Who is John Barleycorn? || Gruesome Origins & Modern Retellings
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- Опубліковано 8 вер 2020
- Images and film footage in this video is from Matt Rowe mattroweportfolio.co.uk/?p=959
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Links from the video:
The John Barleycorn Song: • John Barleycorn
Video Credit for the SPOOKY intro: vimeo.com/409169315
Blogpost I Found With the Theory: austinhackney.co.uk/2016/04/1...
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#witch #pagan #wicca - Фільми й анімація
What are your thoughts on this theory? 🤓Share your ideas below.
Wow i listened to that song for years not knowing what it was about thank you for that historical perspective
The read i get is that its a song about about medieval life with the under theme or statement being there is a world beneath us lurking with blood drinking creatures
At first im like ok a graphic description of corn
But they always hide messages back then, have you seen Leonardo’s St Micheal looking oddly up and pointing, when you use reverse mirroring the two Micheals are pointing at an alien face in the background
Surely creatures if all types picked on the medievilers
But has life changed that much now 🧙
I think that barlycorn is a name for beer
I have celebrated john barleycorn as a modern druid fpr 18 years, we always celebrate his death on lughnasadh, the first of the three harvests when barley is first harvested. Which is early august.
At first glance,a sacrifice .
Best ghillie suit EVER!
Barley grows tufts or a "beard" when it's ready for harvest. It just extends the metaphor, not to do with druids.
Interesting, I didn't know that about Barley. :)
I came to the comments to say that as well.
Ah wonderful! I was just about to point this out!
Thought the exact thing when I read the poem - John Barleycorn ripened and matured = the barley corns get light in color, droop and grow long tufts, much the same as many types of cereal grains/grasses.
@@DemonWolf915 And... so did I. It's useful, when analyzing a supposed metaphor, to first examine the reality of the premise.
When the crop was cut the very last bail of corn/barley was made into a " corn dolly / John barleycorn " which was a thank you to the spirit of the fields.
I just uploaded a video about John Barleycorn on my channel, which includes a recording of the song from 1908!
ua-cam.com/video/H-i3IDMdrb0/v-deo.html
Which practice began when Christianity became the accepted religion.
Before the corn dolly, it was a real man. His death and blood ensured a good harvest for the next year, and was also a thank you to the gods for the present harvest.
✌😺
@@PhoenixLyon Evidence? Citation?
@@markr5476 Yeah right, and when we see dolls or drawings of these dolls (both kachonas) by Navajo and Pueblo hands, as a toy and a goddes/spirit, we don's see something made out of rathyer worthless material into some image of the living, but a bleeding corpse. :-) :-(
Go try & tell that to any shaman of the Natives of the Southwestern USA.
@@vhjmvn So you admit you can't provide a citation or any evidence.
The line refers to the malting process, which converts the starch to sugar and required for the fermentation process of making beer. They spread the barleycorns on the floor and wet them, which causes the grain to begin sprouting. They then roast this newly sprouted barley over heat to stop the process. You can see videos of this being done in the making of single malt whiskey. It's just a witty murder ballad about beer making.
I just uploaded a video about John Barleycorn on my channel, which includes a recording of the song from 1908!
ua-cam.com/video/H-i3IDMdrb0/v-deo.html
Anyone else here after watching Inside No 9?
You may be interested to know that in some parts of England, early English farmers used to cut in a spiral from the outside of the field to the inside. this would drive any wild game into the middle of the field where they could easily be caught and dispatched. this could account for going around and around the field in a cart.
I just uploaded a video about John Barleycorn on my channel, which includes a recording of the song from 1908!
ua-cam.com/video/H-i3IDMdrb0/v-deo.html
You crack me up. I have been a farmer for years. I have grown wheat, oats and yes barley and harvested them all. The three men were investors in a ambitious project. They planted and amazingly the crop grew good. Barley, and wheat grows long spiny hairs at the end of each kernel of grain . They cut the straw about knee high. They used pitchforks to gather the cut grain with straw attached, tied it together and piled it up leaving piles around the field. The loader drove around and picked it up. They took it to a barn where they pounded it with flails which separated grain from chaff and straw. They malted the grain and ground it. Some was eaten some was used to make brandy and beer . The huntsman and the tinker couldn't get into it with out a couple of drinks. I know I missed some points in the story but I can say it's just a story about growing grain .that's all it is. Sorry folks no mumbo jumbo, witches or human sacrifice. Just plain old cereal. Think I'll have a beer .
