Mulan

I discussed this ballad/legend in Stories from Songs. Here is Adam YJ's look at it:
http://www.fairytalefandom.com/2015/04/the-stuff-of-legends-mulan.html

"While the original story may be a bit bare bones, the ability of this story to change with the times and cultures and appeal to new generations really does make it The Stuff of Legends!"

Ballad Spotting: Thomas the Rhymer

From: Feature Interview: Seanan McGuire

by Paul Goat Allen

http://www.fantasy-magazine.com/new/new-nonfiction/feature-interview-seanan-mcguire/

 

I studied folklore in college, and I’m still studying it now, as an adult. I expect to be studying folklore for the rest of my life. With that in mind, I truly believe that the current blurring of the borders between fantasy, horror, and romance are not representative of a mutation; they’re representative of a bunch of walls we didn’t really need finally coming down. The oldest stories we have were, at the time, what we would classify as “urban fantasy” today. Thomas the Rhymer?  His mother was dead when he was conceived, and he was carried to term in her coffin (horror). He fell in love with the Queen of Faerie, calling her “Queen of Heaven” and charming her heart (romance). So she took him to the fairy lands to dwell by her side (fantasy), even though they had to wade through red blood to the knee to get there (horror). Eventually, he chose to leave her to return to his own kind, and she cursed him with honesty (fantasy). In the end, he returned to her, and to Faerie, forevermore (romance). When this story was new, the settings it used were as familiar to the people who heard it as Chicago or Melbourne or San Francisco will be to modern readers of urban fantasy.
In some of the oldest forms of the Snow White/Rose Red story, there’s a third sister, Lily Fair. I like to say that urban fantasy writers are the Children of Lily Fair, the ones seeking the balance between Snow White’s fantasy and Rose Red’s horror. We’re the place where the lines drop away, and that’s a beautiful place to be.

Ballad spotting: The Mermaid: Child Ballad 289

http://surlalunefairytales.blogspot.com/
The Mermaid: Child Ballad 289: "

One of the side benefits of working on the SurLaLune fairy tale anthologies is that I am becoming more familiar with various Child Ballads. While I enjoy ballads, they hadn't inspired much research on my part until the last few years. (There just isn't the time to do everything that interests me!)

I previously posted about Clerk Colvill, Child Ballad 42, which I enjoyed as I edited Mermaid and Other Water Spirit Tales From Around the World. The other ballad I included in the collected is Child 289 and I personally prefer it over Clerk Colvill. Most commonly known as The Mermaid, seven versions from Child appear in my book under various titles, including Greenland, The Seaman's Distress, and The Stormy Winds Did Blow. As I read it, Iwanted to listen to it, so I hunted some versions down on the internet.

Here's the text to Child 289B, which more closely resembles many of the modern recorded versions. Actually, most of them tend to be a hybrid of 289A, 289B and 289C. The ballad draws from the superstition that when sailors spy a mermaid, a shipwreck is imminent.

ONE Friday morn when we set sail,
Not very far from land,
We there did espy a fair pretty maid
With a comb and a glass in her hand, her hand, her hand,
With a comb and a glass in her hand.
While the raging seas did roar,
And the stormy winds did blow,
While we jolly sailor-boys were up into the top,
And the land-lubbers lying down below, below, below,
And the land-lubbers lying down below.

Then up starts the captain of our gallant ship,
And a brave young man was he:
“I’ve a wife and a child in fair Bristol town,
But a widow I fear she will be.”
For the raging seas, etc.

Then up starts the mate of our gallant ship,
And a bold young man was he:
“Oh! I have a wife in fair Portsmouth town,
But a widow I fear she will be.”
For the raging seas, etc.

Then up starts the cook of our gallant ship,
And a gruff old soul was he:
“Oh! I have a wife in fair Plymouth town,
But a widow I fear she will be.”

And then up spoke the little cabin-boy,
And a pretty little boy was he;
“Oh! I am more grievd for my daddy and my mammy
Than you for your wives all three.”

Then three times round went our gallant ship,
And three times round went she;
For the want of a life-boat they all went down,
And she sank to the bottom of the sea.

One of my favorite versions isn't a recording for purchase, but a homemade video on YouTube which I am embedding below. I enjoyed the simplicity of the tune and the variations it offered on the ballad itself. Here it is:

As for recorded versions available for download, I preferred The Mermaid Song by the Floorbirds.

