Aiken Drum

"Aiken Drum" is a popular Scottish folk song.

:"There was a man lived in the moon, lived in the moon, lived in the moon, there was a man lived in the moon and his name was Aiken Drum ..."

In the song Aiken Drum is a man who played his music upon a ladle and whose clothing was made of various different food products.

The song is Scottish in origin and it may date back to the 1715 Jacobite Rising. James Hogg's "Jacobite Reliques" (1821) records that a Jacobite song from this time had the chorus 'Aikendrum, Aikendrum', though this seems to have been to a different tune. Another version from about this time has Aiken Drum as a would-be soldier, adorning himself with various items of food [ [http://www.contemplator.com/scotland/aiken.html Aiken Drum (Version 1) ] ] .

In North America, it is popular in Ontario, Michigan, Ohio, and West Virginia, and may be spelled "Akin Drum". Modern versions of the song have his cheeks made of pizza and hair of noodles, while more traditional versions may have his trousers made of haggis bags and buttons made of penny loaves. Traditional versions have him playing upon a ladle, but many modern versions omit this.

Folkloric roots

Like most folk material it was based on folkloric antecedents with roots reaching back into remote antiquity.

It is in Scotland that one finds the brownie of folklore, a being who is generally benevolent but sometimes mischievous. As it turns out, arguably the most well-known of individual brownies, described in the poem "The Brounie o Blednoch" [http://www.bladnoch.co.uk/aikendrum.htm "The Brounie o Blednoch" Online version accessed 2006-07-07.] ] by William Nicholson, [http://www.dumfries-and-galloway.co.uk/people/nicholson.htm Nicholson, William, 1783-1849] ] goes by the name of "Aiken Drum". (The modern spelling is Bladnoch. This brownie is not to be confused with "The Brownie of Bodsbeck" or "The Brownie of the Black Hagg", both by James Hogg.)

Difficulties of the folklorist

The difficulty which presents itself is not whether the "Aiken Drum" of the nursery rhyme is the "same individual" as the "Aiken Drum" of Nicholson or Scott. There may be many different individuals with the same name. However, the question at hand is not one of the identity of historical personages, but rather that of recognizably distinct entities which may nevertheless represent variant instantiations of a single folkloric archetype. The folkloristic premise is satisfied if there is a nontrivial intersection of the sets of semantic features defining the two. Adapting the words of the Celtic folklorist John Rhys, "In fact, [they] reduce themselves here into different humours of the same uncanny being." [Rhys, 1901.]

Defining characteristics

*Name: identical ("Nomen est omen" -- "name is portent" (compare the evil elf Rumplestiltskin.))
*Numinosity / otherworldliness: "I lived in a lan' where we saw nae sky, I dwalt in a spot where a burn rins na by"., both with nocturnal / lunar associations.
*Ladle totem: held by both (Rumplestiltskin is sometimes associated with a ladle.)
*Bizarre costume: kilt of rushes, edible clothing.
*Monstrous / inhuman visage: hair, beard, facial features, etc.
*Food connection: fertility, appetite ("cogfu' o' brose" = pail of porridge, penny loaves, pizza, spaghetti) particularly cereal and dairy.
*Fondness for children, nursery clown ("...the bairns played harmless roun' his knee....")

The numinous nature of Aiken Drum

Apart from the striking and peculiar name of Aiken Drum, the most definitive characteristics of this archetype might be his otherworldliness. The numinous nature of Aiken Drum is diluted almost beyond recognition in the late 20th century nursery version. However, this definitive characteristic is preserved, that he is of unearthly origin:

:"There was a man lived in the Moon...And his name was Aiken Drum." [Opie, Iona. & Opie, Peter., eds. "The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes".] :"Aiken-drum....this wild and unearthly entity whose face glared like the setting sun through a rain-cloud."

Source of the numinousness

As to the lunar connection, such supernatural entities were often attuned to the cycles of the harvest, as for example the Brounie of Blednoch's participation in sowing, reaping, and baking.

Aiken Drum retains many other ancient characteristics, including a need to be propitiated with food offerings, an ambivalent helpfulness, and an attachment to the larder or kitchen.

