A recent chance discovery by Cornish bard Dee Brotherton, Myrghwyn Melynor (Miller’s Grand Daughter) at St Ives Museum has uncovered an intriguing piece of work written in the Cornish language, Kernewek. The words seem intended to be sung as a hymn with the tune “Kingsfold” as the suggested setting. A quick translation in Dee’s head into English did not yield familiar words and her assumption was that this was an original piece of work written in Kernewek, but written by whom?
The old and now somewhat faded brown cardboard box which housed this treasure was labelled as containing items about Gorsedh Kernow, the Gorsedd of the Bards of Cornwall, deposited by St Ives bard Susan Hosking (nee Geen), Dynsak Porthya (St Ives Hake, a nickname for native St Ives folk). Further reading in the Gorsedh Kernow publication “Cornish Bards of the St Ives Area” revealed that Susan Hosking was made a bard at Perran Round, Perranzabuloe in 1946 for proficiency in the Cornish language and although her name, or any name for that matter, is not shown on the single typewritten page it is tempting to assume that she was the author. The words certainly scan well with the tune, which is not in the least surprising as on further investigation by Dee she discovered that the words were in fact written by fellow bard Dr Ken George, Profus an Mortyd (Predictor of Tides), in 1980 and that they were original and not a translation from another language. The hymn’s first line is A Dhew a ros dhe bobel lel (O God, who gave to loyal people) and the single page was found with other Gorsedh Kernow papers including a programme for GK’s Golden Jubilee, but that was in 1978 and the date of this composition was two years later, so was not written for that particular celebration.
The tune “Kingsfold” is well known in many circles, including classical music lovers who would know the tune as one collected by Ralph Vaughan Williams in the village of Kingsfold in West Sussex and used with the words from the English Hymnal “I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say”. However, Vaughan Williams had previously used the tune in 1939 as a basis for his work “Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus”.[i]
But the history of this lovely tune and, of course, the Cornish language, starts much earlier. Fellow bard and former Grand Bard Merv Davey, Telynyor an Weryn (Folk Harpist), takes up the story:
“As I am fond of telling my Irish friends the tune to the “Star of the County Down”, known to Vaughan Williams as “Kingsfold”, was first identified in Cornwall in 1830 by Cornish antiquarian Davies Gilbert, long before it ever became associated with Ireland. The Rev Baring Gould somehow acquired a copy of the song collected by Davies Gilbert and eventually published it in his “Songs of the West” in 1905 with the note:
“This ballad was first taken down by Davies Gilbert in 1830 from an old man named John Hockin, in his eighty-sixth year, at St Erth, Cornwall. The melody, which is very early, was, curiously enough, used by William Aggett for Hook’s song, “On board the ninety-eight.” Hook was born in 1746, and the melody is probably two centuries earlier than his time. ………………….. We have taken down the ballad, “Come all ye worthy Christian men,” to this melody, which is in the Dorian mode. A fragment of this latter ballad is given in Folk-Song Journal, vol. i. p. 74, taken down in Sussex, in five verses. We have had it twice: once from J. Dingle, Coryton, and once as learned in 1820 by George Radford, from a blind fiddler at Washfield, near Tiverton, and “pricked down” by H. Pinkney, gardener, Washfield.[ii]
Vaughan Williams called the tune “Kingsfold” because that was the name of the village in Sussex where he first came across it in the early 20th century. It can be seen that it might also have been called “Chagford”, the village where Baring Gould’s singer William Aggett lived or indeed “St Erth” where Davies Gilbert first came across it in 1830. Although this tune’s Cornish provenance is quite early and Baring Gould thought it much older, it is doubtful that we will ever know its true origins as good tunes do tend to travel.
I also used the melody for the midsummer song Tanys Golowan in Hengan[iii] again with Cornish words, so we now have three songs from Cornwall associated with this tune with of them two in Cornish.” (Merv Davey –Telynyor an Weryn).
Here is a manuscript of Ken George’s Cornish hymn A Dhew a ros dhe bobel lel with Vaughan Williams’ piano accompaniment[iv] :
[i] See Search Results | Hymnary.org
[ii] Songs of the West, Baring Gould, S. Ed Sharp, C. (London Methuen. 1905) song no 111: The Marigold- Notes p. 29
[iii] Merv Davey, Hengan, (Dyllansow Truran, Redruth 1983) p.47.
[iv] See: www.hymnary.org/text/o_sing_a_song_of_bethlehem_of_shepherds