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Music, Myths and Fairy Tales
The Advent season is coming closer, the days are getting shorter and the smell of fresh pastries and cakes is in the air. Perhaps the first logs are already crackling in the fireplace or colorful candles are glowing on the table. Just the right time to make yourself comfortable in an armchair, sip a fragrant cup of tea, enjoy a hot cocoa or steaming mulled wine. Time to pick up a good book and remember the beautiful, magical world of myths and fairy tales. Just like Paul Mc Cartney did it with Rupert the Bear.
What fairy tales, myths and legends can you think of that you associate with distinctive music?
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83 Replies
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Scarborough Fair
It was 1966 when Simon & Garfunkel released their version of the song Scarborough Fair. It is a traditional English folk song that refers to the English coastal town of Scarborough, which was an important meeting place for merchants from all over England in the Middle Ages. A trade fair was held there, called the Scarborough Fair. However, the roots of the song are said to be even older and have their origins in the folk ballad “The Elfin Knight”. This ballad is about a young woman who is desired by an Elf. He wants to make her his mistress. She can only escape this fate by completing a series of difficult or impossible tasks and riddles.
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I saw Rupert and the Frog Song on TV just a few weeks after I discovered the Beatles in the mid-80’s. It was the first post-Beatle project by Paul that I was ever aware of, and I was so impressed that he would make such good use of his talents to entertain children.
The first song/myth connection that comes to my mind is the Broadway musical Camelot, about a love triangle among King Arthur (Richard Burton), Queen Guenevere (Julie Andrews), and Sir Lancelot (Robert Goulet).
Here, taken from the later film adaptation, is the obligatory sappy love song with lyrics that are generic enough for it to be sung at weddings and such:
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Hi David, thanks for the video. I’m not sure when I first heard or read about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. I remember as a child I had a big illustrated storybook that told the story of Arthur, the wizard Merlin and the sword Caliburn. The second time I encountered King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table was in a Hollywood movie adaptation, and the third time it was the Walt Disney movie “The Sword in the Stone“. I liked the animated film best. I didn’t know that there was a musical on the subject. You’re right, the song sounds like typical movie music from the 60’s and sounds a little cheesy, but I’m glad that you have remembered Camelot and share the video here. It’s nice to remember things you haven’t thought about in a long time.
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The Irish legend of Tír na nÓg
In Irish mythology, Tir na nOg is a place outside the human world, far to the west where there was neither disease nor death, but only happiness and beauty. According to the legend, the mysterious Fae should live there. Fae literally means “the beautiful ones”. They are powerful beings gifted with magic, often ancient or immortal.
The most famous saga of Tir na nOg is the story of the young Irish warrior Oisin, who fell in love with the flame-haired maiden Niamh, whose father was the king of Tir na nOg. Together they crossed the sea on Niamh’s white mare to reach the magical land where they lived happily for three hundred years.
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Hi Jurgen. I think the Beatles had a great ability to tap into the little child in all of us with their music, like in “Yellow Submarine” that Paul wrote for a childrens album but ended up becoming a number 1 hit song that charted for weeks. I remember feeling it’s child like imaginative appeal on a school bus field trip in high school as the full bus load of young teenagers started singing along to it.
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Hi Jung, thank you very much for sharing the video. Originally I had intended to introduce this topic with the song Yellow Submarine, but then I decided for Paul & Rupert. So I can cross the song now off my to do list. I saw Yellow Submarine for the first time on TV when I was maybe 13 years old. So at that time I was already quiet a Beatles fan. However the movie irritated me. I liked and still do like animated films, but Yellow Submarine was somehow different. The drawing style was unusual, the film characters seemed very peculiar and even the long instrumental music passages were unusual. Pepperland, the Blue Meanies, the Dreadful Flying Glove. From today’s point of view still a work of art and certainly not a children’s film, as was usual for animated films at that time. A brilliant masterpiece and ahead of its time.
And when I hear the song now, I spontaneously have to think about the Beatles song Octopuss Garden. One more time with the light sailor Ringo at the microphone and again it goes off into the depths of the seas. This time into the mysterious kingdom of Neptune. I think it is one of the few songs that have been covered by both Sesame Street, The Muppet Show at the same time. But in my opinion it is not a children’s song. With Yellow Submarine and Octopuss Garden, the Beatles managed to write songs that include all genarations.
PS: Tom in case you might be reading along: I chose Spanish subtitles this time. You as a Spanish and French expert, don’t you know maybe sagas or fairy tale songs from these countries?
