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“Blude reid wine”

The ballad talks of the king drinking “blude reid wine” as he ponders a decision, immediately conveying a sense of trouble. You can imagine the king swirling his cup of wine, watching the deep red liquid, toss and turn, unsettled. I wonder as I read this over and over again if the King knew what he was seeking to ask of Sir Patrick, if he knew how difficult this was going to be.  The old, experienced knight that sat beside the king seems to have been waiting for the question. We never find out who this knight was. We don’t know if he and Patrick Spens had history between them, and that this presented the old knight with a chance to get rid of him, or whether the old knight was simply answering honestly. We sense that this had been troubling the king for a while.

Patrick Spens receives the King’s letter as he is walking across through the town. Initially, he finds the request to be so ridiculous that he bursts out laughing. This quickly changes as he realizes that he has no choice about what he is being asked to do.

The style of this ballad, the classic first, and then approach to the narrative is part of what makes this a wonderful example of a ballad. It may have its origins centuries ago but it has an immediate power to its construction. Poor Patrick Spens senses his life is probably going to be lost, as the words of the king’s letter enters his brain and from laughing he turns to being unable to see due to “The tear blindit his ee.” (eye)

Spens cries out who did this? Who suggested me to the king, to sail at this time of year? Regardless of the weather and the time of year, Spens knows he has to go. He knows his mission to return with the king’s daughter. They sail out on a Monday and make it to Norway by Wednesday. So far, so good.

In this version they sail back again almost immediately, and yet no mention is made of the King’s daughter. If this daughter is meant to be the historical figure of Margaret, the Maid of Norway, then we know that during the voyage she became ill and later died on Orkney. There is no further mention of the daughter from this point on.

We get a lot of information about the journey back. Spens’ anxiety reaches fever pitch as he fears the impact of the new moon;

“Mak ready, mak ready, my merry men aw!
Our gude ship sails the morn.’
‘Nou eer alack, ma maister dear,
I fear a deadly storm.’

‘A saw the new muin late yestreen
Wi the auld muin in her airm
And gif we gang tae sea, maister,
A fear we’ll cam tae hairm.”

That last verse has a tremendous haunting image of the new moon holding the old moon in her arms indicating to Spens that harm is heading their way.

The remaining part of the ballad tells in haunting, painful detail how Sir Patrick Spens and his crew met their demise. The language is beautiful and brutal. You can feel the storm around you. You can hear the wood of the ship creek and crack. You can feel the wind lash your face and sense the fear and panic in the actions of the sailors.

“They hadnae sailt a league, a league,
A league but barely three,
When the lift grew dark, an the wind blew loud
An gurly grew the sea.

The ankers brak, an the topmaist lap,
It was sic a deadly storm.
An the waves cam ower the broken ship
Til aw her sides were torn.

‘Go fetch a web o silken claith,
Anither o the twine,
An wap them into our ship’s side,
An let nae the sea cam in.’

They fetcht a web o the silken claith,
Anither O the twine,
An they wapp’d them roun that gude ship’s side,
But still the sea cam in.”

They fight. They try everything they know. They use silk to try and keep the mast upright again and again “but still the sea cam in.”

At this point, the point of no return for Sir Patrick Spens and his crew, the focus of the ballad switches to those waiting keenly on the mainland for news. The language is beautiful, with images of wives waiting with fans in their hands and combs in their hair for loved ones who will never return.

“Gude Sir Patrick Spens”

The ballad ends with an epitaph for Patrick Spens:

“Half-ower, half-ower to Aberdour,
Tis fifty fathoms deep;
An there lies gude Sir Patrick Spens,
Wi the Scots lords at his feet!”

Spens made it halfway to home, and as the ballad remembers Spens as “gude,” we hear a very subtle suggestion that the some of the folk who persuaded the king to choose Spens went down with him.

Sir Patrick Spens is a hauntingly beautiful ballad that tells the story of a loyal, faithful man whose loyalty leads to his death. Is it though a murder ballad?

In the traditional understanding there is no murderer and there is no crime. However, the heart of the ballad for me is the storm within the storm. Patrick Spens has a deep sense of foreboding about his chances of success. His personal emotional storm comes before the actual storm. He knows that he is being sent to his death. The ballad conveys this sense of hopelessness and Spens’ dignity in the face of his certain death. If his name hadn’t been suggested by the elderly knight, Spens would still be alive.

We sense that Sir Patrick Spens has been wronged. You can hear this in the language used to describe the storm or indeed, in the language used to record Sir Patrick Spens’ reaction to the King’s request. A good person has been given an impossible task. A good person is never forgotten.

“Half-ower, half-owed to Aberdour”

This ballad challenges the notion that political power and authority always knows best. In my view the death of King Alexander III and his decision to ignore the opinions of his escorts on that stormy night back in 1286 haunt their way throughout this ballad. As Alexander ignored the voices of those who knew the area well and traveled on regardless, so Patrick Spens finds himself being ignored by those with power and authority. Alexander’s death threw Scotland into a huge existential crisis that shook the foundations of this small northern European nation. Patrick Spens faced a similar crisis and there was only one outcome for him and his crew. In my view Spens becomes a metaphor for Scotland at the time of King Alexander’s death; He is thrown helplessly into the storm. Around him there is chaos and he can do nothing about it. Poor and inadequate leadership haunts Scotland throughout its existence as an independent state. Time and time again those with power fail to step up and deliver what they need to do. Sir Patrick Spens shows that bad power and decision making can have a devastating impact on individuals and on nations.