I agree 100%....her theories are a bit over the top and basically ridiculous. It's a song about growing barley, harvesting g it and turning it into brandy
You tell em, ray
@@rudydsouza7432 thanks Rudy for the reply. Made me smile. Peace bro , Ray
@@robertenright3130
But the point of the song being that on first hearing the listener believes it to be about a real man who is being horribly tortured. Only at the end do you realise it is about barley and the brewing of ale. At least that was my wife's experience of the song!
I've always seen the song exactly as you say. It reminds me of fields we played in during the school summer holidays. My feeling is the sinister side was added for an amusing dramatic effect. I wouldn't be surprised if there aren't elements that are drawn from older times -like coming from the west. But I don't know what a crab tree stick is?
the long beards can refer to the tops of the crop as it sprouts before harvest
media.lanecc.edu/users/naylore/225Articles/CarbohydratesMaking/MakingImages/10wheatkernelsmithsonian.jpg
I think the whole song refers to the fact that after all the evil they did to John barleycorn.. he wins.. because all the people can't manage without alcohol.. therefore hes the strongest man at last...
🙂
Yeah, I have to go with the imagery all being that of actual barley harvest. I don't really see the violence from the imagery. But then, I grew up on a farm. 🤷♀️
"Wheeling him around and around" is a method of "threshing" grain, i.e. beating harvested stalks to separate the cereal grain part from the straw. It also helps loosen the husk around the grain. Threshing is the next necessary step after harvesting. In the Burns version, the 'enemies' use cudgels for threshing. For very large quantities, "wheeling around and around the field" is a common and less laborious way of threshing (animal hooves help trample).
The barley tops are sometimes called beards.
A novel called "Harvest Home" (1973) by Thomas Tryon and the resulting miniseries called "The Dark Secret of Harvest Home" (1978) starring Bette Davis is based on a version of the John Barleycorn story in which a group of pagan women sacrifices the "Harvest Lord" at the autumnal equinox to ensure the corn harvest. (Unfortunately, it's another one of those horror movies that slanders pagans as well as women who have too much religious power.)
This is very interesting, I'd always wondered if there were more to this song/poem. I'd always assumed that the "beard" referred to the long hairs that grow out of the barley grains, and that "Wheeled him around and around the field" simply described the path taken by the cart in harvesting the grain row by row. What I always found most curious, however, is that, while planting and harvesting are described in detail, the entire process from milling to the finished beverage is left out.
That's a good point, I wonder why they left the brewing part out.
'They' also left the baking part out. the song couldn't go on for ever. The English Folk Dance and Song Society have over one hundred versions of John Barleycorn; don't try to analyse all of them, or you'll have a long beard before you're finished!
If you have ever seen mature barley, unlike wheat which tends to remain vertical, barley bends over from the weight of the grain, and the tip that should be pointing up is now hanging down, looking like a beard.
Peace,
I believe you are overthinking this. The poem is the story of the barley harvest. No human sacrifice here. I've been a pagan my whole life (65 yrs) and a practicing witch since 1992. My hedgewitch grandmother would laugh at the idea. She raised me to believe the stories of human sacrifice came, as many things did, from the Christian attempt to destroy our belief system and convert all to their new religion.
Actually scholars are in 100% agreement that the pre-Christian religions of Europe (except Roman and Jewish) had human sacrifice as a routine ritual. The Celts always sacrificed a son of a noble while the Germanic peoples offered up war captives. This is backed up by archeology.
This song is a good teacher. It is at least many centuries old in English. Variations on it might indeed be thousands of years old, easily predating the English language. For millennia, in western culture the primary food was bread. [For my fellow Americans, “corn” in British English translates to “wheat” in American English (or more generally, any grain with a kernel). Barley remains barley.]
This song wonderfully illustrates some of the main themes of mythology: sustenance, the sacrifice required for sustenance, the death required for life, the cycle of life, rebirth. Since the agricultural revolution, that has meant grain crops.
As an Alcoholic, I think it's About Quitting Drinking Beer... A Solemn Vow to NOT Drink.
The complete opposite.
the violent imagry sounds exactly like harvesting and milling grains, thrashed on the floor-the thresh hold- then ground between two stones-a millstone- and drinking his blood- well that's a big more imaginative but if that is beer from barely then that is why they get more happy.
A great many of the harvest gods are blond headed- an interpretation of grain being harvested, even Sif and Baldur could represent this. I think the long beard shows he's fully matured, from archology it seems like the people who were sacrified in the celtic/iron age were criminals I'd give Caesar a major grain of salt. remember he had to justify why he exterminated the druids.
