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Weird Moments in Folk Song
May. 25th, 2006 02:18 pmWeird Moments in Folk Song
Consider the song, "The Bitter Withy," which attempts to answer the questions, "Was Jesus a big old pompous brat as a kid?" and, possibly more importantly (your mileage may vary), "Was Jesus a kid who got away with murder, or at least partially involuntary manslaughter?"
Now, the words to one version of this song, from Mudcat's Digital Tradition Database, are below, so feel free to refer to them as we go along. This isn't the version I know best, but the story is almost identical.
So in the story, Jesus asks his mum if He can go out and play ball. She says, like many mothers might, "Sure, but don't you get in any trouble!" and off He goes.
He encounters three boys and asks them to play with Him, but they are all rich children of rich parents, and they think themselves too good to play with Jesus.
So Jesus makes a rainbow bridge to run over the river on, and the three rich boys follow Him and are drowned.
When he comes home, the rich mothers call Mary out to tell her that Jesus is responsible for the drowning of their sons! Mary is quite upset by this (after all, three boys are dead), so she takes a handful of withy twigs and gives Jesus three lashes.
Jesus' response to this punishment? He curses the withy tree.
Now, I've got (and have always had) some questions about this song, which I think was first collected in the early part of the 20th century. First of all, what kind of tree is a withy? Is it likely to die young? Secondly, why would a ballad commonly sung in England in 1912 portray Jesus as such a brat? There are "cleaned-up" versions that have Mary suggesting He kill the boys and Jesus admonishing her that no, there is too much good in the world for him to do. And, if you were a small boy getting lashed with a handful of twigs by your mum, would you be angry with her, or would you curse the tree that gave its twigs to make the switch?
What do you think? No matter your faith or opinion of Jesus personally (assuming you've met Him), isn't it a little odd that He'd be portrayed this way in a reasonably well-known song?
( Words to the version of this ballad that Cecil Sharp collected below the cut. )
Consider the song, "The Bitter Withy," which attempts to answer the questions, "Was Jesus a big old pompous brat as a kid?" and, possibly more importantly (your mileage may vary), "Was Jesus a kid who got away with murder, or at least partially involuntary manslaughter?"
Now, the words to one version of this song, from Mudcat's Digital Tradition Database, are below, so feel free to refer to them as we go along. This isn't the version I know best, but the story is almost identical.
So in the story, Jesus asks his mum if He can go out and play ball. She says, like many mothers might, "Sure, but don't you get in any trouble!" and off He goes.
He encounters three boys and asks them to play with Him, but they are all rich children of rich parents, and they think themselves too good to play with Jesus.
So Jesus makes a rainbow bridge to run over the river on, and the three rich boys follow Him and are drowned.
When he comes home, the rich mothers call Mary out to tell her that Jesus is responsible for the drowning of their sons! Mary is quite upset by this (after all, three boys are dead), so she takes a handful of withy twigs and gives Jesus three lashes.
Jesus' response to this punishment? He curses the withy tree.
Now, I've got (and have always had) some questions about this song, which I think was first collected in the early part of the 20th century. First of all, what kind of tree is a withy? Is it likely to die young? Secondly, why would a ballad commonly sung in England in 1912 portray Jesus as such a brat? There are "cleaned-up" versions that have Mary suggesting He kill the boys and Jesus admonishing her that no, there is too much good in the world for him to do. And, if you were a small boy getting lashed with a handful of twigs by your mum, would you be angry with her, or would you curse the tree that gave its twigs to make the switch?
What do you think? No matter your faith or opinion of Jesus personally (assuming you've met Him), isn't it a little odd that He'd be portrayed this way in a reasonably well-known song?
( Words to the version of this ballad that Cecil Sharp collected below the cut. )