Other versions you might prefer include The Mermaid by The Pirates of St. Piran and The Mermaid by Celtic Stew.

"

unsettling wonder « The Paradoxes of Mr. Pond

unsettling wonder « The Paradoxes of Mr. Pond

Mr. Pond's post discusses the Grimms' tale of "The Singing Bone" which I discuss in my book Stories from Songs.

Ballad Alert

Jeremy Love's BAYOU, Volume 2, includes a very scary dude: Stagolee. The story also includes visual allusions to Robert Johnson. On one hand, the devil and on the other, the man who legend has it made a deal with the devil for his musical prowess. I am looking forward to Volume 3 to see how the story develops.

Sadko

Just to draw attention to the posting on SurLaLune Fairy Tales Blog on a picture book version of Sadko, one of the ballads (and books) I highlight in Stories From Songs.
http://surlalunefairytales.blogspot.com/2011/03/sea-kings-daughter-russian-legend-by.html

Ravenna by Stacey Curnow

"First off, it bases its story on my favorite King Arthur legend, Sir Gawain and the Loathly Lady (I’m partial to the Selina Hastings version myself)." Elizabeth Bird

Read the entire review at http://blog.schoollibraryjournal.com/afuse8production/2010/12/09/review-of-the-day-ravenna-by-stacey-curnow/

Ballad Spotting: Book Review

I have not read this novel as of yet but it certainly sounds intriguing and part of the Stories from Songs canon:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/bookreviews/7936795/Charles-Jessold-Considered-as-a-Murderer-by-Wesley-Stace-review.html

A book review

A lovely book review of Stories from Songs can be found at:
CM Magazine

An excerpt from the review by Kay Weisman:

De Vos's writing is thorough and scholarly, yet accessible. Each thematic chapter covers several relevant ballads; she provides plot summaries, alternate titles, performance histories, critiques of critical research, and discussions of contemporary literary versions, including novels, short stories, graphic novels, poetry, and internet resources. She also includes numerous tables that organize related details such as the developmental stages of a particular ballad or the variants of a song.

For example, author's section on "The Gypsy Laddie," from the chapter on tragic love stories, notes that this is a Child ballad, type 200, about a lady who, enchanted by the gypsies, follows their leader, Johnny Faa. Her husband rides to fetch her, killing 15 gypsies in the process. De Vos describes several common variations, noting artists such as Bob Dylan and Woody Guthrie and the versions they have sung. She cites more than fifty alternate titles for this song, including "How Old Are You My Pretty Little Miss?" and "Black Jack Davey," and summarizes the history of this ballad in a chart with entries dating back to Plato in the fourth century. In addition, she cites and describes more than thirty critical interpretations of this song, published between 1932 and 2004. She notes three related novels (including Philip Pullman's The Golden Compass), three short stories, three poems, one picture book, and three relevant web sites. Each literary adaptation is fully described and critiqued.

De Vos does not discuss melodies, preferring to concentrate instead on the stories. Her work is heavily footnoted, and her numerous references will serve as a useful resource for other researchers. Multiple indexes (author/illustrator/musician, ballad, and title) assure that readers will find what they are looking for, making this a good choice for high school or university fine arts collections.

Ballad Spotting: Twa Sisters

"The Mournful Lady of Binnorie: Based on a Scottish Ballad" by Bobbie Pell, a spirited (if you pardon the pun) retelling of "Twa Sisters" can be found in The August House Book of Scary Stories: Spooky Tales for Telling Out Loud, edited by Liz Parkhurst. August House, 2009, 27-33.

The story notes incorporate the ballad background and suggest that "you may wish to sing the protions that have remained in verse. Remember that a capella singing (without instrumental accompaniment) is also the traditional delivery style." (32) The sources Pell provides for her story include the Child Ballad, the adaptation by Lorenna McKennitt ("The Bonny Swans") and Joseph Jacobs prose version, "Binnorie."

More information on the many reworkings of this ballad can be found in my Stories From Songs.

Stories from Songs wins a 2010 Storytellling World Resource Award

Gail is proud to announce that her latest book, Stories from Songs: Ballads as Literary Fictions for Young Adults (Libraries Unlimited, 2009) is one of the winners of the Special Storytelling Resource Categories for the 2010 Storytelling World Resource Awards. More information can be found at:

http://www.storytellingworld.com/2010/

A reworking of Barbara Allen?