Overall it seems like the poet was showing how the well known, at the time, actions of the harvest, ties into the ancient rites and rituals, the way we today repeat the stories of the pilgrims at thanksgiving
I would point out in 1560's elizabeth was queen of england, not scotland.
From what I've read the threshold had nothing to do with the threshing floor. After the grain was separated from the stalks the stalks or thresh were scattered on the floors of peoples huts to counter the mud. As winter progressed the thresh got muddy and more was laid down. Eventually it got deep and began to spill out through the doorway. As a counter they would place a board across the doorway to hold the thresh in. At least that's what it said in a book about the origins of words and phrases.
Oh, and the part of the poem about burning John before grinding him between stones. That's part of the malting process. They would dampen the barley, spread it on the raised floor of the malt house and light a low fire under it to cause the barley to germinate and start to sprout. The malted barley was used to make both beer and whiskey. In Scotland they burned peat to malt the barley and the peat smoke gives Scotch whiskey its distinctive smokey taste.
Ale, not beer, actually
If anyone does go and see The Wicker Man, I urge you to see the 1973 version not only is the Cage version awful but if you see the Cage version first then by the time you’ve hunted the original down, the ending will be ruined. Also the original has a really good soundtrack as well as boasting some cracking performances by the likes of Christopher Lee, Edward Woodward, Britt Ekland ect.
Well done, Scarlet Ravenswood. You did your homework.
Hey Ms. Ravenswood, good video. I could be wrong but I believe the "The Three Men" in the poem is referring to the constellation of Orion, which appears in the Northwest. Our ancestors used the sky as their calendar and the sun, moon and stars as their timekeepers for planting and harvesting. Orion is visible in late summer and fall which is the time of the harvest.
Thanks for sharing! That's super interesting about the "three men" possibly refering to Orion. :)
Ooo I like the idea of the three men referring to Orion and considered it’s placement this time of year! I would not have thought of that but it’s interesting!! ♥️
Also, would the three men from the west refer to West England or wessex? Or Wales? Cornwall? Or further west? Ireland maybe?
I'm sorry, I don't believe that any real grower uses the stars to decide when his crop is ready to harvest. Orion is there for half the year anyway. You'd starve if you judged your crops by the state of the night sky, this is romantic fantasy. You harvest when the corn is ripe and the ears are dry and hard to bite into it.
@@gramail2009 But if you have watched the sky like people used to, thenb you would know that it refers to the first sighting of Orion at sunset, in late Summer/Autumn. This happens as was suggested. Astronomical observation in an agricultural metaphor makes perfect sense. More sense than the land of fae!
wheeling him around would have scattered the seeds that were ripe and fallen off the stocks of wheat. thus ensuring a good harvest.
I've been a member of OBOD for years, and a Wiccan on-and-off for decades, and autumn has always been my favourite time of year. For OBODies, Lughnasadh is the time of the year to explore the agrarian cycle of tilling, harrowing, planting, tending and harvesting, but our solitary ritual also asks us to contemplate and consume a kernel of grain, and to drink "fruit of the vine," as a reflection on the processes involved in turning grains to bread and beer, and grapes to wine, "to show that we are willing to wait." In any case, part of my plans for next year's garden will include a small plot of barley, so I can watch it go through its cycle from planting to harvest. I'm also hoping to buy a bronze sickle to add to my ceremonial tools, for the eventual harvest of that barley.
Don't get me wrong. I love "The Golden Bough," and regard it as necessary reading for new pagans, but that book also has a strong Egyptian and Mediterranean focus, and though there are amazing themes presented, even touching on some practices of the First Nations of British Columbia (where I live), we have much work to do to "rediscover" paganism for the 21st and subsequent centuries.
Great comment! That's a good point about "The Golden Bough." :)
I wanted to write about his story on my grimoire but i wasnt sure where to begin,so this was really interesting!! Thank you so much for making this video!
In my wizardly opinion, The story of John Barleycorn is meant to be a heroic metaphor. Maybe at some point in the distant-distant origins of the keltic, druidic, and goddess faiths, john was a real person who was killed each year to ensure the harvest. He was most certainly a volunteer or choose for the honor by lots. When the elders who would eventually become the Druids realized the waste of life this practice entailed, that the story was made into a heroic retelling of Good John Barleycorn who gave his life on the first harvest so that we all may eat/drink/ect.
