Annotation:Fairy Lullaby (The)

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FAIRY LULLABY, THE (An Coineachan). Scottish, Slow Air (6/8 time). A Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). One part. A Highland song (in, for example, Moffat's Minstrelsy of the Scottish Highlands and Songs of the Western Isles/Frances Tolmie Collection) that has to do with once held belief that an unattended child could be stolen by the fay folk. The superstition is encapsulated in the song in which a woman had placed her baby in a basket on the ground by a bush while she was out picking berries, to gather some berries just out of reach. When she turned she found her child gone, and, after circling the bush in vain, she sings this song. The caution not to leave a young one unattended is driven home in the end, when she fails to find her baby.

Dh'fhàg miÆn seo 'na shìneadh e,
'Na shìneadh e, 'na shìneadh e;
Gu'n dh'fhàg mi'n seo 'na shìneadh e
'Nuair dh'fhalbh mi 'bhuain nam braoilegan.

CHO:
Hò-bhan, hò-bhan, Goiridh òg O
Goiridh òg O, Goiridh òg O
Hò-bhan, hò-bhan, Goiridh òg O
Gu'n dh'fhalbh mo ghaoil 's gu'n dh'fhàg e mi.
[Ho-van, ho-van gorry o go,
gorry o go, gorry o go;
Ho-van, ho-van gorry o go,
I never found my baby o.]

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Martin (Ceol na Fidhle), vol. 2, 1988; p. 29.

Recorded sources:

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