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about
You are probably familiar with this tale from the Disney movie, or a childhood fairy tale. I encountered it when it was my primary school's winter Pantomime. I played the vicious woodcutter (although in my memory I'm dressed as a Roman Centurion) who took Snow White into the woods but couldn't kill her. My big line was "Oh but she is so loverly, I cannot kill her". It was a dramatic, pivotal moment but then at the end of Act 1, my time in the spotlight came to an end.
Most of the modern adaptations are based on the version collected by the Brothers Grimm in 1812. But there are variations on the tale all over Europe and the idea of an unwanted daughter taken out into the wilderness to die at the behest of their parents are even more widespread.
In the Icelandic Saga of Gunnlaug Serpent-Tongue the mother and the employee conspire against the father to get their daughter to safety. The servant completes the task and then the text reads "And then he leaves this saga". I like that because it implies he continued to exist and wasn't simply a plot foil.
The variations of Snow White are differ in many ways. One is how the news that it is Snow White who is the fairest of them all is delivered to the step-mother. In the Scottish tale Gold-Tree and Silver-Tree she learns it from a trout in living in a well. The Armenian Tale Nourie Hadig the informant is the New Moon and in Bella Venezia it is a visitor to the mother's bar who comment that her daughter's beauty surpasses her own.
To write this song I wrote my own version of the story.(I've written a 2000 word first draft). I set this in the Isle of Man, where I live. The location is taken from Sophia Morrison's The Child With No Name. This is a Ghost story where a stillborn child is left at an old Keill at the foot of the hill Cronk ny-Irree Laa that her family owns.
I used figures from Manx Folk Lore for the story - the loyal retainer is a phynnodderee noted for their ward work and loyalty to their human employers. Bugganes are kind of ogreish but they have been known to help other Ferrishyn and the Mooinjer Veggey (Manx Gaelic for Little People) are sometimes called the Faires but they are more resourceful than that.
Tom the Dipper was a real character who lived on the next hill over from the one where this story is set, when he wasn't being transported to Australia. He was famous for his doggerel poetry. An influence that lives on at times in this song.
Bibliography
Little Snow-White from the Brother's Grimms Household Tales Margeret Raine Hunt's Translation
Snopdrop from The Red Fairy Book by Andrew Lang
The Saga of Gunnlaug Serpent-Tongue by Unknown (Icelandic Saga)
Gold-Tree and Silver-Tree by Joseph Jacobs (Scottish)
Bella Venezia - Italio Calvino (Italian Folk Tale)
Nourie Hadig - Angela Carter's Book of Fairy Tales (Armenian)
The Child With No Name - Sophia Morrison in Manx Folk Tales (Isle of Man)
Manx Worthies entry on Tom the dipper
lyrics
**Prelude**
I’ve been a rag and bone man
A poet and a thief
I’ve been a prisoner
A minstrel and a rogue
I’ve Guided tours for tourists
And knicked the odd sheep
Now they call me
Tom the Dipper
I’m famous
In this Land
I scrapped enough together
To build cottage of me own
Up high on Sloc Mountain
Form Where I look down
Upon the old master
And Cronk ny Irree-Laa
Now they call me
Tom the Dipper
I’m famous
In this Land
And when I died
They came from all around
But the last one at my graveside
Was the fairest in the land
For she alone remembers
When I was another man
Now they call me
Tom the Dipper
I’m famous
In this Land
**The Ballad of Snae-Bane**
I once was Thomas the Constant
The faithful phynnodderee
For forty years I slaved
Upon Cronk ny Irree-Laa
I was the loyal retainer
Bent to the master’s will
In field and farmyard, and in the home
I did the master’s bidding
I served master Quirk
And his father before
And I would whistle
While i worked
The master’s young bride
Went too early into Labour
In the midst of a blizzard
No doctor was getting through
It fell to me usher in
To this world a pale girl
Whose poor mother
I could not bloody save
The master in his grief
Shunned his little child
Couldn’t bare the sight of her
To bestow on her a name
So I took the ghostly beauty
To The baptismal well
And using the old tongue
I named her Slae-Bane
I fed and watered her
Raised her like me own
I taught her to reap and sow
And all the farmhouse skills
How to mend a broken chair
And bake a fine bonnag
How to praise the Lord
She even learned her letters
After a proper time of mourning
The master took to courting - Madge
Who’s air was very grand
Since she once lived in England
Soon Cronk ny Irree-Laa
Had itself a new mistress
And fair Snae-Bane
Doted on her step Mother
Madge set to raising up
The master’s social status
“You should be the big man
Of this here Rushen parish”
Soon the Qualtroughs
And the Gawnes
We’re knocking upon
Cronk ny Irree-Laa’s door
And the mistress would ask
“Tell me Deemster Gawne,
In all Mannin’s emerald shores
Am I the fairest of them all?”
