Steeleye Span Become Six Trivia Quiz

Answer: Cut down trees

The second verse starts:

"He felled the oak, he felled the birch the beech nor poplar spared
And much was grieved the sullen elves at what the stranger dared"

According to the folk music site, Mainly Norfolk, this song is a "translation of the first eight verses of a traditional Danish ballad, Eline af Villenskov" except that in "that translation it refers trolls instead of elves."

Songs of mythology and magic abound in Steeleye's albums. There are two more on this album alone. Other albums include examples such as "Alison Gross", "King Henry" and "Longbone".

Of course then there is the whole album "Wintersmith" which takes the Terry Pratchett novel of the same name as inspiration.

Answer: Milkmaids

The very first line tells us that "Three maidens a-milking did go". Ploughboys are common in folk song, shepherdesses less so and more commonly in the singular. Swineherds are much rarer.

This song is a combination of two others and is not consistent in its characters. The first few verses are from a song which goes by several names, "Drink Down the Moon" being one of them. At the beginning of the song, we have three milkmaids. These three meet a "young man they know" and ask if he is able "to catch them a small bird or two".

But then we slide into another song, "The Cuckoo", there is now only one woman with the lad. The rest of the song is about sex. Not explicitly or with any vulgarity, but the phrase "cuckoo's nest" is a common euphemism for the woman's genital area. Common in folk songs anyway.

The penultimate verse ends:
"She said young man you blunder and I said it isn't true
And I left he with the makings of a young cuckoo"

Or to put it another way, she might now be pregnant with a child that is not her husband's. To me the life style of the cuckoo (laying eggs in other birds' nests) and the word cuckold, all draw from the same concept.

For another example of this consider the song "The Cuckoo's Nest", a version of which can be found on "Morris On" album recorded by Ashley Hutchings and friends.

Answer: Riddles

The three riddles or verses all scan differently. The first riddle partially and the second one totally can be found in J. R. R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit". The third one appears to have a history as far back as the tenth century.

The phrase "Now We Are Six", has another meaning here. This was the first Steeleye Span album with drummer Nigel Pegrum, who became the sixth member of the band.

Answer: To Know Him Is to Love Him

Phil Spector is listed as writer on all of these, but for the three wrong answers he is listed as a co-writer. "To Know Him is to Love Him" is shown as all his own work. The song is fine just not what I would have expected on this album.

The song also features David Bowie on alto saxophone.

Answer: The Mooncoin Jig

All of the options listed are jigs that have been recorded by Steeleye Span. "The Hag with the Money" and "Bryan O'Lynn" both appear on the album "Please to See the King", while "Willie Clancy's Fancy" is on the album "Ten Man Mop"

Both of those albums were from their earlier electric folk days, being the second and third albums recorded by the group. They moved into folk-rock with the release of "Below the Salt" in 1972.

Answer: Queen of Elfland

There he is, Thomas, a minstrel of some form, who makes rhymes. He is minding his own business when along comes a bold lady. "A lady that was brisk and bold came riding."

So far so good but then he gets told that:
"I am the queen of fair Elfland and I have come to visit thee."
"You must go with me, Thomas," she said, "True Thomas, you must go with me
And must serve me seven years"

Not the best start to a relationship, but off she rides on her horse with Thomas riding pillion. This is one of the Child Ballads, named after the folk-song collector Francis Child. A total of five versions of this song appear in his magnum opus, "The English and Scottish Popular Ballads".

Historically the song is said to be about the thirteenth century Scotsman, Thomas de Ercildoun. Apparently when he returned from his seven years servitude, he had the gift of prophecy but an inability to lie. I hope he didn't go into law or politics afterwards.

Of the other options, Admiral Nelson served in the Royal Navy when the press gang roamed the seaside towns. Plenty of songs exist about both the press gang and serving in the navy. Prince Albert appears in the song "The Deserter", (or in a song of that name). The Fairport Convention version ends with the verse:

Then up rode Prince Albert in his carriage and sticks
Saying "Where is that young man whose coffin is fixed?
Set him free from his irons and let him go free
For he'll make a good soldier for his Queen and country"

Bald General Coote makes an appearance in a song by The Kipper Family.

Answer: Narrow and thorny

The road to hell is paved with good intentions according to the proverb but here the Elf Queen points out three roads to Thomas.

"Don't you see yon narrow, narrow road, so thick beset with thorns and briars?
That is the road to righteousness, though after it but few enquire."

"Don't you see yon broad, broad road, that lies across the lily leaven?
That is the road to wickedness, though some call it the road to heaven."

"Don't you see yon bonny, bonny road, that lies across the ferny brae?
That is the road to fair Elfland, where you and I this night must go."

By this time they have been riding forty days and nights so directions to the intersection of paths might be a bit hazy.

A different version of this song, incorporating the dialect words collected in the Child Ballads, was recorded by Ewan MacColl back in 1956. I am sure that even a brief search will turn up other recordings.

Answer: Blacksmith

The second half of the chorus, as being sung by the female goes:
"I'd rather die a maid. Ah, but then she said and be buried all in my grave
Than to have such a nasty, husky, dusky, fusky, musky coal blacksmith
A maiden I will die"

The premise of the song is she is trying to escape his attentions. She keeps changing herself into other things, and he does likewise into an appropriate form for getting her in his arms.

For example; "She became a duck, a duck all on the stream. And he became a water dog and fetched her back again". Nowadays this would be classed as stalking and possibly sexual harassment depending on which verses are taken into account.

This is another of the Child Ballads, the original having plenty of dialect words, and more verses than this version. There are other source versions from around the world and other recordings of the song to the one here.

Answer: Stabbed him

Taking a few lines from the song to illustrate the tale. "...my song, I will unfold concerning gold that guides so many wrong". This is the motive, clearly expressed at the start of the story.

Young Edwin then goes off to sea for seven years, returns, heads straight for Emma's house. Then like all sailors he has a drink, from here on his life goes downhill, fast.

"Young Edwin he sat drinking till time to go to bed,
He little thought a sword that night would part his body and head.
And Edwin he got into bed and scarcely was asleep
When Emily's cruel parents soft into his room did creep.
They stabbed him, dragged him out of bed, and to the sea did go,
They sent his body floating down to the lowlands low."

Then to cap it off, Emma ends up going mad and is consigned to bedlam. Gold does strange things to people.

This is another song from the pen of that well known duo, "anon & trad". Collectors have found variations of this song around the British Isles and North America. The names may change but the poor sailor boy invariably dies.

Answer: Cruel death

This sorry tale starts with a young lady complaining to her father that she has been married, or at least engaged to a child. "Father, dear father, you've done me much wrong. You've tied me to a boy when you know he is too young."

Her father replies something along the lines of time will cure that problem. But then the last verse reveals the fate of the young lad.

"At the age of sixteen he was a married man,
And at the age of seventeen the father to a son,
And at the age of eighteen his grave it did grow green.
Cruel death had put an end to his growing."

This is yet another traditional song, collected in many places and with alternative titles such as "The College Boy" and "The Trees They Grow So High".

As with such songs there are many recordings available, to pick a few from the vast array, all of Pentangle, Martin Carthy, his daughter Eliza Carthy and Ewan MacColl have recorded this song on albums.