From http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/features/Book-reviews.5969185.jp

"A Fair Maiden: A Novel of Dark Suspense by Joyce Carol Oates is published by Quercus, priced £12.99.

Arguably one of Joyce Carol Oates's lesser works, A Fair Maiden: A Novel of Dark Suspense is a novella intricately linked to the anonymous Ballad of Barbara Allen about a young boy who dies of unrequited love for the callous young beauty, extracts of which are quoted in the text.

Infusing the novel with a mythical resonance, Oates weaves a different kind of tale, wherein 16-year-old nanny Katya Spivak from South Jersey is wooed by 68-year-old painter Marcus Kidder, a silver-haired member of posh Bayhead Harbour's established elite.

At first, his interest seems innocuous, even irreproachable, but then he insists they are "soul mates" and invites her to be his model and muse, eventually asking from her more than what she had bargained.

This brisk suspense is a story of intrigue, an examination of class differences and the complex permutations of love, revealing the curious results that stem from Katya and Mr. Kidder's unlikely relationship."

5/10 Review by Trisha Andres

Podcastle

Thanks to a Face book posting by Ellen Kushner today, I have been introduced to a treasure load of fantasy podcasts at http://podcastle.org/.

I found several relevant podcasts for Stories from Songs.

The most recent (relevant) podcast is that of Marie Brennan's Twa Corbies, read by Elie Hirschman which can be found at
http://podcastle.org/2009/12/16/podcastle-82-the-twa-corbies/

A second relevant podcast is that of Delia Sherman's Fiddler of Bayou Teche, read by Elizabeth Green Musselman. http://podcastle.org/2009/07/21/podcastle-62-the-fiddler-of-bayou-teche/

I will be posting additional links as I explore this site more fully.

Mulan News

One of the international ballads discussed in Stories from Songs is MULAN.

Cinematheque: Mulan is finally Chinese again! (and other film news)

This blog entry is adapted from:http://shanghaiist.com/2009/11/23/cinematheque_14.php




Mulan, the traditional Chinese ballad that was made into the 1998 Disney movie, is finally finding its way back home to its original country. Under the direction of Jingle Ma and with Zhao Wei in the leading role, the movie about the female warrior goes up on cinemas starting Friday.

"A-lister Zhao Wei plays the brave Mulan, who joins the army in place of her aging dad. For those who doesn´t yet know the story, it goes like this:

When the country is threatened by invaders, a young girl defends her father by sneaking away from home and dressing up as a man to join an all-male army where she eventually assumes a historically critical role in defending the nation in a time of war.

The making of a feature movie about Mulan has actually been going on for years, with a number of actresses considered for the lead role, including Michelle Yeoh, Zhang Ziyi and Liu Yifei. Unconfirmed news have leaked that Zhao was been engaged in horseback and combat training in preparation for the role.

Zhao is best known for her supporting role opposite Stephen Chow in the hilarious martial arts comedy Shaolin Soccer. As an active Mandarin pop singer and actress, Zhao is one of mainland China´s leading female entertainers. She´s had some screen fighting experience in past film and television roles under the action direction of veterans like Corey Yuen and Ching Siu-tung.

Chen Kun (Painted Skin) will portray Mulan´s lover and battalion commander Wen Tai. Child actor Xu Jiao will play the young Mulan and Russian pop singer Vitas will make a cameo.

Director of this romantic drama is Jingle Ma, a prominent Hong Kong cinematographer-turned director with past action credits whose most recent work was Butterfly Lovers, from 2008."

Ballad spotting: "Mad, Bad & Dangerous: The Demon Lover

In the latest issue of Realms of Fantasy (December 2009)there is a Folkroots article by SatyrPhil Brucato entitled "Mad, Bad & Dangerous: The Demon Lover." At a first quick glance the article focuses on the archetype of the Demon Lover with references to popular culture such as the Twilight series, numerous fairy tales such as Little Red Riding Hood. The article briefly alludes to numerous Child ballads such as "The Demon Lover," "Tam Lin," "Lady Isabel and the Elfin Knight" and "The Gypsy Lover" all discussed in my book Stories from Songs but alas, my book receives no mention.

Ah well, it is a worthwhile read nonetheless!

Spotlight on Stagger Lee

Filled with embedded videos of various artists singing/playing Stagger Lee:

"On this day in Jazz Music" blog available at http://jazzagemusic.blogspot.com/2009/10/spotlight-stagger-lee.html



This ballad is discussed in my most recent book, Stories from Songs.

