Reynardine is a traditional old English

English folklore

English folklore is the folk tradition which has developed in England over a number of centuries. Some stories can be traced back to their roots, while the origin of others is uncertain or disputed...

 ballad

Ballad

A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of British and Irish popular poetry and song from the later medieval period until the 19th century and used extensively across Europe and later the Americas, Australia and North Africa. Many...

; in versions most commonly sung and recorded today, Reynardine is a werefox

Lycanthropy

Lycanthropy is the professed ability or power of a human being to undergo transformation into a werewolf, or to gain wolf-like characteristics. The term comes from Greek Lykànthropos : λύκος, lykos + άνθρωπος, ànthrōpos...

 who attracts beautiful women to him so that he can take them away to his castle. What fate meets them there is usually left ambiguous.

The Mountains High

The original English

English folklore

English folklore is the folk tradition which has developed in England over a number of centuries. Some stories can be traced back to their roots, while the origin of others is uncertain or disputed...

 ballad

Ballad

A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of British and Irish popular poetry and song from the later medieval period until the 19th century and used extensively across Europe and later the Americas, Australia and North Africa. Many...

s, most of which date to the Victorian era

Victorian era

The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...

, are generally found under the title The Mountains High. In the original story, Ranordine (also given as Rinordine, Rinor Dine, Ryner Dyne, Rynadine, Randal Rhin or Randal Rine) is a bandit or outlaw who encounters a young woman in the wilderness and seduces or abducts her. The song ends with a warning to young women to beware of strange men.

"The Mountains High" appears not to be very old, since only one version was collected before 1800. A version appears in George Petrie's 1855 collection of ballads; other variants appear in a number of broadside

Broadside (music)

A broadside is a single sheet of cheap paper printed on one side, often with a ballad, rhyme, news and sometimes with woodcut illustrations...

 ballads from the nineteenth century. Washington Irving

Washington Irving

Washington Irving was an American author, essayist, biographer and historian of the early 19th century. He was best known for his short stories "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip Van Winkle", both of which appear in his book The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. His historical works...

 relates that the song had crossed the Atlantic and was being sung in Kentucky

Kentucky

The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...

 before 1832, and spread through North America in the nineteenth century as well.

A text of a circa 1814 broadside http://bodley24.bodley.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/acwwweng/ballads/image.pl?ref=Harding+B+25(1273)&id=09915.gif&seq=1&size=1

A new Song, called the

MOUTAINS [sic] HIGH.

ONE evening in my rambles two miles below Pimroy,

I met a farmer's daughter all on the mountains high,

Her beauty so enticed me, I could not pass her by,

So with my gun I'll guard her, all on the mountains high.

I said my pretty creature I'm glad to meet you here,

On these lonesome mountains, your beauty shines so clear,

She said kind sir, be civil, my company forsake,

For it is my opinion I fear you are some rake.

Said he I am no rake, I'm brought up in Venus' train,

I'm seeking for concealment, all in the judge's name,

Oh! if my parents they did know your life they would destroy,

For keeping of my company, all on the mountains high.

I said my pretty creature don't let your parents know,

For if you do they'll ruin me and prove my overthrow,

This pretty little young thing she stood all in amaze,

With eyes as bright as Amber upon me she did gaze.

Her ruby lips and cherry cheeks, the lass of Firmadie,

She fainted in my arms there, all on the mountains high,

When I had kissed her once or twice, she came to herself again,

And said kind Sir be civil and tell to me your name.

Go down in yonder forest, my castle there you'll find,

Well wrote in ancient history, my name is Rynadine:

Come all you pretty fair maids, a warning take by me,

Be sure you quit night walking, and shun bad company,

For if you don't you are sure to rue until the day you die

Beware of meeting Rynadine all on the mountains high.

Wood, Printer, Liverpool.

Reynardine and Lloyd's contributions

Although the name "Reynardine" is found in one 19th century version, the association with foxes, as well as Reynardine's supernatural characteristics, first arise in connection with a fragment of the ballad (a single stanza) that was collected in 1904 by Herbert Hughes

Herbert Hughes (musicologist)

Herbert Hughes was an Irish composer, music critic and collector of folk songs.He was born and brought up in Belfast, Ireland, but completed his formal music education at the Royal College of Music, London, graduating in 1901...

