Merch Megan (Daughter of Megan)

1 year ago
21

My recording, prompted by Kate Rusby's fabulous version here (@katerusbyofficial ):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bY_ndx9xP8Q

I'm not sure where Kate's melody came from, but the words are taken
directly from this 1812 ballad by John Freeman Milward Dovaston:
https://archive.org/details/fitzgwarineballa00dovaiala

The words are associated with a Welsh Air, also called Merch Megan:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11CX0exRZ5E

I've tried to shift the melody closer to the A part of the Air.

The 1815 painting in the thumbnail is by Peter Roberts, from this article about Welsh Folk Dancing:
https://museum.wales/articles/1043/Welsh-Folk-Dancing---Almost-lost-without-trace/

#Wales #Welsh

The fact that nothing like this song appears in Bodleian archive suggest that maybe John wrote it himself?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Freeman_Milward_Dovaston

"The Secret of Stoke Manor" from 1817 tells a story of a welsh girl married to a viking:
https://archive.org/details/blackwoodsedinb253unkngoog/page/714/

There are some tantalizing suggestions that Gwen Ap Ollobik was really a daughter of Meghan Gryffyd in 1025-1085 and had a fascinating story.
https://www.myheritage.com/names/gwen_ollobik

Purchase my music:
Bandcamp: https://ozfolklounge.bandcamp.com/

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