The story is the story of Cernonos or other spring deities such as Dyanisis, Herne, and the modern God of Wicca. Born from the spark of the Holly King, he rises as the greenman (Cernonos) and is mortally wounded by the harvest goddess who "cuts him off at knee" which is also about the height grain farmers cut barley and wheat, and he slowly succoms to his wounds and finally passes through the veil on Samhain. He becomes the Goblin King and leads the wild hunt from dusk on samhain to the first light of dawn on the Festival of All Saints Day. The Goddess as Demeter of Greece goes to the underworld and makes a deal with Hades so that her lover and king will live and not go beyond the recognings of men and gods. Hades Agreed but said to live he must die each each year and while he is dead, she must come and bring her light and life to the underworld. Hades then vows to send Mab, queen of the unseelie Fae, to watch over the world until her and her lover were reborn, and so the goddess also becomes Titania of the Seelie Fae ruling the world for one half of a year during the late spring to early fall, while Mab ruled over the dark half. Defiantly the Herne/Greenman/Wiccan God has tied his soul to any amazing plant the did not die off except for during the harshest winters, the holly tree which he shared a bit of his immortality and it shared the craft of surviving harsh winters, the god becomes the Holly King; who comforts the goddess in the underworld while still being connected to the world of life. That is a somewhat confusing conglomeration of all of the different versions of the year myth, but I hope it makes sense and helps.
The Harvest imagery was better stated by @amuseraynow are better than I could have put it. On the surface, it could have been used as a teaching method passed down from the Bard class of the Celtic faith, as the Bardic College system which was in place until the 1100-1300s as I recall; then historically speaking the Bardic Colleges were absorbed by the Monastic schools. I can see how this could have been passed on to parishioners at the various churches surviving to this day as a cereal song sung by peasents to know when and how to harvest their grains.
Great video thanks
Scarlet: There is much more here that is not being discussed.
The cycle of the year relates to the cycle of the soul with regard to reincarnation, and other issues.
There are actually three sacrificial figures:
• Taranis, who is burned
• Esus, who is hung from a tree
• Toutatis, who is drowned
These three figures represent the three pillars of the World Tree. There sacrifice is continuous, because it represents the down-flow of spiritual energies into the world. They can be tied to various seasonal sacred days, however.
Compare these three deities with the three levels of John Barleycorn’s sacrifice, and the three symbolic penalties of the Blue Lodge Degrees of Freemasonry.
All of this goes *way* beyond the any one religious tradition, or culture. ❤️
Such an interesting story! Thanks for sharing :)
Curious minds wanted to know. You have done some good research, and a terrific presentation on the subject.
I just uploaded a video about John Barleycorn on my channel, which includes a recording of the song from 1908!
ua-cam.com/video/H-i3IDMdrb0/v-deo.html
from wikki John Barleycorn" is an English and Scottish folk song[1] listed as number 164 in the Roud Folk Song Index. John Barleycorn, the eponymous protagonist, is a personification of barley and of the alcoholic beverages made from it: beer and whisky. In the song, he suffers indignities, attacks, and death that correspond to the various stages of barley cultivation, such as reaping and malting.
I just uploaded a video about John Barleycorn on my channel, which includes a recording of the song from 1908!
ua-cam.com/video/H-i3IDMdrb0/v-deo.html
This a year old now, but my input would be these. Barley grows beards when ready to harvest. A scythe is how it was cut. Then bundled in a sheave. Cut off at knees is leaving stubble to hold the earth from blowing away, and to plow under. They wheeled the horse drawn cart, round and round the field to collect the sheaves with a fork. Crab tree sticks refers to thrashing grain from husk. There is a hand farm process in every verse. However, there are references that makes one think. If someone was tied to a cart as punishment. they were lashed to cart wheel and driven round and round. There is much that could be a direct reference to the old ways. But I think it is also about alcohols' danger of controlling ones life. "proved the strongest of them all,"
I just uploaded a video about John Barleycorn on my channel, which includes a recording of the song from 1908!
ua-cam.com/video/H-i3IDMdrb0/v-deo.html
You should do a video on "Hunting the wren", which is a old pagan tradition still pratice in rural locations of Ireland, and other places.
I think your take on the song is right on, Scarlet!
I just uploaded a video about John Barleycorn on my channel, which includes a recording of the song from 1908!
ua-cam.com/video/H-i3IDMdrb0/v-deo.html
Splendid synopsis my good Lass, salutations.
Thanks so much, the Traffic song was much misunderstood.
Among the traditions of BC Britain it was believed that every living thing had a spirit. In this case, barley was turned into liquid spirits. So the barley was revered as a spiritual thing.
