From the album The Hills they are Hollow.
As with many of my songs I had the tune for this song for a number of weeks before the lyrics finally arrived. Looking back I think I wrote two sets of lyrics for this and both ended up in the bin. But finally I was noodling with the tune on my mandolin in the living room and it was the chorus that came first.
Come follow me, come dance with me,
Come with me to the Greenwood Grove such magic there to see,
The Lord of the Wild with his Faerie Kin,
Deep within the Greenwood Grove,
We’ll dance the Magic Ring.
I remember looking at these words and thinking, ‘the only way I’m going to find out what this song is about is to do as the chorus asks, and follow the Lord of the Wild into the Grove itself.’ So I carried on playing the song, and closed my eyes.
Music takes me away. I can lose hours simply playing an instrument, closing my eyes, and riding the notes to wherever they take me. On this occasion I was taken into a woodland (no surprise there then!) and pretty soon I heard the sound of music being played, coming towards me through the woods. I hid behind an oak and waited as the music drew closer and closer. A huge horned figure led a procession of dancing spectral figures past me. Then came others walking behind, laughing and smiling, and others on horseback. Now I’m quite familiar with the stories of Tam Lin and Thomas the Rhymer, but I had to follow, I had to, the music was irresistible.
I kept a small distance so as not to be seen, and soon the host began to gather in a clearing up ahead – an almost perfectly circular Grove. There was a hill in its centre that reminded me of a large round barrow, and the large horned figure slowly climbed the hill, and silence began to fall around the glade. He had a large club in one hand which he raised above his head, then brought it down onto the hill which resounded with a deep, hollow, sound. He raised it again, and once more it fell upon the Hollow Hill below, and then again, and again, until I realised he was creating a consistent bass rhythm, as other drums began to join him. The figures began to circle and dance in a magical ring dance around the edge of the Grove, then from the hill emerged a Man of Birch, followed by a Lady of Rowan. Other leafy-faced figures began to step from the Otherworld, through the Hollow Hill into the grove, and join the dance. I realised I was watching the Spirits of the Ogam trees join the dance, and in that moment the words of the song began to form.
I am the Birch of the new beginning,
The Rowan star with magic guarding…
The images around me began to fade, and I became aware that I was still playing the tune on my mandolin, and had been throughout all of this, and that it was this tune that the Faerie Host had been dancing to. I became more and more aware of the room around me, until I opened my eyes, and began to write. It was finished in no time at all after that. A gift from the Spirits of Nature!
Superb, Damh – I’ve just been writing about the different forms of Inspiration and it sounds like you experienced a wonderful, direct Awen ‘injection’!
Much love,
Gary x x x
That’s a good way of describing it Gary!
Fantastic story, and such vivid inspiration! Still working on being good enough with an instrument to be able to let my mind wander while I play, rather than concentrate entirely on where my fingers are going…
Give it time Elizabeth, keep strumming!
Damh, this is the first song of yours I ever listened to. I’m so glad to know the story behind it.
This was the first song I heard of yours and to this day remains my favorite. I share this with folks alot. I feel the joy and energy of the Greenwood Grove every time I listen to this. Your muse is such a blessing!
Thank you Cordelia!
Loved reading this! I love all mythology and am especially into the less celebrated ones like Vietnamese deities, Navajo, Bunyoro, Korean, Shinto, Korean as a subset of Polynesian myth, etc.
Looking forward to reading more!