The Silver Dagger

By |

This blog is where I share resources from each Imaginary Song Hunt session, along with a Zoom video for anyone who wants to catch up. Feel free to use the ‘comments’ box below to share feedback, fun facts, or just to say hello! If you enjoyed the session and these resources, please: drop some pennies into the tip jar

19th June 2024:

The Silver Dagger

In the first of my July ‘new album specials’, I took at look at some of the historical sources for a favourite folksong of mine, The Silver Dagger, thinking about how historical research broaden the scope of our ways of interpreting and reimagining traditional songs today. We looked at some First-World-War-era Appalachian transcriptions of this song, and traced its variants back to 19th Broadside Ballads. We sang a version transcribed by Cecil Sharp in 1907, in Somerset.

Slides from the session

Video

Recommended recordings

1 Comment

Leave a Comment

  1. Stef,
    Thanks for the good introduction to ‘Silver Dagger’, which I didn’t know at all. I have now just played the link to, and liked, the Martha Tilston version. Some years ago I got her very good ‘Lucy and the Wolves’ CD. Now I look, I have also got ‘Milkmaids and Architects’. Must have got it for £1 from a charity shop but never played it! I’ll play it this evening perhaps….

Comments are closed.