Hah! I just found this video, a year later, 9/19/2021, and almost the Autumn Equinox. I had listened to the Traffic version, which is quite similar to the song you linked, but with music.
This reminded me that I heard about John Barleycorn many many years ago. My mom told me about it when I was younger. I had completely forgotten.
I just uploaded a video about John Barleycorn on my channel, which includes a recording of the song from 1908!
ua-cam.com/video/H-i3IDMdrb0/v-deo.html
Do you have a degree of some kind? Because this is the most far fetched and peculiar analysis of a folk song that I have ever encountered. They're harvesting and winnowing the grain (Barleycorn) to make beer.
This story has long left an impression on me that the "long beard" refers to the corn silks. It may also allude to spikes or spikelets on the heads of the barley.
As for the passage that tells of wheeling the cart about the field, I imagine that the transit assists with the gleaning process. The movement may be in a direction so the breeze can blow the chaff and trash from the grain. The vibration of the cart may also thresh grain from the chaff. The goal may have been to have wind blowing the trash to the ground while the grain settled in the bottom of the cart. During Biblical times, farmers did this work on top of a hill or in a windy area. They threw the grain into the air. The breeze blew away the lighter trash while the heavier grain fell in a pile. Perhaps this principle is used in conjunction with the wheeled conveyance.
The crab tree sticks are flails used to separate grain and chaff. It is similar to the Okinawan use of the nunchaku used to thresh grain.
Very interesting thank you 🙏🏻
Well Done Thank You
Thank you for this video. Great research and work! I am actually writing a horror story that has the theme of John Barleycorn as it's centerpiece. Your telling of this story was inspiring and helped me to fill in some gaps. If it ever gets published, I'd love to send you a link to it and acknowledge your contribution via citation. Excellent video! I have just subscribed.
Well I didnt know any of this, only knew it as an old-fashioned name for alcohol and Jack London novel, thanks!
Nonsense. All the folk song aficionados I know, myself included, are well aware that the song "John Barleycorn Must Die" is a poeticized set of instructions for how barley is grown, harvested, and then brewed into ale.
There's actually version I like even more than the one that everybody was recording in the '60s and '70s. In 1977, a bunch of folk and early music types released a 2 disk LP called "The Tale of Ale". Clearly they were having a lot of fun with the music, because they identified themselves as two different bands: "Musica Inebriata" (a name in the form of many Early Music groups) and "The Pump and Pluck Band" (Pump being a reference to bellows-blown free reed instruments like concertina, melodeon, accordion, etc. and Pluck being a reference to plucked string instruments like guitar, mandolin, etc.)
One of the songs on the B-side of the first LP of the 2-disk set, performed acapella by Peter Wood, is titled "The Pleasant Ballad Of John Barleycorn". The lyrics are so detailed that you could probably start from barley seed and end up with ale if you followed them carefully. And it's a fun song. Unfortunately, when they re-released the 2 LP set on CD in 1993, the 2 LPs wouldn't quite fit on a CD, so they had to leave out one song. And sadly the song they left out was this song. That's tragic, because it's a great song!
Brilliant story to John Barley corn iv covered the song mean time on the guitar🎸.
Hey, new to this Channel. Great Video on John Barleycorn, my first time listening to this song was when I was Playing Stronghold 3 as one of it's soundtracks. There is another song from this same game by the name of Mad Tom of Bedlam. Can you make a video on that song and including a song I heard growing up going to my dad's Medieval Reenactment, the song Maid of Bedlam?
Anything gruesome... is my thing Fantastic poem like it.. I think it represents both The harvest of barley and wheat... celebrations beer and bread it’s a Sacrifice of people’s blood to create another harvest for next year it’s got the vibes of the wicker man and Wicker tree to it....
There's a ton of fascinating symbolism in the Wickerman, I might make a video about The Wickerman in the future. :)
Scarlet Ravenswood cool 👍 yeah so many references too great film
Hi Scarlet. Glad you did a video on John Barleycorn. I agree with you that it's a very old story. I heard the Traffic version back in the 1970's (I'm very old!). Are you aware of a couple of fairly modern songs on this theme by an English Druid called Damh the Bard? They are: Lughnasadh found on his Herne's apprentice album , and Wicker man on his Sabbat album. You might want to give them a listen?
