Text 5919, 104 rader
Skriven 2006-08-10 10:23:00 av Robert E Starr JR (6416.babylon5)
Ärende: Re: OT: Wicker Man remake
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* * * This message was from Amy Guskin to rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.m * * *
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>> On Thu, 10 Aug 2006 10:50:13 -0400, kruegerb76@hotmail.com wrote
(in article <1155221413.647605.97260@q16g2000cwq.googlegroups.com>):

>=20
> Amy Guskin wrote:
>>>> Although, there is the John Barleycorn
>>> angle to it (but the grain has already been fertilized), so I don't
>>> see the requirement of virginity to be necessary. <<
>>=20
>> John Barleycorn would only come into play if they were at the point of
>> harvest.  Wasn't the John Barleycorn sacrificial aspect done in that o=
ld
>> horror flick "Harvest Home"?  I haven't seen that one in decades, but =
I have
>> a vague recollection...
>=20
> I just googled a short summary of the John Barleycorn myth.  It has to
> be one of the strangest stories I've ever read.  LOL
>=20
> "The story goes that three men swear that John Barleycorn must die.
> They decide to take a plough and bury him alive. But the spring comes
> and he rises through the soil. After a while he grows big and strong,
> even growing a beard, so the three men cut him down at the knee, tie
> him on to a cart, beat him, strip the flesh off his bones and grind him
> between two stones. But at the end it is John Barleycorn who defeats
> his opponents, proving the stronger man, by turning into beer."
>=20
>=20
> I had to read that twice to make sure it really said "beer" and not "a
> bear".      :o <<

Yeah, that's the text practically straight out of the folk song - which I=
=20
sing every Lughnasadh at our group's ritual.  You do realize that they ar=
e=20
singing (talking) about _corn_, and not about some guy actually named "Jo=
hn=20
Barleycorn," right?  ;-)

Here are the lyrics as Traffic performs the song:

There were three men came out of the West,
Their fortunes for to try,
And these three men made a solemn vow:
John Barleycorn must die.

They've ploughed, they've sewn, they've harrowed him in,
Threw clods upon his head,
And these three men made a solemn vow:
John Barleycorn was dead.

They've let him lie for a very long time,
=8CTill the rains from heaven did fall,
And little Sir John sprung up his head,
And so amazed them all.

They've let him stand =8Ctill midsummer's day,
=8CTill he looked both pale and wan,
And little Sir John's grown a long, long beard,
And so become a man.

They've hired men with the scythes so sharp,
To cut him off at the knee,
They've rolled him and tied him by the way,
Serving him most barbarously.

They've hired men with the sharp pitchforks,
Who pricked him to the heart,
And the loader he has served him worse than that,
For he's bound him to the cart

They've wheeled him around and around the field,
=8CTill they came unto a barn,
And there they made a solemn oath,
On poor John Barleycorn.

They've hired men with the crab-tree sticks,
To cut him skin from bone,
And the miller he has served him worse than that,
For he's ground him between two stones.

And little Sir John and the nut-brown bowl,
And he's brandy in the glass;
And little Sir John and the nut-brown bowl,
Proved the strongest man at last.

The huntsman, he can't hunt the fox,
Nor so loudly to blow his horn,
And the tinker he can't mend kettle nor pot,
Without a little Barleycorn

Amy
                                                                               
          
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