And Speaker Qualtrough
In all your finery
Did you ever know
One as fair as me”
Both men were quick to agree
There were none as fair as she
Madge blushed with pride
And Fluttered her eyelashes to each side
Then it was the govenor’s
Turn to be entertained
“Your Excellency
You’ve travelled widely
In England and overseas
Tell me did you ever see
One quite so loverly
And Fair as me”
The governor replied “It’s true
In London, Paris
And in India and Peru
There’s no woman as fine as you
But all the same
I must proclaim
You’re not as fair
As your own sweet Snae-Bane”
**The Ballad of Snae-Bane pt2**
Soon after the Master
Came and ordered me
To lead sweet Snae Bane
Away from Cronk ny Irree-Laa
When I was to return
I was told to prepare
For Madge’s sole delectation
The girl’s Fried Heart and liver
I had never disobeyed
An order from the master
Though in pained me through
What else was I to do?
I took her to the ancient Keil
I bid her gently to kneel
And recite from the book of Psalms
As I lifted up a hefty rock
She turned and glanced at me
One so innocent and loverly
That I couldn’t do her in
**Thomas Leaves The Saga**
And that’s where I leave this saga
And that’s where I leave this saga
And that’s where I leave this saga
And that’s where I leave this saga
Except… I didn’t really
Ordinary folk don’t cease to exist
When they no longer advance the narrative
Here’s how it went for me…
l left her on the beach hiding
And marched to Port Erin
Bought a bag of offal
And some wild garlic
A Buggane fisher
Agreed to sail around Bradda
Then sail Snae Bane
To safety
Everything was calm
Upon Cronk ny Irree-Laa
Chores and farmwork
Helped to fill my day
I had Word sent to me
From the Laxey Valley
Snae Bane was safe and well
With the Mooinjer Veegey
All was fine until the time
The Governor was at the door
Madge went fishing as before
“I am the fairest of them all?”
For a Diplomat
The Governor had little tact
And replied like last time
“Well apart from Snae Bane”
Madge tried to brain me
With a Skillet
There and then
I said “I quit”
**Epilogue**
Now they call me
Tom the Dipper
I’m famous
In this Land
And when I died
They came from all around
But the last one at my graveside
Was the fairest in the land
For she alone remembers
When I was another man
Now they call me
Tom the Dipper
I’m famous
In this Land
---------------
Manx and Anglo-Manx Glossary
Cronk ny Irree-Laa - A Hill in the South West of the Island. Name means hill of the rising day. This is an ancient place of pilgrimage. Two particular sites on the slopes of Cronk ny Arrey Laa were visited: the "Chibbyr ny Vashtey" (well of baptism) and the Manx Keil (chapel) at Lag ny Keeilley on the steep western face.
Nicked - stolenSloc Mountain - A Hill in the South of the Island
Phynnodderee - a Ferryshyn, ward work and loyal. Hairy.
Quirk, Qualtrough and Gawne - Manx surnames the latter two were "big men" in the south meaning they were landowners and sat in the Manx Parliament Tynwald
Snae-Bane - I coined this. Snae is Norse for Snow - The Island's highest mountain is called Snaefell and Bane is Manx for White
Bonnag - a traqditional Manx bread loaf that's somewhere between a bread and a cake
Rushen - The parish which contains all the Manx places named (except Laxey)
Deemster- a Manx Judge
Speaker - the presiding officer in the lower house of the Manx Parliament. Comes with a fine costume.
The Governor - The Queen (or English Governments) representative on the Island. Usually an ex army officer or ambassador. His role is to stop the natives getting above themselves
Mannin, Mona's Isle, Ellan Vannin - other names for the Isle of Man
Keeill - a small chapel built between 6th and 12th century
Port Erin - a fishing village near Cronk ny Irree-Laa
Buggane - kind of ogreish folkore figures
Bradda - the southernmost hill. The Bugganes needed to sail around this from Port Erin to reach Snae Bane at the foot of Cronk ny Irree-Laa
Mooinjer Veggey (Manx Gaelic for Little People) are sometimes called the Faires
Laxey - on the other (North East) side of the island. This is an old mining village.
credits
released January 2, 2022
Singing, words, production and some music by me.
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