Please keep on making the Video's
Thanks for the suggestion, I'll definitely give those songs a listen. :)
I just uploaded a video about John Barleycorn on my channel, which includes a recording of the song from 1908!
ua-cam.com/video/H-i3IDMdrb0/v-deo.html
It is very English (Anglo-Saxon) to speak in double meanings or metaphors. Much of our humour is such. You only have to read the old holiday postcards, now sadly non PC, or see an old "Carry on" film to understand this. The humour nowadays owes nothing to this tradition, which is a pity I think.
This is fascinating. I am viewing this over a year later & it's enuf justification for me to subscribe (You ought to turn your lecture into an article & publish it after doing all this research.)
I just uploaded a video about John Barleycorn on my channel, which includes a recording of the song from 1908!
ua-cam.com/video/H-i3IDMdrb0/v-deo.html
The human sacrifice was made very rarely only to insure good harvest if the previous one was ruined by nature, it was supposed to make the “bad” go away.
The song sounds like the sacrifice of a barley effigy to me.
John Barleycorn's beard refers to the long awns on barley ears tho, doesn't it? That's the plant's most distinguishing feature after all
This is a pre-Christian song and the story of the sacrifice of Christ and ingestion of his body and blood is probably rooted in oral traditions, of which this song is a part.
No it's not. Written in 1624 - it's a clever allegory and nothing to do with any religion.
Great job! Fun video: what is the awesome harvest creature right at the start?
Classic english joke song around the business of making beer. Classic english humour.
After the song’s first listen, you ponder the brutality inflicted by three men on a tragic figure named John Barleycorn. Or could these distressing lyrics be a metaphor for the difficult process of harvesting barley in order to make an alcoholic beverage? A fine glass of whiskey or beer to get us through the toughest of days?
Regarding the beard, you need to look at the barley when ready for harvest.
If you have ever seen a stalk of barley they do grow a fuzz from all the grains together sort of like a beard.
Thank you. As a son of England I appreciate your work.
I heard John Langstaff's version of the song, it's pretty good.
John Barley corn is a personification of the harvest spirit. Yes the song is about making beer but the crops die (are harvested) so we can live. It's a very spiritual process with nots of pre-Christian pagan attachments to it.
Only the reapers reaping early in among the " bearded barley".....The lady of shallot
The 3 men could be the stars of the "Spring Triangle" , Arcturus , Spica and Regulus, showing the coming of the warm planting season.
Chicago had a tavern called John Barleycorn. They had live music. I never went to clubs and bars.
I didn't know they had a bar called John Barleycorn. It's too bad I'm learning this right after I moved. I wish I could have checked it out.
What is the image at 5:00 from?
I'd say that spring is clean shaven, summer hot and stubbled, and fall- bearded, while winter is full-bearded, but in terms of the Harvest (of Old), I'd say Early Spring clean-shaven, Late Summer Full Bearded as well. Usually the Old analogies for the Earth and harvest were Maternal, so this was very interesting, as is the Green Man. Thanks.
So i found out about this story by listening to this album called Barley Moon by Ayreheart, and one thing i could figure out was that the song was made to fight against alcohol by warning people about the dangers addiction towards alcohol. Barley comes the type of alcohol called Barley. Thats what i got behind the information behind the song and history i got from places online. So my theory is that maybe these people who are torturing this man are supposed to be people fighting towards the addiction of alcohol. I dont know what do you guys think?
I love all these theories - any story as old as this can have many meanings. I think that the ancient celts thought that most things have a spirit. This could be described as the message in their DNA that drives them to do the things they do - the spirit of barleycorn is to grow and produce seeds to continue the species, and vegetable matter to feed other species. The three men, in their greed and lust for transient pleasure, perverted the spirit of the barleycorn to make alcohol. That spirit was stronger and punished the men by making them addicted and weak. "Little Sir John proved the strongest man at last." The message being don't defile the spirit of the natural world and drunkenness is evil.
I just uploaded a video about John Barleycorn on my channel, which includes a recording of the song from 1908!
ua-cam.com/video/H-i3IDMdrb0/v-deo.html
'All things in moderation'.
Good thinking, and entirely plausible. The old Britons may have had some wild drunken parties, but they were the exception rather than the rule.
✌😺
In historic reality, drinking beer was far safer than drinking water so it was an essential product. Older still was the belief that the effects of fermented grain drinks were held to be spiritual.
I've always maintained that the remnants of British "folk songs" contain faint echoes of the beliefs held in our distant past, give that the majority of them were passed on by word of mouth in those illiterate times. There is a large crossover period in Britain where pagan beliefs survived into modern times in some parts of Britain, in spite of xtian rule. Pagan practices in more recorded history such as acient Greece and Rome, the Saxon and the Dane, give us a much closer description of rituals and ceremony of pagan philosophies. Human sacrifice, for instance, has been a part of human philosophies throughout the world, with personal sacrifice remaining a highly regarded trait.
