A very moving song that asks us to sympathize with a highway robber over English overlords. Is this a traditional Irish song and how rooted in reality is it? If nothing else it is a beautiful song.
It’s right there in the credits on your first video: the lyrics are from a poem by Alfred Noyes (The Highwayman (poem) - Wikipedia ) and McKennitt wrote the music. The poem is from 1906, not based on a real incident or anything.
as the Wikipedia write-up indicates, this used to be a noted poem for readings. Nowadays, poetry reading and recitation has fallen from public favor and even in the schools. Unless the poem is reborn as a song (as in this case), it gets most exposure through parody, like those otherwise forgotten childhood poems in Alice in Wonderland that Lewis Carroll poked fun at.
I have to admit that I know most of these “classic” poems of yore through parodies on Bullwinkle’s Corner and Mad Magazine. In this case, “The Modern Highwayman” from Mad #95 in 1965, with illustrations by Don Martin. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to take this poem (or song) seriously, now that I’ve seen it with Martin’s big-nosed and flop-footed characters. (Not to mentioned updated, with the Highwayman riding a motorcycle)
The Highwayman was one of the poems we were required to read/study in high school. I love Lorena too, she’s very talented. When I heard this song, I marvelled at how she used the poem’s natural rhythm and cadence. The poem, even recited without music, is very musical. Her treatment of it is gorgeous.
I’m a fan of hers - a really haunting voice. If you’d like a taste of one of her original pieces that’s not based on a poem, I recommend Dante’s Prayer. A really beautiful song that never fails to get me a little verklempt.
McKennitt’s version of the Highwayman is very moving, but I’m invariably taken out of the moment when I imagine how pissed Bess, the landlord’s daughter would be to find out that the guy she sacrificed herself for throws it all away in a testosterone fueled fit of pique. I mean, the girl gives up her life for you, and twelve hours later you die while waving a sword and galloping down the highway towards guys with guns?