in the major key

[faeriemaiden]

I began the first day of my summer holidays by doing the one thing I long to do all school-year long: sleeping in. Really I only slept till a bit after ten thirty, but I lay in bed for a while, sleepily listening to the wind and having pleasant sleepy thoughts. And, er, then I rolled over for the iPod and had a bit of quality Angel time.

Comments

[burningstarsxe]

for reasons I will probably explain later. (YOU WILL ALL LAUGH AT ME.))

If they're Spike related reasons, I won't laugh. ;)

[faeriemaiden]

Well, actually, someone on an LJ community compared Buffy/Spike in S6 to "Tam Lin", which...didn't quite fit, because he wasn't turning into stuff (although the First could possibly stand in for the Faerie Queen), and she didn't exactly rescue him. But that's not my reason just now, and I can't tell you my reason just yet. ^-^

I will also make the order right now that you are forbidden to watch "Smile Time" without me. *nods*

[burningstarsxe]

Right, right. H and I won't be getting to it for a bit, anyway.

[everydayjoy]

Mm, Summer -- and cookies and friends and writing groups and bicycles...

[othergoose]

That sounds like an awesome thesis paper! I'm sure there are tons of books on the subject, though I unfortunately don't know of any off the top of my head. Do you have access to a university library? I don't know if your typical public library would have a substantial section on ethnomusicology/ballads, so it might be worth your while to take a day trip to an academic library if one isn't too far away. On that note, I just did a quick search on my college library catalogue for English ballads and came up with this. Maybe some of those will be of use? Or at least give you an idea of where to start.

Also, you may want to spend some time at The Mudcat Café. It's a great resource when it comes to traditional songs and ballads, and they may be able to give you some leads

[charismitaine]

Ooh, that sounds like an awesome paper! I can't recommend any books that would be useful for research (although you should definitely check out The Book of Ballads, edited and illustrated by Charles Vess, just for fun--and perhaps as an example of ballads in modern culture, and I can think of a handful of novels influenced or based on ballads, if you're interested in a list of titles), although The Contemplator is a great online resource for ballads, as a quick guide where you can find the lyrics and abbreviated histories for hundreds of ballads, as well as links to some of their variations.

The only versions of Tam Lin that I had until just now (hurray! more versions!) are by Tempest, a strange Celtic rock group that my brother listens too, and an instrumental version by Linn Barnes and Allison Hampton. And I have quite a few folk songs of various types, some of them off of obscure recordings from the library, so if you're looking for versions of a specific song or want a bunch of random ones let me know!

[lady_moriel]

I heart "Tam Lin" too, I think mostly because of Fire & Hemlock even though it confused the heck out of me. I also heart "Scarborough Faire" and want to collect more versions of it than I have presently got, which is like...three. I really want to do a Scarborough Faire retelling, actually...

*won't laugh* *will comment more later*