Rose of Allendale
"The Rose of Allendale" is an English song, with words by Charles Jefferys and music by Sidney Nelson, composed in the 1830s and appearing in Blake's Young Flutist's Magazine in 1833. Because the song has been recorded by Paddy Reilly and Mary Black, many people mistakenly believe the song to be a (traditional) Irish song. Sometimes it is also believed to be a Scottish song.
The English song lyrics are about a maiden from the town of Allendale, Northumberland (in love songs, a rose, regarded as a beautiful and romantic flower, is often the fairest maiden of a region or village).
Even though similarities are striking that the song is a translated version of a much older German folk song that melodywise rooted in an old "altwürttembergische Melodie" from the Rems valley. It is a soldier's farewell song to his beloved and reflects the unstable times of war.
The song was also popularized by the Scottish folk band The Corries, and The Dubliners (e.g. on their 1987 album 25 Years Celebration) as well as in bagpipe versions, e.g. Grampian Police Pipe Band on their album Pipes and Drums of Scotland, song no. 13.
Podcasts:
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by Mary Black
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by Paddy Reilly
Rose Of Allendale
by: Mary BlackThe moon was bright, the night was clear
No breeze came over the sea
When mary left her highland home
And wandered forth with me
The flowers be-decked the mountainside
And fragrance filled the vale
But by far the sweetest flower there
Was the rose of allendale
Oh the rose of allendale
Sweet rose of allendale
By far the sweetest flower there
Was the rose of allendale
Where e'er I wandered east or west
Though fate began to lour
A solace still was she to me
In sorrow's lonely hour
When tempests lashed our lonely barque
And rent her quivering sail
One maiden's form withstood the storm
'twas the rose of allendale
Oh sweet rose of allendale
Sweet rose of allendale
One maiden's form withstood the storm
'twas the rose of allendale
And when my fever'd lips were parched
On afric's burning sands
She whispered hopes of happiness
And tales of distant lands
My life has been a wilderness
Unblessed by fortune's wheel
Had fate not linked my love to hers
The rose of allendale
Oh sweet rose of allendale
Sweet rose of allendale
Had fate not linked my love to hers