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Juergen, I posted this a couple of years ago, but it’s worth resurrecting for your amusement:
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Thanks 🙂
(I did not know this version yet, or have simply forgotten. And then also in german… . When I was in my first year of school, I was completely embarrassed that I watched sesame street because the credits always said: for children of preschool age) Here is another one:
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Juergen, I watched Sesame Street until I was seven, and its sequel series The Electric Company until I was eleven. There was nothing really for me to learn, but both shows were incredibly entertaining!
When I was eight my teacher asked everyone in the class to name their favorite TV show. I was prepared to be laughed at for choosing an educational program, but it turned out that half the class named The Electric Company.
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It’s nice of you to try to build me up David, but you watched Sesame Street until you were seven. I watched it from the age of seven. I knew that something was going wrong in my personal development… . But it was entertaining, you’re right. And what should I watch as a child? We had only three television programs at that time.
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And this one written by Paul too, transformed into beauty and elegance by Mona and Lisa. For me it kind of takes me into a fairy tale world of little trinkets that were once someone’s prized possession, but now sits unused in a thrift store or antique shop shelf for a new owner. These little trinkets that have become “junk”, may have been important to someone who is no longer here and has a story and mystery behind it.
I remember the day I drove my old beater Mustang to the Ford dealership to trade it in for my brand new Mustang. I remember taking all the documents out of the glove box and feeling a little sadness that I am abandoning this car that gave me so much joy, life, and adventures for the previous 13 years. This song starts off with “motor cars,….”, that kind of takes me there. I wonder what happened to that car?
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I was wondering if there was a song by Mona & Lisa that would fit here. And you found the song. Thanks Jung. A very nice song with a catchy, sensitive melody. And a thoughtful lyric. If things in the dump had a soul and could talk, it could tell us many stories. Stories of joy, passion, love, devotion but also of separation, loss and abundance.
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A well-known pop song about a well-known legend:
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The selection of your music titles I find very exceptional and really well done David. I first had to look up who Crispian St Peters is at all and then I found out that I already know his song “You were on my mind” and I like it very much. Then I researched what “The Pied Piper” means: Ah! “Der Rattenfänger von Hameln” (“The Pied Piper of Hamelin”), if I understood the lyrics correctly. I always thought that in the US-American area Irish or English sagas are more popular. How do you estimate that: are also the sagas and fairy tale worlds of other (European) countries represented with you?
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Juergen, I don’t know if I speak for most Americans, but I grew up assuming that pretty much all fairy tales I was aware of originated in Europe, which was part of what made them so exotic. (And at the time I didn’t differentiate between the UK and continental Europe.) My entire perception of Europe when I was little was based on what I read in Grimms’ Fairy Tales!
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David, as a child I also had a thick fairy tale book by the Brothers Grimm together with my sister. It was already quite worn and slightly tattered. I don’t know exactly what the book itself had already experienced. Popular with us are also the stories of the Dane Hans Christian Andersen: For example, „The Snow Queen“ (Die Schneekönigin), „The Little Mermaid” (Die kleine Seejungfrau), “The Ugly Young Duckling” (Das häßliche junge Entlein). I don’t know if I translated the titles correctly. I always found Andersen’s collection of fairy tales very serious and I didn’t like them that much, probably because the stories, like so many other fairy tales, were not originally intended for children at all. And then we have a lot of legends: Every region has its own fantasy figures. You have already introduced the “Pied Piper of Hamelin”. Very well known is “Rübezahl” a giant mountain ghost, perhaps similar to “Paul Bunyan” but he is not good-natured like Paul. Perhaps the most famous legend is the “Nibelungensage”. It comes from the Germanic and Nordic area and goes back to the time of the migration of peoples in Europe and includes “Siegfried the dragon slayer”, who gained great fame through the opera cycle “The Ring of the Nibelungs” by Richard Wagner. But you probably know most of the things for sure. And one saga is especially popular with tourists who take a tour on the Rhine River:
„Die Lorelei vom Rhein“ (The Lorely from the Rhine). Once, in times long past, the virgin Loreley lived in a cave on the Rhine. She sang with a sweet voice, so that all listened enchanted. When the rock walls reflected the warm glow of the evening sun or the surface of the water reflected the light of the moon, one could often spot the fairy-like figure of the Loreley high up on the rock. Many of the passing skippers were so taken by the song that they no longer paid attention to their course and crashed on the treacherous rocks. Yet few had ever seen the beautiful maiden up close. To the fishermen, whom the Loreley was fond off, she showed the places in the river where a rich catch could be expected.
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Based on the Fairy Tale „Schneekönigin“ by Hans Christian Andersen
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Davy dances with several fairy tale characters in this Monkees song and video. Don’t ask.
