Quil O’ Quay
$10.00
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Appalachian Ballad
Setting by Malcolm Dalglish
Dedicated to the Southlake Children’s Choir, Cynthia Bradford, Director
In honor of the Choir’s tenth anniversary
“Quil O’ Quay” is an Appalachian mountain ballad that I learned from the singing of Nimrod Workman. Born 1895 in Martin County, Kentucky, Nimrod learned this and many other old ballads from his grandfather, a Cherokee Indian who fought in the Civil War. Nimrod’s version of this song and more of his life story as a coal miner are available on his recording, Passing Through The Garden (June Appal 001) from Appalshop, 306 Madison Street, Whitesburg, KY 41858 (606) 633-0108.
Around the time Nimrod was born, the famous Harvard folklore scholar Francis James Child was nearing the completion of his definitive collection of popular ballads in the English Language. Child’s analysis of these ballads linked them to the languages, folklore and literature of Europe. “Quil O’ Quay” was descended from Child Ballad No. 18, “Sir Lionel.” Versions of this ballad have twenty to forty verses, intricately weaving an adventure involving a hunter, a knight, a wild woman, a giant, and a battle with a monstrous wild boar. The American versions of the ballad took on many different and mysterious nonsense refrains (Cubby, Ki cuddle dum, killi quo quam). Even the names of the protagonists had an obscure origin as in “the Bottler” of this song. Most of these versions, like “Quil O’ Quay,” have simplified the plot to the battle scene with the hog. For lovers of Charlotte’s Web, a story line of “man meets pig–man kills pig” might seem a bit sad. I was, however, attracted to the David and Goliath aspects of the story. Here we have a solitary man with a wooden knife who slays a beast capable of killing thousands and leveling an entire forest.
