Anyone who has been around here long enough knows that I sometimes make ludicrous posts about Maiden songs (such as Neo-Nazis being in “Flight of Icarus”) The following isn’t one of those, though it is admittedly a bit far-fetched.
When I first heard “Dance of Death” something struck me as familiar about it. I couldn’t quite put my finger one it, and I didn’t know exactly how to articulate what bothered me about it. I recently figured out what it was. I attended a celebration of Acadian music a few weeks ago and heard a few songs eerily similar to Dance of Death, both in topic and form.
For those who don’t know, Acadians are the original European settlers of Nova Scotia from France. They arrived in the early 17th Century and built a strong, vibrant culture based on farming along the Bay of Fundy. They were universally illiterate, and hence had a very strong oral culture. Their songs preserved their history, and like Druidic chants in ancient Britain, have remained relatively unchanged for centuries.
The Treaty of Utrecht gave control of Nova Scotia to the British, and in 1755 the governor decided to remove the Acadian people and replace them with English-speaking Protestants from New England. The Acadians were spread around the world, and after a decade or so most had resettled in New Brunswick and Louisiana (where they became the famous Cajun people) Many aspects of Acadian/Cajun culture survive today, including their oral traditions.
Dance of Death seems to echo the form many of these folk songs. Though they’re all performed in French, my rough translations (while they were being sung, so they aren’t great!) indicate that most of them involve a wise man o man of experience telling about something that happened to him years ago. One gets the feeling that they would be told by an old man sitting near a fire in a small cabin in the middle of winter telling his grandchildren the story, but really telling it to himself so he himself can remember. They are deliberately told in the “fairy tale form” as in “once upon a time…” or “Let me tell you a story…”
My personal favourite, and one quite similar to DoD, was about an old man who describes his frequent encounters with Death and its Cart. Both deal primarily with the supernatural, the forces of Death, beckoning a new “victim” to follow them in a form of locomotion (the Dance or the Cart). The introduction of the Maiden song, actually, follows the same kind of beat – a slow, melodic, story-telling rhythm.
The fact that the protagonist in the Maiden song indicates a specific location – the Everglades – lends further credence to this theory. The Cajuns, while concentrated in Louisiana, influenced the cultural development of much of the Southern US, including adjacent Florida.
Unfortunately, as with most folk songs, thereare no examples for me to share with you over the internet. You’d see what I’m talking about quite quickly if I could do so.
So basically, my theory is this: It is possible that this song was inspired by Cajun/Acadian traditions which have survived in folk songs in Florida/Louisiana. As the IMC suggests, the folk traditions of that region of the US are as rich as they are diverse – Afro-Caribbean, Spanish, Native America, Celtic, Anglo, Acadian, and French.
Acadian/Cajun folk songs typically involve the following elements: the supernatural (usually Death), story telling styles, and slow, almost interlocutish (is that even a word) forms of lyrics.
Any comments?
When I first heard “Dance of Death” something struck me as familiar about it. I couldn’t quite put my finger one it, and I didn’t know exactly how to articulate what bothered me about it. I recently figured out what it was. I attended a celebration of Acadian music a few weeks ago and heard a few songs eerily similar to Dance of Death, both in topic and form.
For those who don’t know, Acadians are the original European settlers of Nova Scotia from France. They arrived in the early 17th Century and built a strong, vibrant culture based on farming along the Bay of Fundy. They were universally illiterate, and hence had a very strong oral culture. Their songs preserved their history, and like Druidic chants in ancient Britain, have remained relatively unchanged for centuries.
The Treaty of Utrecht gave control of Nova Scotia to the British, and in 1755 the governor decided to remove the Acadian people and replace them with English-speaking Protestants from New England. The Acadians were spread around the world, and after a decade or so most had resettled in New Brunswick and Louisiana (where they became the famous Cajun people) Many aspects of Acadian/Cajun culture survive today, including their oral traditions.
Dance of Death seems to echo the form many of these folk songs. Though they’re all performed in French, my rough translations (while they were being sung, so they aren’t great!) indicate that most of them involve a wise man o man of experience telling about something that happened to him years ago. One gets the feeling that they would be told by an old man sitting near a fire in a small cabin in the middle of winter telling his grandchildren the story, but really telling it to himself so he himself can remember. They are deliberately told in the “fairy tale form” as in “once upon a time…” or “Let me tell you a story…”
My personal favourite, and one quite similar to DoD, was about an old man who describes his frequent encounters with Death and its Cart. Both deal primarily with the supernatural, the forces of Death, beckoning a new “victim” to follow them in a form of locomotion (the Dance or the Cart). The introduction of the Maiden song, actually, follows the same kind of beat – a slow, melodic, story-telling rhythm.
The fact that the protagonist in the Maiden song indicates a specific location – the Everglades – lends further credence to this theory. The Cajuns, while concentrated in Louisiana, influenced the cultural development of much of the Southern US, including adjacent Florida.
Unfortunately, as with most folk songs, thereare no examples for me to share with you over the internet. You’d see what I’m talking about quite quickly if I could do so.
So basically, my theory is this: It is possible that this song was inspired by Cajun/Acadian traditions which have survived in folk songs in Florida/Louisiana. As the IMC suggests, the folk traditions of that region of the US are as rich as they are diverse – Afro-Caribbean, Spanish, Native America, Celtic, Anglo, Acadian, and French.
Acadian/Cajun folk songs typically involve the following elements: the supernatural (usually Death), story telling styles, and slow, almost interlocutish (is that even a word) forms of lyrics.
Any comments?
