Several ballads invoke the goshawk, but normally as a metaphor for a spritely and vigorous young man (see False Foodrage (Roud 57) for example, and also Roud 34, The Broomfield Hill) - in this case it is a literal goshawk used to carry a message to a lover. I guess it sounds a bit more glamorous than a pigeon.
The main theme of the ballad (apart from the very common parental marriage disapproval) is the idea of feigning death in order to win love. We have seen this before in Willie’s Lyke Wake (Roud 30), although in the current case it is a woman poisoning herself to escape from her father’s controlling clutches, rather than a man hiding under a sheet in order to play a rather cruel prank.
Music
Steadfastly unpopular in the tradition for no obvious reason, there is very little to find in the way of previous recordings. Youtube only yields (as well as the noble DIY efforts of the omnipresent Raymond Crooke) the long enduring Norfolk acid-folk stalwarts Stone Angel. This is from their eponymous 1975 album.
Beyond that, here is a version of the vaguely analogous French version of the ballad (it features a woman pretending to die to reach her love, but no goshawks are mentioned).
Outside of the streaming music universe, we can find the harp/accordion/six-string-bass trio Ffynnon who primarily sing in Welsh, and very beautifully too. They recorded a suitably ethereal version just called “Goshawk” on their “Celtic Music from Wales” album (available to download here). Listen to this short clip to get a flavour:
Another version can be found on the 1998 album “Trespass” by Pete Morton (and later on his 2002 retrospective “Another Train”) - for which he created a striking and Dylan-esque original tune. Both albums seem to be out of print but I managed to secure a second hand copy of Trespass. He asks, possibly rhetorically, in the sleevenotes “Never heard anyone sing it before—how popular is it exactly?” - I can answer that Pete: not at all, so your contribution is most welcome. Here’s a short clip:
Finally and most recently The Magpie Arc recorded a version powerfully arranged by Nancy Kerr for their epic 2022 folk rock release “A Glamour in the Grey”, available on Bandcamp.
MUSIC UPDATE:
When I first submitted this post, I thought I had covered every performed instance of The Gay Goshawk. But I was wrong! Debbie Armour from the drone-folk spook-inducing duo Burd Ellen alerted me to a performance she had witnessed at the contemporary classical music festival Tectonics Glasgow in 2019. Composer Martin Arnold composed a piece for the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra with improvising soloists Angharad Davies and Sharron Kraus. Here is the programme entry:
So if “mediating weird metamorphoses of many soundworlds from psychedelic transmutations of late 14th century polyphony to Brill Building pop-jazz” sounds up your street (it certainly is mine), then you are in luck, as here is an excerpt:
Thanks to Debbie for alerting me to all this. What a treat.
In an extraordinary coincidence, Sharron Kraus will feature extremely prominently in the next entry in the Roud index. Look out for that at some point in the next week.
Not “The Gay Goshawk”: Carole Pegg, Mr Fox, and Another Gay Goshawk
A cursory search for The Gay Goshawk will lead you very swiftly to shortlived early 1970s folk rockers Mr Fox. Their song tantalisingly entitled “The Gay Goshawk” might make Child ballad enthusiasts salivate, but hold that saliva - it’s an original song written by Mr Fox band member Carole Pegg. I include it here in the possibility it was inspired by Roud 61.
A gay goshawk came to my window sill,
The snow it fell fast and the stars stood still,
Oh, won’t you take me in from the storm,
Won’t you take me between your sheets so warm?’
Gold was the colour of his wings so fair,
His eyes they were bold and of silver so clear,
As I laid his brown body upon the pillow,
He became a man, live as a willow.‘Don’t breathe a word, don’t scream, don’t shout,
Or I’ll turn the whole world round about,
I’ll lay the moon flat on the land,
Twist a rope out of flying sand.’
Whispering women say I have been beguiled,
Now the deed’s done, she must care for the child,
Jasmine’s the colour of his hair,
A nut brown boy with a silvery stare.The night has gone and the seasons slip by,
Knowing seducers still give me the eye,
But on cold winter’s evenings alone I walk,
I watch and I pray for my gay goshawk.
Clearly the goshawk had a place in Carole’s heart, as she reprised this track on her remarkable 2014 album combining traditional folk and Tuvan throat singing, available on Bandcamp.
Some sources
Sir Walter Scott was first to publish his hybrid version of this in 1802, described in Child. Once again, Mrs Brown of Falkland features.
It’s a little hard to find online as it only appears in a certain edition, but you can find it here.
Frank Sidgwick is always worth reading, this from his “Popular Ballads of the Olden Time”. Here he makes the point about Peter Buchan and his parrot.
Sidgwick also mentions the French ballad that is confidently stated to be an antecedent of this one in this Jstor article.
The ballad was clearly known in the 19th century, at least more than it is today. Here’s an example of it being cited in popular culture, specifically in the 1891 novel by William Black, “Stand fast, Craig-Royston!”.
If you would like to hear the words to the ballad read out loud, here is a reading.
Imagery
As shown before, the popularity of ballads in the Victorian era can be measured by not only how many ballad and verse collections the song appears in, but how many illustrators have been engaged to illuminate them, presumably at some expense.
The following three images are across multiple pages of the luxuriant coffee-table ballad book compiled by S. C. Hall in 1844. The first image depicts the gruesome test of life of the age, that being having molten lead poured on you, to see if you react. Designs by J. Franklin. Engravings by T. Armstrong.
In later times, the ballad has had more traction as a prose folk tale as a song, probably due to its satisfying conclusion of the theme of love triumphing over extreme adversity. I rather like this free pen and ink illustration from 1973, from the anthology “Authors' choice 2”, illustrated by Krystyna Turska.
Another story collection that used the ballad as a source was the collection “True Thomas the Rhymer and other tales of the Lowland Scots”, which includes the following three illustrations by Ruth K Oliphant.
Draft pages and audio guide
and another clip of a track from the forthcoming Sing Yonder compilation.
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