The Old Carmarthen Oak - Frank Hennessy

Lyrics/Geiriau

As I roved out one morning
Going to Carmathen Fair
I spied a pretty maiden
With the sunlight in her hair
Her way was so delightful
Her voice wrang like a bell
And as I overtook her
I asked if she was well

Chorus
Lay down your brethyn shawl me love
I swear it is no joke
And I'll tell to you the story of
The Old Carmathen Oak

As we approached Carmathen
The girl at me did stare
And she asked me why I raised my hat
To a tree so old and bare
I told her of the legend
If the tree should e'er come down
There'd be a great disaster
And Carmathen would be drowned

Then she started laughing
My face grew very red
And she said that only fools believed
What old welsh legends said
Her laughter was contagious
For the truth to you I'll tell
By the time I reached the market place
I began to laugh as well

As I sit here by my fireside
It's the autumn of my life
And the darling girl I met that day
Is now my darling wife
I have a lovely daughter
And a son to push my yoke
And all because I raised my hat
To the Old Carmarthen Oak

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Old
• Carmathen
• Oak
• Frank Hennessy
• Dungarvan
• Folk
• Caerfyrddin
• Wales
• Cymru
• Myrddin
• Merlin

[grandslam1998]

Great song by a great singer!

[3tangle3]

@grandslam1998 :) I would love to see him live

[CantwrCymreig]

Minor correction to the lyrics: "Lay down your brethyn shawl" not "Brecon," brethyn being Welsh for (homespun) cloth. "Y ferch mewn brethyn cartref Tyrd i eistedd gyda mi A dweudaf iti'r stori Am yr hen hen dderwen ddu." ("O maid in cloth of homespun Come and sit down next to me And I'll tell to you the story Of the old old black oak tree.")

[3tangle3]

@CantwrCymreig copy and paste job with the lyrics sori :D :S

[Knappa22]

When the old Carmarthen oak was removed to the county museum (at Abergwili) in the 1980s, the town saw the worst floods in a century.

Ever since then a portion of the tree has been kept on display at St Peter's Civic Hall in Carmarthen..... just in case!

[paultudorp]

thanks for uploading, great song and group

[Trashman1964]

Love it:-D

This reminds me somewhat of music that I heard on CBC tv here in Canada on occasion back in the 1970's.

I enjoyed this very much and in a way it brought me back to that time:-)