Origins
The rhyme was first printed by James Hogg in Jacobite Reliques in 1820, as a Jacobite song about the Battle of Sheriffmuir (1715) which includes the words:
Ken you how a Whig can fight,
Aikendrum, Aikendrum?
Ken you how a Whig can fight, Aikendrum?
He can fight the hero bright,
With swift heels and armour light,
And his wind of heav'nly might, Aikendrum, Aikendrum!
Is not Rowley in the right, Aikendrum?
Sir Walter Scott in his novel The Antiquary (1816) refers to Aiken Drum in a story told by an old beggar about the origins of what has been perceived by the protagonist as a Roman fort. The beggar tells him that it was actually built by him and others for "auld Aiken Drum's bridal" and that one of the masons cut the shape of a ladle into the stone as a joke on the bridegroom. The reference suggests that the rhyme, and particularly the chorus, was well enough known in the early nineteenth century for the joke to be understood.
Aiken Drum is also the name given by William Nicholson to the fairy the "Brounie o Blednoch" (1825) in the poem of that name. Although this has led some folklorists to speculate that the song may derive from older fairy legends, there is no evidence of the name being used for a brownie before this point, and it may have been borrowed from the existing song.
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