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Unless otherwise stated, this image is the copyright of the submitter. Contact them for permission to reproduce it. |  | | Description | Beltane. The Devil's Dyke Morris Men "Dance up the Sun" at Wandlebury in the Gogmagog Hills on the 1st May. A truly pagan event, but be there well before 5am. |
| Posted Comments: chris
(2004-06-10) | my mum works here
| chris 11
(2005-01-30) | why are they wearing their pajarmas | enkidu41
(2005-01-30) | In Windows-speak doesn't a saltire red cross signify "delete"? | Thorgrim
(2005-01-30) | Odd how the English love to mock morris men - one of the few folk traditions we have left- yet nobody pokes fun at Highland or Irish dancers. Ah well... | AngieLake
(2005-01-30) | There were Morris Men dancing at Stonehenge at Summer Solstice sunrise in 2001. Full of life, while most of us were bleary-eyed! Our 'Great Western Morris' men in Devon are brilliant - they danced last May Day at Lustleigh, near here - a fantastic setting for a real olde English pagan rite. And I caught a 'Border Morris' group dancing in Shrewsbury town centre one recent summer - black faces, and wearing outfits made of many different coloured rags, etc! There are many different types, including Molly Dancers, who wear all black and white outfits. The Sidmouth Folk Festival is a great place to see the best of them. The more outrageous, the merrier - they brighten up our dull lives. You'd be a very sad person if you didn't enjoy them. | enkidu41
(2005-01-30) | Unlike Highland and Irish dancers, Morris Men don't wear an attire traditionally associated with their country. And whilst the meaning and origins of the dances may be debatable that of the word Morris is not. It is derived from the Middle English moreys meaning Moorish, i.e. like Othello, a black person. None of which is to say that their performances can't be entertaining (Angie's said it all) - nor that fun may not be poked. | Thorgrim
(2005-01-31) | Surely Morris costume is based on the attire of 18th/19th century English agricultural labourers - smocks, gators and hats with bells and ribbons attached fo "fair" days. "Morris" does come from the ME "moreys daunce" and moreys does mean moorish. But the dance doesn't came from Morroco. The dancers often blacked their faces for a variety of reasons none of which were about imitating black people. So they were nicknamed Moors (generic name for all black people) or more commonly "Blackamoors" which was the name later used for black domestic servants in Britain. This photo should really be in the people/events section so I have re-allocated it there and will try for a more appropriate shot of Wandlebury - difficult though unless from the air! | enkidu41
(2005-01-31) | I believe that the costume is, indeed based on agricultural labourer's attire but why a 200 year old costume should have become fixed for a ritual that is considerably older is odd. Written records as far back as the 16th century talk of Morris Dancing (and, inevitably, its banning by the Church - as ineffectual as all their proscriptions of paganism) and it is highly likely that the antiquity of the ritual is considerably older than that. Hard-packed earth round the perimeter of a few stone circles suggest a ritualised circle dance and it is certainly possible, though admittedly speculative, that Morris Dancing is a degenerate form of a ritual that does date back as far back as the Bronze Age. | AngieLake
(2005-01-31) | I've just looked up my diary for 15th June 2002, and on that day I recorded (in Shrewsbury): "Filmed Morris dancers. Black faces, hats with feathers, and coloured-strip-adorned-outfits. Welsh Borders. Black faces so as not to be recognised. (Bad luck)." That was what one of the dancers told me when I asked him why they were 'blacked-up'. It was something to do with the fact that they were on, or over the Border with Wales, and if they went into the other area, they may have been recognised, which would be very bad luck for them, so they had to be 'in disguise'. They were of the 'Welsh Borders' type of Morris. At Sidmouth last summer, a similar group were dancing on the seafront, and called themselves 'Herbaceous Borders' - very tongue-in-cheek and very colourful! | Thorgrim
(2005-01-31) | Oldest authentic form is the Abbots Bromley Horn Dance - the antlers are reindeer! As regards costume - well all national costumes are fossilised in time - Beefeaters, Greek guards in white tutus. The Highland dress we see today is Victorian, but based on earlier and more practical voluminous plaids that were skirts and wrap around cloaks in one . Too bulky for dancing in!. The female Irish dancers' costume is very attractive with its mini-kilt and short emboidered cape. - hardly authentic. Male Irish national costume? buskins and bowlers as for leprechauns - pure Irish navvy. Guess that ag. labs. of whatever period used their own clothes for dancing and just added trimmings. I have an illustration of medieval morris dancers - they wear doublet and hose with extravagant cod-pieces and with with bells at their knees | LizH
(2005-01-31) | There is some doubt about whether the word 'Morris' does come from Moorish - one other possible derivation is from the Latin 'mores' and thus it would mean customary.
