Cold mountain water1
the jade merchant’s daughter2
Mountains of the Moon, Electra,3,4
Bow and bend to me5
Hi-ho the Carrion Crow6
Folderolderiddle
Hi-ho the Carrion Crow
Bow and bend to me
Hey, Tom Banjo7
Hey, a laurel8
More than laurel
You may sow
More than laurel
You may sow
Hey, the laurel
Hey, the city
In the rain
Hey, hey,
Hey, the white wheat
Wavin’ in the wind
Twenty degrees of solitude
Twenty degrees in all
All the dancing kings and wives
Assembled in the hall
Lost is a long and lonely time
Fairy Sybil flying9
All along the
All along the
Mountains of the Moon
It’s time to matter
The Earth will see you
on through this time
The Earth will see you
on through this time
Down by the water
The Marsh King’s Daughter10,11
Did you know?
Clothed in tatters
Always will be
Tom, where did you go?
Mountains of the Moon, Electra
Mountains of the Moon
All along the
All along the
Mountains of the Moon
Hi-ho the Carrion Crow
Folderolderiddle
Hi-ho the Carrion Crow
Bow and bend to me
Bend to me
Words by Robert Hunter
Music by Jerry Garcia
Gary Snyder, in The Evergreen Review, no. 6, 1958, published his translations of seventh-century Chinese poet Han-Shan. According to Snyder,
Kanzan, or Han-shan, “Cold Mountain” takes his name from where he lived. He is a mountain madman in an old Chinese line of ragged hermits. When he talks about Cold Mountain he means himself, his home, his state of mind. He lived in the Tang dynasty—traditionally A.D. 627–650.
Snyder’s translations reveal a mind speaking to us from the dim past with words that ring remarkably fresh today. Here’s one that seems particularly pertinent:
Spring-water in the green creek is clear
Moonlight on Cold Mountain is white
Silent knowledge—the spirit is enlightened of itself
Contemplate the void: this world exceeds stillness.
Compare the title of Sharp, #64: “The Silk Merchant’s Daughter,” one of those ballads, like “Jack-a-Roe,” (aka “Jack the Sailor”), in which a woman disguises herself as a man in order to go find her true love.
The popular name deriving from Ptolemy (second century A.D.), who thought them the source of the Nile River, for an actual region of Central Africa, the Ruwenzori mountains, bordering Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Additionally, it is interesting to note that one of the most celebrated expeditions to the Mountains of the Moon was undertaken by none other than Sir Richard Francis Burton (1821–90), in 1858, in search of the source of the Nile. (Cold Mountain water?) Burton also translated the Arabian Nights collection, which is indirectly mentioned in “What’s Become of the Baby” and in “Blues for Allah.”
Edgar Allan Poe also mentions the “Mountains of the Moon” in his poem “Eldorado” (1849):
Gaily bedight,
A gallant knight,
In sunshine and in shadow,
Had journeyed long,
Singing a song,
In search of Eldorado.
But he grew old—
This knight so bold—
And o’er his heart a shadow
Fell as he found
No spot of ground
That looked like Eldorado.
And, as his strength
Failed him at length,
He met a pilgrim shadow—
“Shadow,” said he,
“Where can it be—
This land of Eldorado?”
“Over the Mountains
Of the Moon,
Down the Valley of the Shadow,
Ride, boldly ride,”
The shade replied,—
“If you seek for Eldorado.”
The mountains also appear in Hunter’s “Lay of the Ring” from the “Eagle Mall Suite”:
From the gates of Numinor
to the walls of Valentine
It’s seven cold dimensions
past the Mountains of the Moon
It’s unclear whether Hunter is naming the jade merchant’s daughter or simply invoking the spirit of Electra. The name could refer to either (1) the daughter, in Greek mythology, of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, who kills her mother with the aid of her brother, Orestes, to avenge the murder of her father; or (2) one of the Pleiades, daughters of Atlas, and the mother of Dardanus.
This line, in a number of variations, is used as a refrain in the ballad “The Two Sisters” (Child #10; Sharp, #5). Bronson writes:
This ballad is still in active traditional life, especially in those regions of the USA where the “play-party” dancing custom has persisted. In many variants the words of the refrain affirm the association.
Some of the variants found in Bronson and Sharp:
Bow it’s been to me
The bough has bent to me
Bow and balance to me
The bough has been to me
The boughs they bent to me
The boughs were given to me
The boys are bound for me
The vows she made to me
And thou hast bent to me
Of these variants, one is of particular note: “Bow and balance to me,” because it is a dance step, and the Hunter lyric seems to be speaking of “kings and wives” assembling for a dance.
The balance is described as follows in the Country Dance Book:
Balance Partners: Partners face each other, then each step to the side with right foot, point toe of left foot in front, step back to place with left and point toe of right foot in front of left foot.
You may see this step executed at the start of almost every dance at any contra dance in the United States today, and it is a very courtly step, lending the dance an air of chivalry.
This line is directly from an old nursery rhyme/ballad:
As early as 1796 it [“The Carrion Crow”] was published as a ballad with the refrain: “With a heigh ho! the carrion crow! / Sing tol de rol, de riddle row!” (The Annotated Mother Goose)
Sharp lists the ballad as #222, “The Carrion Crow.” It’s a nonsense tune, with lines like: “Carrion crow sitting on an oak, with a ling dong dilly dol kiro me.”
The crow appears in two other Hunter lyrics, “Uncle John’s Band” and “Corrina.” The “bird of paradise” mentioned in “Blues for Allah” is also known as a “paradise crow.”
The carrion crow (Corvus corone corone) is found in Western Europe and eastern Asia.
If Uncle John is John Cohen, mightn’t Tom Banjo be a reference to Tom Paley, who played banjo with the New Lost City Ramblers? Like “Uncle John’s Band,” “Mountains of the Moon” contains references to folk songs that the NLCR played or would have known about.
Or, possibly, a reference to Tom “Tom Banjo” Azarian, who now lives and sometimes performs around Burlington, Vermont. Azarian grew up in West Springfield, Massachusetts, and was one of the best-known banjo players in that part of New England during the late 1950s through the 1970s. He’s used the performing moniker Tom Banjo for a long time.
A wreath of laurel is a symbol of victory in battle.
Benet says: “A prophetess of classical legend, who was supposed to prophesy under the inspiration of a particular deity. The name is now applied to any prophetess or woman fortune teller.” 25
Nickname for Alfred the Great (849–899), King of England, 871–899. So named for his act of raising an army to defeat the invading Danes from the stronghold of the impenetrable British marshes, or Fens (Fennario?—see note under “Dire Wolf”). He is the only British monarch to have earned the designation “the Great.” His name means, literally, “adviser to the elves.” He had at least three daughters, all of whom hold significant places in English history:
Ethelflaed, his eldest daughter, who married her father’s friend Ethelred. After Ethelred died, she ruled Mercia, a province of Britain, and is known to history as the Lady of the Mercians.
Aelfthryth, married to Baldwin, Count of Flanders. Ethelgifu, who became a nun and then abbess of a convent at Shaftesbury in Dorsetshire.
This note (via email) from Hunter:
“The Marsh King’s Daughter” is a character in a fairy tale of the same name by Hans Christian Andersen. I just wanted to say that.” 26
Studio recording: Aoxomoxoa (June 20, 1969).
First documented performance: December 20, 1968, at the Shrine Exhibition Hall in Los Angeles. Revived by the Other Ones, Phil and Friends, and performed regularly by The Dead.