
In all my companie.
"But had I known, Tam Lin," said she,
"What now this night I see,
I would have taken out thy two grey eye,
And put them in yon tree."
There’s a lot of early feminist kind of head-strong I do what I want kind of energy in this song, but one very specific line is important to pay attention to and that’s: "Why pulls thou the rose, Janet,
Amoung the groves so green/ And all to kill the bonny babe/That we got us between?"
In the whole story, it can be easily overlooked, but its presence is a clear indication that most women have traditionally understood that certain plants would induce a miscarriage, saving them from the tragedy that could come from an unplanned pregnancy. Or perhaps from the burden of one more mouth to feed when you can’t even afford to feed yourself or your other children.
Regardless which direction you look at it birth has always been a matter of life and death. Ever wonder why every fairytale characters seems to have a dead mother? First of all, as there was no decent form of prevention, pregnancy was much more likely to happen in the first place. This ties into that old image of the bedraggled housewife with 10 under 10 at her heals. The oldest girl helping by taking care of the youngest, and that didn’t include all the children that had likely died early. Historically 1 in 4 children died before one and almost half died before adulthood. That means if you had 10 births, at least 2 would die before the age of one, and probably another 3-4 would die before reaching maturity. That’s not including all the miscarriages and stillbirths.
Let’s look at Queen Anne as an example. This is a woman who would have had the best of medical care, the best of diet, and everything else to lend to a successful birth. Despite this, she had 17 pregnancies, none of which survived. Of all her pregnancies she had five stillborn children, and seven miscarriages, and of the children that were successfully birthed, two lived less than a day, and two died under the age of two. Only one child lived through to the age of 11 and that was Prince William, and he is listed as having died of an unknown disease.
I give her as an example because if it was this bad for the Queen of England, how much worse could it be for the average woman?
The gift of life is eternally tied with the shadow of death, and so when a woman discovered she was pregnant, many would make sure their affairs were in order because their chance of dying in labor was so high.
So, every woman was forced with the choice of possibly dying from childbirth or losing yet another child early. Death was the larger possibility on one side of the other. Now, I’m not here to talk about the should she shouldn’t she, I’m just talking about the fact that it, like so much we talk about here is nothing new. It was always a hushed topic spoken of only in women’s circles, and often they knew who to turn to, the mid-wife or wise woman. In Appalachia, she’s called the Granny woman, and she’s an amazing example of how the traditions of Early Modern England and Scotland continued little changed over hundreds of years, hidden high in the hills where the people were left to live as they would by those lowlanders of the Carolina Coasts.
When there was no formal doctor within easy reach, you reached out to the granny woman, who knew all the herbal remedies for whatever was bothering you. From an elderberry cough syrup to resetting bones, the grannywoman was who you went to, and that lady was the local healer, and typically an older woman who’d been working and learning the arts of various forms of healing since a young age. She was also often the only affordable option the average person had as she would often take whatever you could afford, even if it was just a bit of food.
However, to end this I want to take another look at an example that is from a bit later, about 1750 and that’s called “Bonnie Jean of Aberdeen” which also alludes to abortion in a few different ways.
There are a couple of really interesting plays that happen in this song. The first is in the lines:
“If you should take your word and rue?/what should become of Jenny then?”
There is a double word play here in rue as in regret. Meaning that Jean is asking Jockey what would she do if he ended up regretting lying with her and ran off? However, rue is also a traditional abortifacient herb, that can also be really deadly… just like childbirth.
The second actually comes from the woodblock that goes with the song. It’s much more intricate than any we’ve seen so far, but it is also chock-o-block full of symbolism. There are two figures in the woodblock. The one on the right is likely Apollo as indicated by his sunlike crown, and the other is Hermes as indicated by him carrying the healing staff caduceus. Now, both of these figures are associated deeply with alchemy, so it’s likely this woodcut was just reused from some previously printed book on alchemy or medicine, but the fact that it is paired with this song about abortion is telling that even the male printers knew the significance of the use of rue. There are also some mixed messages because the center of the image is full of pears, a symbol of the divine feminine abundance, as well as cornucopias and pomegranates, symbols of fertility. While there is a large open box dead center that gives space for where a title should be, it is also highly symbolic of that empty feminine that a place for growth. It’s almost as if the printer themselves couldn’t make up their mind of where they fell in the argument.
All that said, I give you:
MY bonny Jean long have I been
a seeking thee from morn to een;
Thy bonny face so full of grace
the like is not in Aberdeen.
I was as brisk as any lad
when first thy bonny face I saw
Come sit thee down my bonny maid
and give to me kiss or twa.
A kiss or twa if I should give
I know not how it may be tane,
For suddenly youd me betray,
tis better for to lie alane,
First you must seek and Ill say nay,
you know a womans modesty
Come slide your hand about my neck,
when I cry cease, let me not be.
What would I give (I tell the truth,)
for one sweet kiss of thee my dear
For all the pleasures of this earth,
theres nothing can with thee compare.
Thy cherry cheeks thy coal black hair
a brisker lass was never seen,
Theres none with thee that can compare
in Edinburgh or Aberdeen.
When first thy bonny face I saw,
such charming eyes were never seen;
Thou art the true prospect of grace
the like is not in Aberdeen.
Thy beauty fair doth me ensnare,
since eer I saw your bonny face,
Therefore my dear you need not fear,
to grant me that charming bliss.
Since I have houses and lands enough,
to portion me with any man,
If you should take your word and rue
what should become of Jenny then?
If you have lands at your command
a good housewife you then shall be
I think then for a priest well send
and then my dear well married be..
My bonny Jean where have you been
and thy minny seeking thee;
I have been down in yonder green
kissing Jockie, and Jocky me.
My minny sent me to the well,
the night was dark I could not see
My foot did slip and then I fell,
and Jocky fell on the top of me,
My bonny Jean thou goes with bairn,
say the lass, how can that be,
For he lay nere a night with me,
But six and seven four and three.
But if he be cunning, Ill be crafty,
if he be crafty, Ill be slie;
If he were the bonniest lad in the land,
hell nere get another bairn with me.
And with that, I’ll be saying a good saucy night. However, just a heads up it may be a few weeks before I get another out. Just depends on how much career stuff is going on.
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