| Cutty Wren | |
| Published: | 1776 |
| Genre: | English folk song |
"The Cutty Wren" and its variants such as "The Hunting of the Wren" are traditional English folk songs. The origins and meaning of the song are disputed. It is number 236 in the Roud Folk Song Index.
The song is thought by some to represent the human sacrifice of the Year King, or the symbolic substitute slaughter of the wren as "king of the birds" at the end of the year for similar purposes, and such songs are traditionally sung on Boxing Day (26 December), just after the winter solstice. 26 December is sometimes called St Stephen's Day or Wren Day. These rituals are discussed in The Golden Bough.
It is alternatively attributed to the English Peasants' Revolt of 1381, and the wren is supposed to be the young king Richard II, who is killed and fed to the poor. However, there is no strong evidence to connect this song with the Peasants' Revolt. The idea seems to have originated in A.L. Lloyd's 1944 book The Singing Englishman.[1] The liner notes to Chumbawamba's album English Rebel Songs 1381–1914 state categorically that the song was written in the fourteenth century. However, the earliest known text is from Herd's "Scots Songs" of 1776. The song is given no title, but begins with these words:
The dialect word "cutty", meaning "small" or "short", is found in Northern England and the Scottish lowlands,[2] [3] suggesting that versions of the song that use the word come from these regions.
Variants of the song exist across the British Isles. In Orkney a version called "The Brethren Three" (published 1915) describes the song as a lullaby. ("We'll aff tae the wids, says Tosie Mosie"). Aside from the English and Scottish versions, it exists in Welsh (Hela'r Dryw") and Manx ("Helg Yn Dreain").[4]
In the USA the song has undergone considerable evolution into the song "Billy Barlow", first known in 1916.
See main article: Wren Day. The Hunting of the Wren is thought by many folklorists to be related to the nursery-rhyme Who Killed Cock Robin. On or near the winter solstice people hunted and killed the wren for its supposed misdeed. The custom of killing wrens on 26 December was mostly stamped out in the British Isles by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, according to William S. Walsh in Curiosities of Popular Customs.
In Ireland a hunt for the wren generally took place on St Stephen's Day (26 December). In a procession the same night, lads dressed in bizarre costumes made of straw and colourful cloth carried branches from which hung the body of the wren, as they sang:
On the Isle of Man, up to the end of the eighteenth century, the ceremony (which has parallels in France and Galicia) was observed on Christmas morning.
American versions mention a squirrel, rat or other small animal rather than a wren. The Chieftains' stage performances have included dancers dressed as Wrenboys in straw clothes. This has been captured on the album The Bells of Dublin, which includes six tracks devoted to the ceremony, singing and dancing.
The song has also been recorded numerous times from traditional singers in England; versions are available on the British Library Sound Archive from Newcastle,[5] Hull,[6] Oxfordshire[7] and Lancashire.[8]
Joe and Winifred Woods of Douglas, Isle of Man, sang a version of the song learnt in their childhood to Peter Kennedy in 1965, which can be heard on the British Library Sound Archive website.[9]
A few versions were recorded in the United States[10] [11] including one sung by Don Gaetz of Clifton, Arkansas in 1967,[12] which can be heard via the Max Hunter Folk Collection website.[13]
There is a Breton tune called "The Wren", played by Maggie Sansone on the album A Celtic Fair (2007), but it is not clear if this is related to the ceremony.
Jack Bruce utilized the melody of "Cutty Wren" for the bass part in the Cream's 1968 song "Pressed Rat and Warthog."
A 1990 parody of the song, titled "Hunting the Cutty Wren", can be found on the album "Oranges and Lemmings" by the Mrs Ackroyd Band, with lyrics by Les Barker, performed by Martin Carthy and June Tabor.
Cutty Wren is also the name of a ship in the novel Nation by Terry Pratchett.[14]