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The video of the Monkees is really very nicely done. This oversized room, the huge furniture and in comparison the tiny people. No, the ladies of the round really do not need to be introduced. The Brothers Grimm would have had their real fun with this and this is a good transition to one of their most famous fairy tales: “Cinderella” or also “Aschenputtel” or “Aschenbrödel” called. The fairy tale is partly based on Charles Perrault’s “Cendrillon ou la Petite Pantoufle de verre” (Cinderella or the Little Glass Slipper) from 1697.
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“Goldilocks For Awhile” brings us to the topic of dancing beauties:
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…and a few more dancing beauties…
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I remember seeing this one as a kid:
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Paul Byan, another unknown variable in my life (here with us unfortunately completely unknown). Again, I first had to research who the young man with the really big axe actually is, and I found the following:
“Paul Bunyan is a figure of American legend; many stories surround the massive lumberjack and his blue ox, Babe, originally from Bangor, Maine. The legends revolve mainly around their huge proportions: for example, it is said that Paul’s babe bed was used to build seven ships, and that Babe needed an iron mine each time he needed new horseshoes.”
Well, a really big boy.
Thanks David.
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How could we forget this one?
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Wow David, I would certainly have forgotten Lady Godiva, I didn’t remember her at all, but another lady comes to mind instead:
PS: (for those of you who haven’t been paying close attention in English history, like me for example, here’s a little reminder I found on the internet:
„Godiva is the subject of a legend documented since the 13th century: the people suffered from the tax burden for which her husband was responsible. Lady Godiva could not bear to see the people suffer. She tried hard to persuade her husband to lower the tax burden. He replied that he would not lower the taxes until she rode naked through the city. For Leofric did not expect his wife to dare to do so. But she thereupon rode through the town, covered only by her openly worn, uncut fullness of hair. Leofric, impressed by his wife’s courage, thereupon waived all taxes except those on horses“.)
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Well, as a kid in the 70s, on Canadian TV, I got introduced to The Irish Rovers because of the weekly TV show program they had on CBC, I think it was, but my favorite segment was the Leprechaun skits… always fairytale like, and the movie “Never Ending Story”, with Limahl singing the theme song which I have the 45 of, and there are others , but these come to mind in particular for me ????♀️
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Hi Jacki. Thanks for your reply. Yes, „The Never Ending Story“ is a beautiful book and also a beautiful movie. The author “Michael Ende” has written many great books, actually mainly youth books. “Momo” and “Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver” („Jim Knopf und Lukas der Lokomotivführer“) are among his greatest successes, along with „The Neverending Story“.
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Shangri-La
Shangri-La is a fictional place in Tibet. It is described in the utopian novel „Lost Horizon“ by the British writer James Hilton and was published in the 1930s. The book is about a paradisiacal Garden of Eden called „Shangri La”. This place is hidden in the vastness of the Himmalaya Mountains, unrecognized by the Western world. Its inhabitants keep the spiritual treasures of mankind, protected from wars and catastrophes. Since then, the name „Shangri La” has been synonymous with security, happiness and peace.
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And of course, where there is Shangri-La there must also be Xanadu:
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Xanadu, Shangdu, Kubla Khan? Never heard of it. Do you mean the movie with Olivia Newton John? 🙂
To put it positively: I like the song very much, the rest could have been left out.
PS: “The Legend of Xanadu” is a funny song. Especially the part with the whip is hot (it reminds me of Indiana Jones). I didn’t know it was by Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich (is there actually a short form of the band name?!).
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Well, I was using the definition of Xanadu that Wikipedia cites: “a metaphor for opulence or an idyllic place”. It was also the name of the estate of the title character in Citizen Kane.
I wasn’t familiar with that ONJ movie or song. You’re right; the song’s not bad.
I’ve seen the group’s name abbreviated as DDDBM&T, but I don’t think they had an official shorter name. Their producer said “we wanted to stress their very distinct personalities in a climate which regarded bands as collectives”.
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Ah yes, always loved ONJ’s “Xanadu” song … ever since I saw her in Grease at a drive in with my mom/brothers away back when… I enjoyed a few other songs of hers back in the day , and “Xanadu” was one of them….lol
Besides “Never Ending Story” and the ” Return of Jedi” movie in scenes of the Ewok Village where they sing and you see the ghosts of Ben-Obi Wan , Anakin Skywalker, Yoda…. and there’s others tgat I know but just can’t all recall at the moment …
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Hi Jacki, nice selection. Do you mean that scene from the space fairy tale where the good guys get the really big party going?
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