The Mummers' Dance

Album: The Book Of Secrets (1997)
Charted: 18
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  • When in the springtime of the year
    When the trees are crowned with leaves
    When the ash and oak, and the birch and yew
    Are dressed in ribbons fair

    When owls call the breathless moon
    In the blue veil of the night
    The shadows of the trees appear
    Amidst the lantern light

    We've been rambling all the night
    And some time of this day
    Now returning back again
    We bring a garland gay

    Who will go down to the shady groves
    And summon the shadows there
    And tie a ribbon on those sheltering arms
    In the springtime of the year

    The songs of birds seem to fill the wood
    That when the fiddler plays
    All their voices can be heard
    Long past their woodland days

    We've been rambling all the night
    And some time of this day
    And now returning back again
    We bring a garland gay

    And so they linked their hands and danced
    Round in circles and in rows
    And so the journey of the night descends
    When all the shades are gone

    "A garland gay we bring you here
    And at your door we stand
    It is a sprout well budded out
    The work of our Lord's hand"
    We've been rambling all the night
    And some time of this day
    And now returning back again
    We bring a garland gay

    We've been rambling all the night
    And some time of this day
    And now returning back again
    We bring a garland gay Writer/s: Loreena McKennitt
    Publisher: Peermusic Publishing
    Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 4

  • Bruce from SunnyvaleSuch a beautiful, lilting , haunting song.....Art Bell often used it in his bumper music lineup on his late night show Coast to Coast AM....the song has its magical best quality when it is late at night and you are feeling sleepy; it can transport your mind to another world as you slip off to sleep....
  • Moi from HereMesmerising
  • Francine "gloworm" Howell from Dallas,tx.Is there a recorder used in mummers dance? I would love a list of the instruments used in that song. Thanks a lot!
  • Brady from Niagara Falls, NyThis was just sent to me from a very dear friend...I have heard it before; but now it has a different meaning.
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