Written for the daily microfiction challenge vss365, and the imaginary history of the lost county of Hookland. The prompt was #verdant. There is a tune to this but I can’t write musical notation so imagine something old, with stamped foot and violin and clapping, harmonised voices and with that special melancholy that a fast melody gives to a weird tale. Ok, think the Unthanks or O’Hooley & Tidow.  I sang a lot of folk songs in primary school and I guess I never recovered.

This song is about a mysterious man who is caught and taken for punishment.

Colour painting of eighteenth century man dressed in green with a violin

They took Verdant Jones to the magistrate at Dogford.
They took Verdant Jones to be hanged.
And they said Verdant Jones how he wears the dead queen’s mantle
And they said he’s the uncommon man.

The rope sang and it sang
But he couldn’t be hanged
He fastened his collar and off he ran
It sang and it sang 
But he couldn’t be hanged
Verdant Jones was an uncommon man.

They say Verdant Jones used to play a pretty fiddle.
They say that he played for the king.
And the queen of the may took his hand and danced a rondeau
And she taught silken thread how to sing.

Oh it sang and it sang
For an uncommon man
She gave him a ribbon and off they ran.
Oh it sang and it sang
But he couldn’t be hanged
Verdant Jones was an uncommon man.

They hunted Verdant Jones all the way to Mayburn Forest
And he said that the queen was dead.
They took Verdant Jones with a ribbon in his collar
And a coat made of silken thread.

Old black and white sketch of a fiddler playing for two ladies all in 17th century dress

Oh it sang and it sang
And they said he would hang:
The queen of the land and a common man.
Oh it sang and it sang
But he couldn’t be hanged
Verdant Jones was an uncommon man.

They say Verdant Jones oh he walks among the lilies.
They say Verdant Jones has a wife.
And she wears woollen clothes like she never saw a throne
And she swears on the old king’s life.

Old colour drawing of offering gifts to the May Queen The rope sang and it sang
But he couldn’t be hanged
He fastened his collar and off he ran
It sang and it sang
But he couldn’t be hanged
Verdant Jones was an uncommon man.

18thC. Hookland, trad.

 

 

 

My favourite songs in primary school choir were O Rare Turpin Hero, more recently sung by Jake Bugg but this version by Ewan McColl is great; and the gypsy dance song by Kate T Sizer, which I can’t find. And there were a lot of sea shanties too. They snuck in a few God songs, but mostly it was highwaymen, smugglers and maidens running off with unsuitable scoundrels. All the good stuff, in other words.

I hope you like this contribution. let me know! And if you’re curious about Hookland, check out the Hookland hashtag on Twitter. -Sef