Ballad Spotting: Dreiser's Murder Ballad

Additional material for Chapter 3 of Stories from Songs: Murder Ballads: Murdered Sweetheart: Female and Male.

Excerpt from Blog: Thimblewicket
Post: Catch and Release: "Dreiser's Murder Ballad"
Link: http://thimblewicket.blogspot.com/2009/09/catch-and-release-dreisers-murder.html

"Roark Mulligan's "Dreiser's Murder Ballad" is a well-researched, well-written piece on how the murder ballad genre influenced Dreiser's writing of An American Tragedy, but most people won't be able to read it because it exists in an obscure journal behind the firewall of expensive subscription-only databases."


"Mulligan says Dreiser was 'way more influenced by the popular ballads of his time than by simple newspaper research,and that he was more interested in replicating the pathos of a murder ballad than in writing an "accurate" crime novel. Dreiser used the stock elements of a murder ballad: young innocent chick is "soiled" by a handsome, maybe wealthy cad. . .gets her in the family way, lures her to remote spot with promises of marriage, kills her violently in ways that would do Tarantino proud, except: justice prevails and the tribe punishes him".

"Mulligan suggests that Dreiser's sympathies lay more with the murdered girl than with her murderer, but that late in his life, Dreiser entertained the notion that his book had actually inspired more murders, based on an unpublished essay, "American Tragedies," among Dreiser's papers at the University of Pennsylvania's Rare Books and Manuscripts."

Roark Mulligan, "Dreiser's Murder Ballad," Studies in American Naturalism, Summer 2008, Vo. 3, no. 1.


Posted by Cynthia Shearer at Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Mulan and Ballad Spotting

This posting is an update to my entry on "The Ballad of Mulan" in Stories from Songs. Two very recent reworkings of Mulan's story have been published: a young adult novel and a graphic novel aimed at middle school readers. Here is my take on these two reworkings:

Dokey, Cameron. Wild Orchid: A Retelling of “The Ballad of Mulan.” [Once Upon A Time Series]. Simon Pulse, 2009.

The product description states: “Wielding a sword as deftly as an embroidery needle, Mulan is unlike any other girl in China. When the emperor summons a great army, each family must send a male to fight. Tomboyish Mulan is determined to spare her aging father and bring her family honor, so she disguises herself and answers the call. But Mulan never expects to find a friend, let alone a soul mate, in the commander of her division, Prince Jian. For all of Mulan's courage with a bow and arrow, is she brave enough to share her true identity and feelings with Prince Jian? “

Readers familiar with the Ballad of Mulan will be quite surprised with Dokey’s retelling of her story. It is, indeed, much closer to the ancient song than the Disney movie but I can’t help thinking that the movie had a great deal of influence on this novel. The romantic male hero is introduced to the reader from the very beginning as the story of Prince Jian rescue by Mulan’s father and the subsequent reward to marry the woman he loves instead of a traditional arranged marriage is told to provide Mulan’s family background. Mulan’s mother dies in childbirth and her father refuses to come home to meet his daughter for the first thirteen years of her life. She is raised by servants and befriended by a young boy, Li Po, who shares all of his lessons with her. She grows up more than proficient in martial arts as well as in reading and writing.

There is much repetition regarding the fact that “there wasn’t a girl in all China who had my unusual combination of skills, not matter that I looked like a simple country girl on the outside” (31). When her father makes his way home, he is aloof, wounded and disgraced. Although it had always been one of her wishes to make her father love her, Mulan almost gives up the desire until she repairs his newly opened wound with her embroidery skills and a fragile relationship begins to build. This relationship continues when Mulan’s father remarries and impregnates his wife. A call to arms is received at this crucial point and Mulan secretly answers the call. She immediately makes contact with her old friend Li Po and her father’s best friend, both in the service of Prince Jian, the third but favourite son of the Son of Heaven. Her archery skills and acute strategic planning result in her heroic saving of the army in her one and only battle. Li Po is killed, Mulan wounded and her gender is discovered. As proclaimed in the ballad, Mulan is rewarded for her brave deeds but in the novel she deflects the reward to Prince Jian who can now choose his own path which, oddly enough, includes marriage to Mulan.

There is very little about Mulan as a warrior or honest heroine for China, instead this is another retelling of the romantic coming of age of a contemporary young adult dressed in ancient costume.

