The Lykewake Dirge.

Chorus: This ae neet, this ae neet

                Every neet and all

                Fire and fleet and candleleet

                And Christ receive thy soul….

We were learning odd old songs last night at choir, appropriate to the season.

Verse:    When thou from heme away art part.

                Every neet and all,

                To Whinny moor thou comst at last.

                 And Christ receive thy soul.

The song talks about if you ever gave someone shoes and hose, you can sit down and put them on, but if you didn’t the ‘whins’ (winds?) shall pick your bare bones. It goes on along these thoughts. The figures in it, carrying a dead body, proceed from Whinny Moor, to Brig o’ Dread at last.

If you gave Meat and Drink to anyone the fires of Purgatory won’t touch you, but if you have naught, the fire will burn you to your bare bones.

Thus this old Yorkshire Dirge gives it’s message that if you treat people well and with kindness you shall be saved from the fires of Purgatory, but if you were mean spirited, that is your loss.

It’s interesting to find out about songs like this in our modern age. Spooky and frightening images of people striding out across a dark, windswept moor. High above towns and cities. Perhaps men wrapped in dark clothes and cowled or hooded cloaks….

Carrying a body to its last resting place? Maybe a bog grave where the body will be preserved in acid peat. Their skin turning to leather over the centuries. Held in a peaty stasis whilst their life’s works are weighed in the balance. Bones turning brown and black.

The cloaked figures striding off into the distance, like figures in the latter day ‘Traitors’ TV programme.

Next week we will be learning Carols, ready for Christmas……..