@@jilliroberts7715
The majority of folk songs in Britain were not passed on by mouth. The majority were in fact written by professional and semi-pro song writers for printed broadsides, chapbooks, the theatre, the pleasure gardens and the music halls. Very few were written by ploughboys, milk maids, cowherds or Jolly Jack Tars.
A song 'Sir John Barleycorne' was registered with the London Stationer's Company on 14th December 1624. Almost certainly the origin of the song we hear today.
I like that theory too!@@jilliroberts7715
Interesting
Check out Steve Winwood's acoustic version of John Barleycorn Must Die:
ua-cam.com/video/t8878chOvfI/v-deo.html
I just uploaded a video about John Barleycorn on my channel, which includes a recording of the song from 1908!
ua-cam.com/video/H-i3IDMdrb0/v-deo.html
"The threefold death" puts me in mind of the death of Rasputin! First poisoned, then stabbed, and ultimately drowned in an icy river.
What did they do to bin Laden?
A few things - The ancients and the stories from the Natives in the USA show they were in close contact with the life in all living things. If you've ever grown and nurtured a plant to full life and then harvested it, you may understand the subtle bond there. The late mythologist Joseph Campbell put this clearly in his description of a vegetarian as someone who has never heard a tomato scream. The grown beard definitely pictures the barley not a human because barley is ready in 60 to 70 days. I don't think a young man grows a full beard in that time. As for wheeling his body around the field, could easily be referencing gathering the sheaves and loading them onto a cart and having the cart go round the field picking up the sheaves. Perhaps the 3 men from out the west were people from Ireland to England. Whatever, this gruesome depiction of growing, harvesting and turning barley into food and beer has a lot to do with the food we eat.
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Entertaining?! Entertaining? Midsommar was horrifying! I can never get those images out of my mind.
I thought it was creepy the first time too, but the second time I caught so many Easter eggs and different symbolism that it was truly entertaining. 😊
LOVE YOUR ACCENT: I DRINK TO CANADA...CHEERS!
I think the original poem is tied to both, but has a third possible tie (the power of 3): Christianity. Some sects of Christianity were, and in some cases still are, against imbibing (modern terms would include "teetotalers" or "prohibitionists"), and since beer, whiskey, and other alcoholic beverages were popular among the ancient druids and pagans, the modern (at the time) Christians tried to prove just how bad alcohol was. By writing a minstrel song/poem about how brutal the harvest was, likening it to killing somebody, it was certain to make people give up the drink.
Of course barley is used for other things besides beer. It can be ground into meal or flour for baking, and the kernels have been harvested to be used in soups or eaten as a porridge for breakfast.
There's a line about the huntsman not being able to hunt the fox or blow his horn without a little John Barleycorn. While it's assumed he can't do so without having a drink, it could also be assumed he can't do so without having a bowl of barley porridge in the morning.
The beard is obviously referring to the whiskers on the barley head en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barley#/media/File:Hordeum-barley.jpg
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Very interesting. I always saw a double meaning in this song, but inteoreted as a metaphor for life and death with death being the harvest. You said that you did not see how barley related to long beards, Here again, we have double meanings. I specialize in heirloom plants of the medieval era up through modern. The oldest forms of barley are called Bearded Barley. They grow long-like structures o the ends. Our modern barley does not.
I just uploaded a video about John Barleycorn on my channel, which includes a recording of the song from 1908!
ua-cam.com/video/H-i3IDMdrb0/v-deo.html
It wasn't the reign of Queen Elizabeth I in Scotland
john barleycorn. is mentioned in the A.A. big book. the name is synonymous with the insidious nature of alcohol in the wrong mouth. it looks that way in context. i think anyone who reads the book will agree. ..or possibly it is just borrowed from the powerful tale and put to that specific meaning . not exactly sure i suppose. the concept is well served in the A.A book , i believe..
In Switzerland and Germany there used to be the old tradition of leaving the last sheaf of wheat or barely on the field as an offering to the deities. From that tradition emerged the binding of the sheafs into puppets (a tradition that survived until the childhood of my father). The poem you found is from the 17. century and although the sources might be pre-christian, by that time Britain was already firmly in the hands of the christians and we all know that the christians were not all too fond of remaining old traditions. So I think it is also likely that christian priests or monks rewrote the original story of offering the last sheaf to the harvest deities into the cruel pagans that sacrificed humans, in order to wipe out the old religion.
