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{{Infobox song
| name = Lyke-Wake Dirge
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The "'''Lyke-Wake Dirge'''" is a traditional English folk song and [[dirge]] listed as number [[List of folk songs by Roud number|8194]] in the [[Roud Folk Song Index]]. The song tells of the [[soul]]'s travel, and the hazards it faces, on its way from earth to [[purgatory]], reminding the mourners to practise charity during lifetime. Though it is from the Christian era and features references to Christianity, much of the symbolism is thought to be of [[Germanic polytheism|pre-Christian]] origin.<ref>''The New Encyclopædia Britannica, Part 3, Volume 5'', 1983. Page. 533</ref><ref>''Merriam-Webster's encyclopedia of world religions'' by Wendy Doniger, Merriam-Webster, 1999, {{ISBN|0-87779-044-2}}, {{ISBN|978-0-87779-044-0}}. Page 282.</ref><ref>''Gods and Myths of Northern Europe'' by [[Hilda Ellis Davidson|Hilda Roderick Ellis Davidson]], Penguin Books, 1964 Page. 231</ref><ref>''A glossary of the Cleveland dialect: explanatory, derivative, and critical'' by John Christopher Atkinson, J.R. Smith, 1868. Page. 601</ref>
==The title==
{{wiktionary|1=Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic/līką}}
The title refers to the act of watching over the dead between the death and funeral, known as a [[wake (ceremony)|wake]]. "Lyke" is an obsolete word meaning a corpse
==The lyrics==
The song is written in an old form of the [[Yorkshire dialect and accent|Yorkshire dialect]] of [[Northern England English|Northern English]]. It goes:
▲{{quote|<poem>
This ae nighte, this ae nighte,
([[Refrain]]:) —''Every nighte and alle,''
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There would appear to be a [[lacuna (manuscripts)|lacuna]] in the version that Aubrey collected. Unlike the preceding and following pairs of stanzas, nothing happens at the Brig o' Dread. Richard Blakeborough, in his ''Wit, Character, Folklore, and Customs of the North Riding'', fills this apparent gap with verses he says were in use in 1800, and which seem likely to be authentic:
{{
If ivver thoo gav' o' thi siller an' gawd,
At t' Brigg o' Dreead thoo'll finnd footho'd,
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[[File:Lyke wake.png|thumb|right|320px|Sheet music for [[the Young Tradition]]'s version.]]
The poem has been recorded a number of times as a song. [[Arnold Bax]] set it for voice and piano in 1908 and made an orchestral version in 1934. [[Benjamin Britten]] set it to music as a part of his ''[[Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings]]'' in 1943, and, in his [[Cantata (Stravinsky)|Cantata on Old English Texts]] of 1952, [[Igor Stravinsky]] uses individual verses as interludes between the longer movements. English composer [[Geoffrey Burgon]] wrote a duet (This Eane Night) for two countertenors (recorded by [[James Bowman (countertenor)|James Bowman]] and [[Charles Brett (countertenor)|Charles Brett]]) with words altered slightly to fit the canonical single melody, the second countertenor starting one bar behind the first. At the end of each versicle the line rises by a semitone producing an eerie and climactic ending on top D before dropping back down to the starting tone.
A version with a different tune (but with the "fire and fleet" version of the lyrics) was collected by the folk song collector, Hans Fried, from the singing of "an old Scottish lady", Peggy Richards. [[The Young Tradition]] used this version for their [[a cappella]] recording on their 1965 debut album, using quite a primitive harmonisation, in which two of the vocal parts move in parallel fifths. The folk band [[Pentangle (band)|Pentangle]] performed a version on their 1969 album ''[[Basket of Light]]'', using the same tune as The Young Tradition, but elaborating the arrangement, and [[Al Stewart]] had a duet with [[Mimi Fariña]] in the "Collector's Choice" version of his [[Zero She Flies]] album. [[Buffy Sainte-Marie]] also included this song on her 1967 album ''[[Fire & Fleet & Candlelight]]''. Most later renditions of the song use the Richards-Fried melody; these include versions by [[Steeleye Span]], the [[Mediaeval Baebes]] (titled 'This Ay Nicht') and [[Alasdair Roberts (musician)|Alasdair Roberts]]. The annual Spiral Dance in San Francisco has adapted the song to a [[neopaganism|neopagan]] context, changing the refrain to "May earth receive thy soul". This version can be found on ''Let It Begin Now: Music from the Spiral Dance''.
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[[Maddy Prior]], writing in the liner notes to the Steeleye Span retrospective ''Spanning the Years'', drily characterises the song's countercultural appeal, in describing one 1970s performance:
<blockquote>5 nights at the LA Forum with [[Jethro Tull (band)|Jethro Tull]]. We were opening our set at the time with the Lyke Wake Dirge, a grim piece of music from Yorkshire concerning pergatory [sic] and we all dressed in dramatic mummers ribbons with tall hats. The effect was stunning. 5 gaunt figures in line across the front of the stage, lit from below casting huge shadows, intoning this insistent dirge alarmed some members of the audience whose reality was already tampered with by 1970s substances. It was most satisfying.</blockquote>
In the 2013 [[BBC]] radio play ''[[Neverwhere (radio play)|Neverwhere]]'', the angel Islington (played by [[Benedict Cumberbatch]]) sang it.
In 2014 the dirge was recorded by [[Matt Berninger]] and [[Andrew Bird]] for the [[AMC (TV channel)|AMC]] TV series ''[[Turn:
"Lyke-Wake Dirge" is sometimes considered a [[ballad]], but unlike a ballad it is [[lyric poetry|lyric]] rather than [[narrative]].
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* Richard Blakeborough, ''Wit, Character, Folklore, and Customs of the North Riding of Yorkshire'', Henry Frowde: London, 1898.
* [[Alasdair Clayre]], ''100 folk songs and new songs'', Wolfe Publishing Ltd, 1968. This includes the version collected by Hans Fried.
* Arthur Quiller-Couch (ed.), ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=hqopAAAAYAAJ
* [http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Lyke_wake.png First verse in 3-part harmony, based on the singing of The Young Tradition]
* The Oxford English Dictionary includes ''fire and flet (corruptly fleet): 'fire and house-room'; an expression often occurring in wills, etc.'' and refers to an ''old northern song over a dead corps'', but also notes the ''Fire and sleet'' version, with a quotation that sleet ''seems to be corrupted from selt, or salt, a quantity of which is frequently placed on the breast of a corpse''.
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