But whichever (or whatever other one and there are other suggestions) Morris dancing is not one thing. The dancers pictured in this are probably Cotswold dancers, who do wear bells on their legs and use handkerchiefs, and many of them wear garters and sashes. But there are other traditions of Morris, and they certainly don't all wear the same thing. The North West tradition is based around wearing clogs, and usually includes hats with flowers, often bowler hats, and bells are on the clogs, not the legs. Many Morris dancers do wear the 'tatters' jackets - jackets which appear to be made of lots of bits of ribbon - often in the colours of their side. There are also other honourable traditions such as the sword dances (rapper and longsword) and they also have their own clothing traditions. So Morris dancing is a wealth of traditions together - men and women - and many of the costumes (kit) are invented by the different sides. There are less traditional ones who wear jeans and tee-shirts, punk style dancers and many others. I also don't think it's fair to call it 'degenerate' (although you may not have meant it to be so denigrating) as lots of Morris sides are keeping up a living, breathing, moving and changing tradition - just as our ancestors may have done. | enkidu41
(2005-01-31) | You're quite right, degenerate is too strong a word. It wasn't meant to be pejorative. I'm sure that all Morris Dancers see themselves as carrying on a tradition even though they cannot know the original purpose. LizH, I was interested by your assertion that there is doubt over the etymology of the word 'Morris'. Do you have source? The word is pretty well documented as having derived from the Middle Latin 'mauriscos' (of or like a Moor) >Spanish >Middle French >Middle English >Modern English. | Thorgrim
(2005-01-31) | I'm very much with you on this, Liz. Further to the blacking of faces - it has more to do with disguise and masks than racial imitation. Often, dancers would not want the local vicar to recognise them, but also the black face was an easy mask to adopt and was "alien" and otherworldly in the sense of being different from eveydayness. Hard to explain in a short note, but it ties up with mummers and the taking on of new personas and gender swapping. There was often a man/woman character (echoes of which survive in pantomime). We can be certain that morris is a long lived genuine folk tradition, albeit much revived by Victorians and ourselves. Also, we can be certain that black faces are not to be banned by the PC Thought Police as racist and that the dances were not imported from Morroco. What an interesting discussion from a photo that I had long forgotten. Took more on the same May Day, but I shan't inflict them on the Portal. | infidel
(2005-04-05) | I was at Wandlebury today. It’s a grand walk along the Roman road to Copley hill, marked as a tumulus on the OS map. The hill is heavily wooded and its bit of climb to the top.
I’m looking forward to the Morris dancers at dawn on Beltane! thanks for the info.
| HEREWARD THE WAKE!
(2005-05-17) | Unlike Highland and Irish dancers, Morris Men don't wear an attire traditionally associated with their country.
The Uillean pipes were invented by an ENGLISHMAN, the kilt, a norse word, was invented by an ENGLISHMAN, Haggis was originally ENGLISH and Dublin in "Ireland" was founded by SCANDINAVIANS! What is your point??? | hamish
(2005-05-17) | Strange is it not that these things were arround before there was such a thing as a shouting ENGLISHMAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! |
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