Lord Saltoun and Auchanachie
Encyclopedia
Synopsis
Its heroine, Jeannie, is to be married off at the insistence of her father to a wealthy man, Lord Saltoun, but she is in love with Anachie Gordon, the subject of the song. The song chronicles her resistance to the marriage before she is eventually dragged to the church. Jeannie refuses to sleep in the same bed until her father comes down and tells her maid to undo her gown. Jeannie collapses at her father's feet and dies for love of Anachie. Anachie, having been away at sea, returns where Jeannie's distressed maidens tell him that Jeannie has been married in his absence and has now died of a broken heart. Anachie tells the maidens to take him to the chamber where Jeannie lies and then, having kissed her cold lips, also dies of a broken heart.Versions
The words were printed in Maidment's "North Countrie Garland" (1824) and in Buchan's "Ancient Ballads and Songs 2" (1828). The tune was first printed in Bronson's "Traditional Tunes of the Child Ballads". The story is along the lines of "Romeo and JulietRomeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written early in the career of playwright William Shakespeare about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular archetypal stories of young, teenage lovers.Romeo and Juliet belongs to a...
", with the two lovers dying at the end. Sometime between 1800 and 1829 a broadsheet
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...
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...
called "A New Song" was printed. In it the name "Auchanachie Gordon" has been replaced by "Hannah Le Gordon" but is otherwise very similar. It is hard to explain why the hero has been given a girl's name. Perhaps the Scots name was so unfamiliar to the Newcastle printer than he made a somewhat garbled choice of name.
Nic Jones
Nic Jones
Nicolas Paul "Nic" Jones is an English folk singer, fingerstyle guitarist and fiddle player whose professional career spanned the years 1964-1982. He recorded five solo albums, and was a frequent guest performer.-Biography:...
recorded the song as Annachie Gordon on his 1977 album "The Noah's Ark Trap" (1977). Mary Black
Mary Black
Mary Black is an Irish singer. She is well known as an interpreter of both folk and contemporary material which has made her a major recording artist in her native Ireland, and in many other parts of the world....
included it using the same name on the album "Mary Black". Loreena McKennitt
Loreena McKennitt
Loreena Isabel Irene McKennitt, CM, OM, is a Canadian singer, composer, harpist, accordionist and pianist who writes, records and performs world music with Celtic and Middle Eastern themes. McKennitt is known for her refined, clear soprano vocals...
recorded it on "Parallel Dreams" (1989). Other versions include 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...
's on "Always" (2005), Sharon Shannon
Sharon Shannon
Sharon Shannon is an Irish musician. She is best known for her work with the accordion and for her fiddle technique. She also plays the tin whistle and melodeon. Her 1991 album Sharon Shannon is the best selling album of traditional Irish music ever released there...
's on "Libertango" (2004), John Wesley Harding
John Wesley Harding
John Wesley Harding may refer to:* John Wesley Harding , a 1967 Bob Dylan album* John Wesley Harding , the title track of this album* John Wesley Harding , English singer...
's on "Trad Arr Jones" (1999) and Oliver Schroer
Oliver Schroer
Oliver Schroer was a Canadian fiddler, composer, and music producer.-Early life:Oliver Schroer grew up in Vandeleur, Ontario, a small crossroads near Markdale in rural Grey County. He attended Grey Highlands Secondary School in Flesherton, where he played French horn in the school band. He also...
's instrumental version on "Celtic Devotion" (1999). Sinéad O'Connor
Sinéad O'Connor
Sinéad Marie Bernadette O'Connor is an Irish singer-songwriter. She rose to fame in the late 1980s with her debut album The Lion and the Cobra and achieved worldwide success in 1990 with a cover of the song "Nothing Compares 2 U"....
also recorded a version on the Sharon Shannon Collection released in 2005, and Gabrielle Angelique recorded the song on her Album: "Dance with the Stars" (2006). The Unthanks 2009 Album "Here's the tender coming" also contains a version. The earliest professional recording was by Berzilla Wallin on "Old Love Songs and Ballads from the Big Laurel, North Carolina" (1964).
Almost all Child Ballads
Child Ballads
The Child Ballads are a collection of 305 ballads from England and Scotland, and their American variants, collected by Francis James Child in the late nineteenth century...
were recorded by Ewan MacColl
Ewan MacColl
Ewan MacColl was an English folk singer, songwriter, socialist, actor, poet, playwright, and record producer. He was married to theatre director Joan Littlewood, and later to American folksinger Peggy Seeger. He collaborated with Littlewood in the theatre and with Seeger in folk music...
, Peggy Seeger
Peggy Seeger
Margaret "Peggy" Seeger is an American folksinger. She is also well known in Britain, where she lived for more than 30 years with her husband, singer and songwriter Ewan MacColl.- The first American period :...
or Burl Ives
Burl Ives
Burl Icle Ivanhoe Ives was an American actor, writer and folk music singer. As an actor, Ives's work included comedies, dramas, and voice work in theater, television, and motion pictures. Music critic John Rockwell said, "Ives's voice .....
, but in this case we have one of the rarest Child ballads. On stylistic grounds it has been suggested that most of the recent recordings are based on Nic Jones's version. They use the place-name "Harking" (which doesn't exist) instead of "Buchan" (which does exist, in Aberdeenshire
Aberdeenshire
Aberdeenshire is one of the 32 unitary council areas in Scotland and a lieutenancy area.The present day Aberdeenshire council area does not include the City of Aberdeen, now a separate council area, from which its name derives. Together, the modern council area and the city formed historic...
). Mary Black has perhaps mis-heard Nic Jones. There is no known historical basis for the ballad, but the place name Buchan
Buchan
Buchan is one of the six committee areas and administrative areas of Aberdeenshire Council, Scotland. These areas were created by the council in 1996, when the Aberdeenshire unitary council area was created under the Local Government etc Act 1994...
would place it in the north of Scotland.
According to the Columbia State University website, it is "Possibly related to the Swedish ballad "Stolt Ingrid [Proud Ingrid]".