Annotation:Daniel of the Sun (2)

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DANIEL OF THE SUN [2] (Dónall na Gréine). AKA and see "Bonny Highlander (The)," "Bottle of Brandy (The)," "Bucky Highlander (The)," "Bully for You," "Daniel Drunk," "From the Court to the Cottage," "Girls of the West", "I Gave to My Nelly," "Leg of the Duck (1) (The)," "Nelly's Jig," "O My Dear Judy," "O My Dear Father Pity your Daughter," "Petticoat Loose [1]," "Potatoes and Butter," "She is the Girl that Can Do It/She's the Girl that Can Do It," "Sonny Dan/Sunny Dan," "Thady You Gander/Tady You Gander," "Teddy you Gander," "'Tis Sweet to Think," "Western Jig (The)," "You May Talk as You Please." Irish, Double Jig or Air. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. This version is a close relative of "Daniel of the Sun" [1] and [3], especially structurally. Source Micho Russell indicated the Gaelic title of the song translated literally as "Daniel of the Stroke," referring to someone with sunstroke. It was a fairy tune, said Micho, and told the story of a man who lived in a small thatched house by the side of the road. The man became very ill, but was able to rise and happened to go out to the road one night where he met a stranger who inquired after his health. The man replied that he was indeed very sick, "and I cannot get better." The stranger said that if he was able to play this tune until morning he should be all right, and proceeded to lilt a tune which was listened to very carefully. Upon returning to his dwelling, the man practised the tune on his old tin whistle, and sure enough, by morning's light his sickness was gone. Breathnach (1976) prints the beginning of the song:

Comaion is frolic chuir Artúr a bhailis
Ar Dhónall na Gréine;
Má chuala sibh a thréithe
Go gcaithfeadh sé seachtain ag ól I dtíi leanna
'S ná titfeadh néal air,
B'annamh dith céille air.

Arthur Wallace put an obligation and a frolic
On Dhónall na Gréine;
If you heard of his traits,
That he would spend a week drinking in an ale house
And that gloom would never fall on him,
And that folly was a rarity with him (Literal translation by Paul de Grae).

The song appears in Seán Ó Dálaigh's Poets and Poetry of Munster (1849), though not usually sung to the version Breathnach gives. Breathnach says it is apparently in praise of Dhónall na Gréine, though "it is a complete pretence." He remarks that in districts in which Irish was formerly spoken a common lilt survives, which goes "Dónall ar meisce is a bhean ag ól uisce is na leanaí ag béicigh, na leanaí ag béicigh" (Donall drunk and his wife drinking water and the children roaring, and the children roaring). English ditties to the tune go by the title "From the Court to the Cottage," "Girls of the West," "I gave to my Nelly," "Thady you Gander," and "Tis sweet to think." See also the related "Gillan an Drover."

Source for notated version: flute and whistle player Micko Russell, 1967 (Doolin, Co. Clare, Ireland) [Breathnach].

Printed sources: Breathnach (CRÉ II), 1976; No. 10, p. 7. Cotter (Traditional Irish Tin Whistle Tutor), 1989; No. 17. Russell (The Piper's Chair), 1989; p. 7.

Recorded sources:

See also listing at:
Alan Ng's Irishtune.info [1]

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