The Brounie o Blednoch

The following excerpt from the Nicholson poem "The Brounie o Blednoch" captures the essence of Aiken Drum's otherworldly arrival, before later versions toned this aspect down:

:"There cam a strange wight to our town-en":"And the fient a body did him ken":"He tirled na land, but he glided ben":"Wi' a dreary, dreary hum."

::A strange entity came into our part of the town,::And the fiend was known to everybody,::His feet did not disturb the ground, but he glided in::With a dreary hum.

Monstrous physical appearance

The appearance of the brownie is often hideous: in Britain he may have no nose; in Scandinavia he may have only one cyclopean eye. The Aiken Drum of "The Brounie of Blednoch" described by Nicholson is no exception:

:"...there's a hole where a nose should h'ae been, And the mouth's like a gash which a horn had ri'en....His matted head on his breast did rest, A lang blue beard wan'ered down like a vest....Roun' his hairy form there was naething seen But a philabeg o' rashes green....On his wauchie arms three claws did meet As they trailed on the grun' by his taeless feet...."

::There's a hole where his nose should have been, and the mouth's like a gash torn by a horn....His matted head rested on his chest, A long blue beard wandered down like a vest...Around his hairy form there was nothing seen but a kilt of green rushes....On his foul arms, three claws met as they trailed on the ground by his toeless feet.

In the children's song which is currently popular, Aiken Drum's appearance continues to be bizarre, but is rendered ridiculous, rather than horrible: his "hair is made of spaghetti and his eyes are made of meatballs."

Origin of the name "Aiken Drum"

One of the arresting features of this folksong is the curious, etymologically opaque name associated with its protagonist.

"Will Ye Go to Sheriffmuir" ca 1715

James Hogg in 1821 collected a song of the Battle of Sheriffmuir (circa 1715) with an apparent exhortation addressed to "Aikendrum"::"Ken ye How a Whig Can fight, " Aikendrum, Aikendrum?:"Ken ye How a Whig Can fight, " Aikendrum?:"He can fight the hero bright,":"With his heels and armour light,":"And his wind of heav'nly might, " Aikendrum, Aikendrum,:"Is not Rowley in the right, " Aikendrum?

Whether this is flattery to the Jacobite forces or an appeal to a protector, human or otherwise, is unclear.

It does demonstrate that the name "Aikendrum" must have been in use between 1715 and 1821.
*"Will Ye Go to Sheriffmuir" was sung to the tune of [http://davidkidd.net/sounds/42GerB.mid "My Luve's in Germanie" (MIDI).]

Graham's version

As cited by [http://davidkidd.net/18songs.html David Kidd] , G. F. Graham 'Songs of Scotland' Glasgow, J. Muir Wood, n.d. [1848-9] , III.26-7. Graham, born in 1789, notes that the air was sung in his boyhood "to ludicrous but unmeaning stanzas, beginning:":"There was a man cam frae the moon,":"Cam frae the moon, cam frae the moon,":"There was a man cam frae the moon,":"An' they ca'ed him" Aikendrum.

That would date this version approximately to the 1790s.Kidd provides the following MIDI files for the song:
* [http://davidkidd.net/sounds/47AkCe.mid Contemporary piano]
* [http://davidkidd.net/sounds/47AkNh.mid Traditional fiddle]

"Edrin Drum"

Halliwell's variant "Edrin Drum" (1846) seems to be a somewhat later version, with no apparent reason for the substitution.

Aiken Drum in Scott's "Antiquary"

In Sir Walter Scott's 1816 narrative "The Antiquary",Scott, Walter, "The Antiquary" [http://www2.cddc.vt.edu/gutenberg/etext04/ant3w10.txt Text at Project Gutenberg] .] an old beggar explains that the ancient mound that the antiquary ("Monkbarns") thinks to be of Roman origin was actually built by himself for Aiken Drum's wedding:

:"Ou, I ken this about it, Monkbarns, and what profit have I for telling ye a lie - I just ken this about it, that about twenty years syne, I, and a wheen hallenshakers like mysell, and the mason-lads that built the Lang dyke that gaes down the loaning, and twa or three herds maybe, just set to wark, and built this bit thing here that ye ca' the- the-Praetorian, and a' just for a bield at auld Aiken Drum's bridal, and a bit blithe gae-down we had in't, some sair rainy weather. Mair by token, Monkbarns, if ye howk up the bourock, as ye seem to have begun, ye'll find, if ye hae not fund it already, a stane that ane o' the mason-callants cut a ladle on to have a bourd at the bridegroom, and he put four letters on't, that's A.D.L.L. -Aiken Drum's Lang Ladle for Aiken was ane o' the kale-suppers o' Fife."

