Flowers of the Forest
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This Scottish folk song is a lament for the deaths of the King, many of his nobles, and over 10,000 men - the Flowers of the Forest - at the battle of Flodden Field in 1513, a significant event in the history of Scotland. The song, in Scots, is also known as The Floo'ers o' the Forest (are a' wede away) and describes the grief of women and children at the loss of their young men. In some ways the song echoes the poem Y Gododdin about a similar defeat in about 600.
Translating uncommon words the first verse could read:
- I've heard the singing, at the ewe-milking,
- Lasses a-singing before dawn of the day;
- But now they are moaning on every milking-green;
- "The Flowers of the Forest are all withered away".
The song is mentioned in The Scots Musical Museum as The flowres of the Forrest, and the air (or tune) apparently survived, but several versions of the words were written down later, the most usual being by Jean Elliot published about 1755 - see links below.
A powerful song by the Scots / Australian singer-songwriter Eric Bogle, No Man's Land, contains repeated reference to Flowers of the Forest, and muses over the grave of a World War I soldier, each chorus asking, of his burial, did the pipes play the Flowers of the Forest?. This song has been covered by June Tabor, and matches Bogle's And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda about the Gallipoli landings in the same war.
External links
- Traditional Scottish Songs - The Flowers of the Forest (http://www.rampantscotland.com/songs/blsongs_forest.htm)
- Flowers of the Forest (http://www.contemplator.com/scotland/forest.html)
- The Scottish Poetry Library (http://www.spl.org.uk/popular/flo-of-for.html)