Songs so old the Vikings probably sang them

There are a number of English-language songs that have parallels in Scandinavian languages. While some of them are so old that they might have been present long before English was a language (proto-Germanic times even?) others may have ended up in Britain through Viking conquerors. A lot of them are murder ballads… perhaps not surprisingly…

Here is one, Old Yellow Mare. Other English versions are called Edward. Versions of the song is found all over Europe, from Iceland to Finland and south to Ireland, England and Denmark, at least as Wikipedia tells me. There are also versions found throughout the Appalachian mountains.

This is Margaret MacArthur singing Old Yellow Mare (go to 17:33). Somewhere, she said that when she wanted to give someone an idea of what a really old song sounded like, she sang this one. She learned this one directly from oral tradition, not from a recording.

Here is Peggy Seeger’s version of the Two Sisters, also known as Binnorie, Cruel Sister, Dreadful Wind and Rain, and others.



Both of the versions of these songs I provide are from my part of the world (eastern North America). But this song is particularly widespread, being found all over Europe, north and south. And of course North America as well. I suppose maybe it’s gone at least to New Zealand and Australia too, if my guess is right.

M Ljin wrote:Here is one, Old Yellow Mare. Other English versions are called Edward. Versions of the song is found all over Europe, from Iceland to Finland and south to Ireland, England and Denmark (...)

This is a treasure. Thank you very much for sharing, M Ljin.