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The Jovial Hunter of Bromsgrove [Roud 29]

by Jon Wilks

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about

Sometimes a title just catches you, doesn't it? Maybe it's just me, but this one tickles me good and proper. Maybe it has to do with memories of friends from Bromsgrove when I was a teenager – good friends; a funny bunch – but the idea of there being a proud knight roaming the area and plucking troubled ladies from trees... It's all a bit Monty Python.

lyrics

These lyrics are an attempt to fit Benjamin Brown’s version to my own arrangement. For a more accurate reading, please see Roy Palmer’s book, mentioned above.

Sir Robert Bolton had three songs
Wind well thy horn, good hunter
And one of them, Sir Rylas,
Well, he was a jovial hunter

And he’s ranged all round the woodside
Wind well thy horn, good hunter
And in a treetop a lady he spied
For he was a jovial hunter

Now what’s thou mean, fair lady?
Wind well that horn good hunter
Well, the wildest boar has killed my lord
And thou art a jovial hunter

So he’s put his horn all in his mouth
Wind well that horn good hunter
And he’s blowed north, east and west and south
Did Rylas the jovial hunter

And the wild boar’s heard him in his den
Wind well thy horn good hunter
And he’s made the best of speed to him
To Rylas the jovial hunter

And they fought four hours in a long summer’s day
Wind well thy horn good hunter
Till the wild boar, feign, would’ve gotten away
From Rylas the jovial hunter

So Rylas drew his sword with might
Wind well that horn good hunter
And he’s fairly cut his head off quite
Did Rylas the jovial hunter

The from the woods a wild woman flew
Wind well thy horn good hunter
Saying, “My pretty spotted pig thou hast slew”
And thou art a jovial hunter

“If there’s one thing I demand of thee”
Wind well thy horn good hunter
“It’s that my sword and thy neck they shall agree”
Says Rylas the jovial hunter

So Rylas drew his sword again
Wind well thy horn good hunter
And he’s fairly cut her head in twain
Did Rylas the jovial hunter

In Bromsgrove Church they both do lie
Wind well thy horn good hunter
With the boar’s head on a spike nearby
To Rylas the jovial hunter

credits

released March 16, 2020
Traditional, arranged and recorded by Jon Wilks

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all rights reserved

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Jon Wilks Whitchurch, UK

'The sort of performer folk circles mean when they talk of the living tradition' - Mike Davies, Folking.com

“One of the best of the New Wave of Folk Blokes. As a guitar player and arranger of traditional songs, Jon Wilks already deserves speaking of in the same breath as your Simpsons and your Morays.” – Ian A. Anderson, fRoots Mag
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