Hughes, Susan and Willow Dawson. No Girls Allowed: Tales of Daring Women Dressed as Men for Love, Freedom and Adventure. Kids Can Press, 2008.

The story of Mu Lan is only one of the tales included in this graphic novel but it is told with much more connection to the traditional ballad than Wild Orchid. In this brief telling, Mulan’s aging father is aware of her leaving for battle, Mu Lan spends many years as a soldier, gradually working her way up to general all the while keeping her true gender successfully hidden. She, too, declines the reward offered her but because of being homesick. After returning home and returning to her own identity, Mu Lan is visited by some fellow soldiers who are nonplused but not repulsed by the fact that she is a female. The short story ends as does the ballad with the words about Mu Lan’s disguise: “Two hares running side by side close to the ground, How can they tell if I am he or she?” (27) Jeanne M. Lee’s 1991 picture book is recommended for further reading in the back matter of the graphic novel.

Other stories included in this anthology: Hatshepsut, Alfhild, Esther Brandeau, James Barry, Ellen Craft and Sarah Rosetta Wakeman.

The book is highly recommended on the blog “The Graphic Classroom.” http://graphicclassroom.blogspot.com/2009/06/no-girls-allowed.html

Stories from Songs: Two Reviews

From Reference & Research Book News, May 2009, page 274.

PS476 2008-031208 978-1-59158-424-7
Stories from songs; ballads as literary fictions for young
adults.
De Vos, Gail.
Libraries Unlimited, ©2009 452 p. $45.00 (pa)
For storytellers, librarians, researchers and teachers in high schools and colleges who deal with folktales and ballads in their classrooms, De Vos (library and information studies, U. of Alberta-Edmonton) describes modern renditions of traditional ballads that might appeal to teenagers today. For each she sketches the plot, identifies alternative titles, traces its history, samples critical response over the years, and cites contemporary reworkings. The media she considers include novels, short stories, graphic novels, poetry, and of course recordings of the ballad itself. She and Anna E. Altman have produced two previous works that form a trilogy with this one.

From Internet Bookwatch

Lyrics are a form of poetry set to music. Like all good narrative poems, lyrics tell stories blending information, emotions, ideas, ideals, and entertainment. This is especially the case with the folk music genre. In "Stories From Songs: Ballads As Literary Fictions for Young Adults", Gail de Vos (Adjunct Professor, School of Library and Information Studies, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada) has compiled a 453-page seminal study of folk ballad origins, history, interpretation, and how they have both generally and specifically evolved over time. Illustrative ballads are thematically grouped into 'historical', 'riddle', 'murder', 'tragic love', 'other worldly', 'shape-shifting/female monster', as well as 'tricks and disguises'. Of special note are the chapters devoted to 'talking birds, singing bones, and materializing revenants'. Professor de Vos also includes chapters dedicated to 'ballads as national icons' and concludes with 'A Sampling of Other Ballads' ranging from the well-known 'Pretty Peggy-O' to the obscure 'The Walled-Up Wife'. Enhanced with the inclusion of two appendices, an Author/Illustrator/Musician Index, a Ballad Index, and a Title Index, "Stories From Songs" is an impressively presented, informed and informative scholarly study that is an essential edition to academic library collections and appropriate for both students of Folk Music History and non-specialist general readers with an interest in learning about the background and development of the ballad as a source of information, ethics, cultural development, and social entertainment for teenagers and young adults.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0SFC/is_2009_April/ai_n31587499

Robert Johnson and the Crossroads

"What's up man?" I asked.

"I don't know," he said. "I've just got a feeling."

"Like what kind of feeling?"

"Crossroads," he said.

What's that mean?

"There was this blues dude -- Robert Johnson--got to the crossroads, met the devil, and they struck up a deal. Sold his soul to the devil for some guitar licks."

"Yeah?"

Jonesy stood up and tucked the Bible under his arm. "I'm just wondering if I need to strike me up a deal," he said.

From Sunrise over Fallujah by Walter Dean Myers, Scholastic Press, 2008, page 28.

I have been running into the folklore of Johnson and his meeting with the devil at the crossroads quite frequently lately, particularly in the research I did for Stories from Songs. Possibly the most interesting contemporary reworking of this legend can be found in the manga Me and the Devil Blues: The Unreal Life of Robert Johnson, Volume 1 by Akira Hiramoto (Del Rey, 2005, English translation by David Ury, 2008). Highly recommended.