Un Canadien Errant

Arranged by Eleanor Daley
Series Editor: Elaine Quilichini
Voicing: SSA
Instrumentation: piano
Catalog number: AMP 0429
Price: $2.00

Ever fearful that their children would come to some harm from the ‘Fae’ or fairies, Scottish mothers would hang daisy chains around their children's necks or place iron pins in their clothing. Both were said to ward off the ‘fae.’ This Scottish chant would have been sung to the children by their mothers over peat fires. (peat was cut from the land, dried and cured, and then burnt for heating and cooking in the winter time.) A longer version of the same words exists:

Gone away peerie faeries.
Doun come the bonnie angels,
Sleep safe, my baby,
A way be to Bugaloos,
Smoke shrouds the inner room ('ben')
Sleep safe, my baby,
Smoor the peat fire,
Gone away peerie faeries.
Sleep safe, my baby.
Gone away peerie faeries,
Gone away night stealers,
Sleep safe, my baby.

Click here to see a sample.

Click here to listen to a recording (MP3).



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