. The source's recollection of the ballad was that Reynardine was an Irish "faëry" who could turn into a fox. This ability (which is not suggested in any extant version of "The Mountains High") may have derived from the word "Reynardine": renard is French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

 for "fox

Fox

Fox is a common name for many species of omnivorous mammals belonging to the Canidae family. Foxes are small to medium-sized canids , characterized by possessing a long narrow snout, and a bushy tail .Members of about 37 species are referred to as foxes, of which only 12 species actually belong to...

".

Both Hughes and a friend named Joseph Campbell

Joseph Campbell (poet)

Joseph Campbell was an Irish poet and lyricist. He wrote under the Gaelicised version of his name Seosamh Mac Cathmhaoil...

 (not to be confused with the mythologist

Joseph Campbell

Joseph John Campbell was an American mythologist, writer and lecturer, best known for his work in comparative mythology and comparative religion. His work is vast, covering many aspects of the human experience...

) wrote short poems incorporating this stanza and the fox interpretation, aspects of which A. L. Lloyd

A. L. Lloyd

Albert Lancaster Lloyd , usually known as A. L. Lloyd or Bert Lloyd, was an English folk singer and collector of folk songs, and as such was a key figure in the folk music revival of the 1950s and 1960s....

 in turn adapted for his versions of "Reynardine" (see Winick 2004). Lloyd's versions incorporate several striking turns of phrase, including "sly, bold Reynardine" and "his teeth did brightly shine", that are not found in the original ballads.

Lloyd generally represented his versions of "Reynardine" as "authentic" folksongs (going so far as to claim to have collected the song from one "Tom Cook, of Eastbridge, Suffolk"), leading to the current state of confusion; few modern singers know that the "werefox

Lycanthropy

Lycanthropy is the professed ability or power of a human being to undergo transformation into a werewolf, or to gain wolf-like characteristics. The term comes from Greek Lykànthropos : λύκος, lykos + άνθρωπος, ànthrōpos...

" interpretation of the ballad is not traditional. Lloyd's reworkings are certainly more interesting to the modern listener than the simple and moralistic original ballads, and have gained far greater interest from singers and songwriters; his versions of "Reynardine" have served as inspiration for many additional modern reworkings.

A version of unknown origin from the late 19th century is called "A Vampyre Legend." In this variation, Reynardine is searching for concealment from "the Pious men", and the young woman's fainting and paling color are due to blood loss.

Modern versions of the song are performed on the albums Fire & Fleet & Candlelight

Fire & Fleet & Candlelight

Fire & Fleet & Candlelight was the fourth album by Cree singer and songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie.More than its predecessor Little Wheel Spin and Spin, it marked a significant departure from the simple folk songs of her first two albums...

by Buffy Sainte-Marie

Buffy Sainte-Marie

Buffy Sainte-Marie, OC is a Canadian Cree singer-songwriter, musician, composer, visual artist, educator, pacifist, and social activist. Throughout her career in all of these areas, her work has focused on issues of Indigenous peoples of the Americas. Her singing and writing repertoire includes...

, Liege & Lief

Liege & Lief

Liege & Lief is the fourth album by the English rock band Fairport Convention. It is the third and final album the group released in the UK in 1969, all of which prominently feature Sandy Denny as lead female vocalist...

by Fairport Convention

Fairport Convention

Fairport Convention are an English folk rock and later electric folk band, formed in 1967 who are still recording and touring today. They are widely regarded as the most important single group in the English folk rock movement...

, Milkwhite Sheets

Milkwhite Sheets

Milkwhite Sheets is the fourth solo album released by former Belle & Sebastian member Isobel Campbell. The album was released on October 23, 2006. It brings traditional songs from United Kingdom and songs written by Campbell...

by Isobel Campbell

Isobel Campbell

Isobel Campbell is a Scottish singer, cellist and composer in the indie and rock genres.-History:Campbell was a member of Belle & Sebastian from their formation in Glasgow in 1996 until 2002, when she departed the band for personal reasons. She played cello and keyboards with the band, and sang...