::Indeed, I know this about it, Monkbarns, and what profit shall I have for telling you a lie? I just know this about it, that about twenty years ago, I and a few beggars like myself, and the mason-lads that built the long dry stone wall that goes down the grassy track, and two or three shepherds, maybe, just set to work and built this little thing here that you call "the- the- Praetorian", and just for some shelter at old "Aiken Drum's" marriage, and a right downpour we had in it, some very rainy weather. Furthermore, Monkbarns, if you dig up the mound, as you seem to have begun, you'll find (if you have not found it already) a stone that one of the mason-lads cut a "ladle" on, to have a joke on the bridegroom, and he put four letters on it, that's A.D.L.L. -- "Aiken Drum's Long Ladle," -- for "Aiken" was one of the (cabbage) broth suppers of Fife.

("Kale-supper" is a nickname for a native of the county of Fife.) "Dictionary of the Scots Language"] ["The Concise Scots Dictionary", Mairi Robinson (editor) (1985)]

Food man

As the numerous versions of "Aiken Drum" have devolved into a less and less horrific apparition, so have his attributes been softened from the monstrous to the comestible. Earlier primordial ghastliness has given way to edible, comic features and accoutrements—from a kilt of rushes, to clothes made of "guid roast beef", to even starchier "buttons made of bawbee baps" (ha'penny yeast rolls), to spaghetti and pizza, from no nose to a meatball nose.The transition involved here is an archetypical one: from deity to brownie to woodwose to green man.

Trivia

*Aiken Drum is also the name of a character in Julian May's "Saga of Pliocene Exile", a trickster genius who schemes to take over the crown of the Many-Colored Land and turns out to be a better king than anyone could expect.

*Mister Dressup often played this song on his television program.

*Popular Armenian-Canadian children's singer Raffi plays a version of the song, called "Aikendrum," on his album Singable Songs for the Very Young (1976).

*The illustrated children's book "Whiffle Squeek" reworks this story into one about a sailing cat with edible clothing who encounters a monster of the briny deep.

* Aiken Drumm is a character in Anne Rice's "Taltos," a member of the mysterious race of non-human "Little People" who existed long before humans evolved to their current state on earth. He is in a leadership position in the clan, which also has an unhuman lifespan of thousands of years. An interpretation of this account could be that since his lifespan is so long, all of the cultural references to Aiken Drumm refer to the same actual creature and may be true.

Bibliography

* [http://www.contemplator.com/scotland/aiken.html The earliest recorded version]
*"Dictionary of the Scots language". [http://www.dsl.ac.uk/ Online version accessed 2006-07-07.]
*Halliwell, James Orchard. 1846. "The Nursery Rhymes of England". London: John Russell Smith. [http://www.presscom.co.uk/nursery/nurs4th.html Online facsimile accessed 2006-07-06]
*Hogg, James. 1821. "Jacobite Reliques " (aka "Jacobite Relics of Scotland"), vol. II , p. 22 ff.
*King James I & VI, "Dæmonologie", 16. [http://www.jesus-is-lord.com/kjdaemon.htm Online version accessed 2006-07-06] .
* [http://www.dumfries-and-galloway.co.uk/people/nicholson.htm Nicholson, William] , 1825. [http://www.bladnoch.co.uk/aikendrum.htm "The Brounie o Blednoch" Online version accessed 2006-07-07.]
*Opie, Iona & Opie, Peter, eds. "The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes", "There was a man lived in the Moon".
*Rhys, John. 1901. "Celtic Folklore -- Welsh And Manx". [http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/cfwm/cf204.htm "Chapter X: Difficulties of the Folklorist"] .

References