Interesting idea! I think that's definitely possible.
Very interesting! Sounds creepy tho 😬
Yes, Harvest Home, scary....
I always thought the 3 men were a veiled reference to the Trinity and they were the masters of the harvest..that is God was the bringer of the good things: bread and sustenance and the joy of a good harvest. The dark metaphors being a uniquely English take on the strenuous efforts to bring in and make bread and drink from the harvest. The song 'Scarborough Fair' is an interesting example of similar dark imagery about an unrequited love. Scarborough Fair having a reputation for lynching thieves on the spot without trial used here as a metaphor for not giving the suitor a chance to prove his love and the cynical way he alludes to the impossibility of her standards for love.. etc etc.
It is both, the dream is the same in that it's a metaphor and a practice. The romans did the same, except left off of that factin order to disparage their foes. If you recall many were sacrificed on the altars of the pagan near east in the bronze bull or at the lap of moloch. Nevermind the Babylonians, Egyptians, all the way back to Sumer where the ovens where heated to 7 times
Great Video. Love your depth of research on these. Personally, Think you're right on the money. I've no doubt there's long carry-over from more direct ritual observances, along with a blending of what was a much more direct contact with some of the uglier realities of life and death at the time. The end feel for me is the intimacy of life with nature, the cycles, and the harvest.
and Love Traffics version as well.
Well done my lady. Is one in the retelling handed down generation to generation meaning lost to the annals of time. More is it’s a damned good entertaining tale.
I just uploaded a video about John Barleycorn on my channel, which includes a recording of the song from 1908!
ua-cam.com/video/H-i3IDMdrb0/v-deo.html
I think it's definitely possible that the story is referencing human sacrifice. Here in The Netherlands there has been ''proof'' for pagan human sacrifice because bodies have been found in the marshes which seem to have been thrown in there with jewellery and other stuff. But We will never know for sure ofcourse.
Last year I saw some "bog bodies" when I visited the National Danish Museum in Copenhagen. The exhibit was really interesting. I agree that it's likely that there was some human sacrifice but it was most likely a very rare occurrence.
The beard would be the length or hight of the barley grown ,
Ritual sacrifice ..final answer
I feel like, rather than being a gruesome coded tale of human sacrifice, this is very much an illustration of the connection to agriculture. What is interesting to me is the choice to personify the barley. On the surface, it is tongue in cheek and maybe worth a chuckle in a pub, but digging deeper, viewing this John Barleycorn as a personification of the barley is a way to recognize and honor the sacrifice of the plant as we cut it and shock it (that's the binding it round the middle bit), then carry it to the threshing floor to thresh out the grain.
Great comment! :)
And little Sir John and the nut-brown bowl
And his brandy in the glass;
And little Sir John and the nut-brown bowl
Proved the strongest man at last
The huntsman, he can't hunt the fox
Nor so loudly to blow his horn
And the tinker he can't mend kettle nor pot
Without a little Barleycorn
John Barlycorn was just the poster child of every SOB that spent more time in the pubs leaving the women at home to worry and pray
So the women started a movement to kill poor John Barlycorn but didn't change anything.
John Barlycorn was a son of God Mother Earth,
God's wife.
John Barlycorn only wanted to bring joy but if course some took advantage of his good nature.
😊🎉
No-one. It's a metaphor, for the barley. One so obvious, a child can see it! 🙂
Wasn't John Barleycorn another persona of "The Green Man"?
No. Outside of this song and poems 'John Barleycorn' doesn't appear in British folklore.
I always thought that John Barleycorn was the personification of alcoholism, and that to kill him meant you were quitting alcohol and going forward without it. I know that beer was one of the things the barley harvest produced. However you have added much to my knowledge of barley and its significance in the old stories.
Particularly the three men who came, like three kings who came to Christ. Yet they came to kill John, not to worship... It's all a little confusing, except the concept of sacrifice which is made to grow, but why was John so hard to kill? thanks for your piece, and Happy New Year!
I just uploaded a video about John Barleycorn on my channel, which includes a recording of the song from 1908!
ua-cam.com/video/H-i3IDMdrb0/v-deo.html
Very interesting. I've been familiar with Traffic's take on this but liked the elaboration. I understood the reference to be describing the cultivation and uses of barley, but the deeper Pagan symbolism is equally thought provoking.
It’s an old beer recipe….