, Airs and Graces by June Tabor

June Tabor

June Tabor is an English folk singer.- Early years :June Tabor was inspired to sing by hearing Anne Briggs' EP Hazards of Love in 1965. "I went and locked myself in the bathroom for a fortnight and drove my mother mad. I learned the songs on that EP note for note, twiddle for twiddle. That's how I...

, Anne Briggs by Anne Briggs

Anne Briggs

Anne Briggs is an English folk singer. Although she traveled widely in the 1960s and early 1970s, appearing at folk clubs and venues in England and Ireland, she never aspired to commercial success or to achieve widespread public acknowledgment of her music...

, Rosemary Lane by Bert Jansch

Bert Jansch

Herbert "Bert" Jansch was a Scottish folk musician and founding member of the band Pentangle. He was born in Glasgow and came to prominence in London in the 1960s, as an acoustic guitarist, as well as a singer-songwriter...

, Weaving my Ancestors' Voices by Sheila Chandra

Sheila Chandra

Sheila Chandra is an English pop singer of Indian descent.-Indian-Western pop fusion period:Sheila Chandra first came to public attention as an actress, playing Sudhamani Patel in the BBC school drama Grange Hill from 1979 to 1981.As a teenager she formed the band Monsoon with Steve Coe , and...

, Arthur the King by Maddy Prior

Maddy Prior

Maddy Prior is an English folk singer, best known as the lead vocalist of Steeleye Span.-Early life:...

, Country Life by Show of Hands

Show of Hands

Show of Hands is an English acoustic roots and folk duo comprising singer-songwriter Steve Knightley and multi-instrumentalist Phil Beer. In recent years they have been accompanied on tour and in the studio by jazz double-bassist Miranda Sykes.-Origins:...

, Prince Heathen by Martin Carthy

Martin Carthy

Martin Carthy MBE is an English folk singer and guitarist who has remained one of the most influential figures in British traditional music, inspiring contemporaries such as Bob Dylan and Paul Simon and later artists such as Richard Thompson since he emerged as a young musician in the early days...

, Reynadine by Carolina Chocolate Drops and Dave Swarbrick

Dave Swarbrick

Dave Swarbrick is an English folk musician and singer-songwriter. He has been described by Ashley Hutchings as 'the most influential [British] fiddle player bar none' and his style has been copied or developed by almost every British, and many World folk violin players that have followed him...

, and Birds Fly South by Zoe Speaks, among others.

External links

• Fascimile of the c.1814 broadside of "The Mountains High" which is quoted above, at the Bodleian Library Broadside Ballads Project
• Fascimile of an undated 19th century broadside under the title "Reynardine" at the Bodleian Library Broadside Ballads Project. Compare to below.
• Reynardine Text of a version incorporating Lloyd's changes. MIDI file of the tune will play upon loading.
• Reynardine, a prominent character in the webcomic "Gunnerkrigg Court
  Gunnerkrigg Court
  Gunnerkrigg Court is a science-fantasy webcomic created by Tom Siddell and launched in April 2005. It is updated online three days a week, and the first volume of the comic was published in print format by Archaia Studios Press and Titan Books...
  
  ."
• MP3 of Reynardine performed by Daniel Dutton
  Daniel Dutton
  Daniel Dutton, born 1959 near Somerset, Kentucky, is a contemporary artist, lyricist, composer, artistic director, and amateur filmmaker, whose work combines visual, musical, and narrative arts. He is best known for his first opera, The Stone Man....
  
   and Susan Alcorn
• Song version of Reynardine as recorded by Fairport Convention
  Fairport Convention
  Fairport Convention are an English folk rock and later electric folk band, formed in 1967 who are still recording and touring today. They are widely regarded as the most important single group in the English folk rock movement...
  
   on their classic album Liege and Lief.
• Two paintings of Reynardine as a werefox may be seen at the webpage for Kentucky artist Daniel Dutton's "Ballads of the Barefoot Mind".
• Andy Irvine
  Andy Irvine (musician)
  Andrew Kennedy 'Andy' Irvine is a folk musician, singer, and songwriter, and a founding member of the popular band Planxty. He is an accomplished player of the mandolin, bouzouki, mandola, guitar-bouzouki, harmonica and hurdy-gurdy....
  
  , doing a rendition of Reynardine.