This song, "Howdy Wife and the Trow", is the first new music to be released in the run up to the release of my album "Forebears", a series of songs about the hauntology of the folk tradition.
The story of the midwife and the trow is an old folk tale from Shetland. The trow calls upon the midwife, also called a howdy wife, to help with the birth of his child. Afterwards, the midwife realises she is in a land she's never seen before; the land of the trow. Afterwards, the trow uses magic on the midwife's eyes to return her to her own world.
She doesn't see the Trow again until the following summer, when the community were gathered together to pull wool from the sheep, one of the many jobs that everyone came together to perform. When the midwife speaks with the trow, he is surprised she can see her, but finds she can only see him from one eye. Some further magic ensures she cannot see him anymore, leaving her blind in one eye for the rest of her life.
lyrics
~~~~~~~~~~
To the Howdy Wife's surprise, there comes a knocking at the door.
The Trow betrays himself, no more than four foot off the floor.
Next thing she's garbed in her overcoat, stalking the footsteps of the Trow.
"I do not recognise this monument! I do not know where I am now!"
Inside a house just like her own, a clamour puts on guard the maid.
She follows cries to the bedchamber. "Please help deliver me my babe!"
The child bearer is surveyed, and cooled with water from the firth.
The Howdy Wife works expertly. A squealing bairn is proudly birthed.
The new father proffers gold and shepherds the midwife back home.
Cockcrow comes and the landscape lights up, still this is a place she does not know.
He stops and produces a flask from which a lotion he decants.
Applies it to the midwife's eyes. A blink or two, she is enchanted.
She's back where she knows. These are familiar roads.
Her bearings are now cleared, but the Trow is disappeared.
And no matter where she scouts, she cannot find that house.
She'd think it was a dream but for the blood on her hands.
When summer comes around, the jobs are to be done.
To pull fish from the stream.
To pull roots from the crofts.
To pull wool from the sheep.
In amongst them is the Trow, spotted only by one eye.
It's the Howdy Wife, she calls, "Are the child and wife alright?"
Shocked to be seen, he smiles and reaches up.
"They are both doing fine. Let me look at your face."
A whistle through her eye, and now she is blind.
For the rest of her life.
~~~~~~~~~~
credits
released May 16, 2020
Music and words by Platitude Queen.
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