The Riddle Song

"The Riddle Song," also known as "I Gave My Love a Cherry," is an English folk song, [ [http://www.ukmagic.co.uk/song_english/the_riddle_song.html The Riddle song, on Traditional Songs from England site] ] apparently a lullaby, which was carried by settlers to the American Appalachians. [Digital Tradition Folk Music Database: [http://sniff.numachi.com/pages/tiRIDDLSNG;ttRIDDLSNG.html Appalachian version] ] It descends from a 15th-century English song in which a maiden says she is advised to unite with her lover. [Digital Tradition Folk Music Database: [http://www.mudcat.org/@displaysong.cfm?SongID=6899 Medieval version] ] It is related to Child Ballad no. 1, or "Riddles Wisely Expounded" [cite book |last=Niles |first=John Jacob |authorlink= John Jacob Niles|coauthors= |title= The Ballad Book of John Jacob Niles |year= 1960|publisher=Dover Publications, Inc |location=New York |isbn= 0-486-22716-2] and Child Ballad no. 46 [http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=9589 Thread at Mudcat discussions] ] Burl Ives recorded it on 11 February 1941 [Naxos: [http://www.naxos.com/mainsite/NaxosCat/Naxos_Cat.asp?item_code=8.120728&memberID= Link] ] for his debut album, "Okeh Presents the Wayfaring Stranger". Since then, it has been recorded by many artists, including Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, Doc Watson, Sam Cooke, and Carly Simon. [iTunes: Music Store]

The song was featured in the famous toga party scene in the movie National Lampoon's Animal House, where actor John Belushi's character Bluto comes across a folk singer (portrayed by the 1970s singer-songwriter Stephen Bishop, who is credited as "Charming Guy With Guitar") performing the song for a group of college girls. Belushi abruptly takes the singer's acoustic guitar out of his hands and smashes it violently, then hands a splintered piece of it back, saying "Sorry."

Some have seen the song's "cherry that has no stone" as a reference to the hymen, and some have even tried to reconstruct an original bawdy version from which modern versions are supposedly bowdlerized. However, the 15th-century version has "the cherye with-outyn ony ston", whereas the relevant slang sense of "cherry" is not attested till the early 20th century, ["New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary"] so singers could not have had it in mind in much earlier times. The other riddles in the original do not resemble the "reconstructions."

Despite its near-universality, the use of "The" in the title is incorrect. "The" Riddle Song is merely one of a multitude of riddle songs; the format is common through folk music. Another well-known example is "Scarborough Fair," perhaps best-known as performed by Simon and Garfunkel - note the impossible tasks set to the singer's former true love, such as making "a cambric-shirt . . . without no seams nor needle-work." Both songs also pose another feature common to riddle songs; in each case, romance is involved. In "'The' Riddle Song," the singer is presenting his love with seeming impossibilities as tokens of his love, while in "Scarborough Fair," the impossible tasks are set as conditions for (in this case renewal of) the riddle-poser's love.

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