Alternative Versions Recounted By Paddy Tunney
The traditional singer Paddy Tunney relates how Colum "wrote" the song after returning from a literary gathering in Donegal with Herbert Hughes and others. Tunney suggests, however, that it would be more accurate to say that Colum simply improved an original traditional song which at that time had splintered into many variations throughout Ireland.
Tunney himself collected one version from an Irish singer called Barney McGarvey. This version was called I Once Had A True Love. The opening four lines are reminiscent of She Moved Through The Fair and the second four lines are unmistakably similar.
The words to the first verse are:
I once had a sweet-heart, I loved her so well
I loved her far better than my tongue could tell
Her parents they slight me for my want of gear
So adieu to you Molly, since your are not here
I dreamed last night that my true love came in
So softly she came that her feet made no din
She stepped up to me and this she did say
It will not be long love, till our wedding day
The remaining two verses, however, are quite different. Nevertheless, this opening verse shows how songs could be changed and adapted as they were passed down in the oral tradition.
Tunney also points to a version of the song which he learnt from his mother which she called, My Young Love Said to Me. The first verse is virtually the same as Colum's but the remaining three verses are quite different and describe how the woman in the song went off with another man. It is as follows:
My young love said to me, my mother won't mind
And my father won't slight you for your lack of kind
And she went away from me and this she did say:
It will not be long now till our wedding day.
She went away from me and she moved through the fair
Where hand-slapping dealers' loud shouts rent the air
The sunlight around her did sparkle and play
Saying it will not be long now till our wedding day.
When dew falls on meadow and moths fill the night
When glow of the greeesagh on hearth throws half-light
I'll slip from the casement and we'll run away
And it will not be long love till our wedding day
According to promise at midnight he rose
But all that he found was the downloaded clothes
The sheets they lay empty 'twas plain for to see
And out of the window with another went she
Colum's version is more subtle. It gives no explanation for the young woman's disappearance, which gives the song a sense of mystery and allows the listener the freedom to interpret it in his or her own way.
Read more about this topic: She Moved Through The Fair
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