Old King Coel

1 year ago
6

I made a recording of the classic children's Nursery Rhyme here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9YNbBs6p8k

In doing the research, I found this strange story in Geoffrey of Monmouth's 11th century history of Britain:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_of_Monmouth

Here is the Old English:
https://archive.org/details/dli.granth.72383/page/82

I spent a lot of time with this dictionary trying to turn it into singable modern English:
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/10625/10625-h/10625-h.htm#word_sethen

I'm not an Old English scholar, so may have messed up somewhere.

It isn't clear if Geoffrey just made it up, or was using some earlier source which has since disappeared (it was 700 years later after all).

The real King Coel:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coel_Hen

And the story of Saint Helena:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helena,_mother_of_Constantine_I

Purchase my music:
Bandcamp: https://ozfolklounge.bandcamp.com/

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