The Creepy Bard: Mirie it is While Summer Ilast

The oldest song in the English language is awfully depressing. The second oldest one is much happier. I will have to do that one next.
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[@jamesbaker8831]

I once saw some minstrels perform this in a castle who said something to the effect of "Isn't it wonderful that the oldest surviving English song is a complaint about the weather?"

[@PyroGothNerd]

I think there's videos of them on KZbin! Was it a woman and a man paired up with Robin Hood like hats?

[@Kranker_]

Matthew green

[@wandafinnern4795]

Is it?- It is, and it is not. A cuckoo is not the cuckoo in every song as well!

[@Crakygamez]

Your play and your voice took me back in time man...so sad we will never hear the full song :((

[@RandomVidsforthought]

Ian pittaway's version is more accurate

[@MrJoeyWheeler]

It is not actually the oldest song in the English language (there are older ones). However, it is the oldest secular (non-religious) piece. Of course, it could very well be that the lost second page had a religious second stanza and then its only claim to fame is bullshit, but as things stand, we'll never know the truth and it'll maintain that title for the time being. It's my favourite English song, incidentally. I sing it routinely from autumn through to spring.

[@gecko8621]

Damian Freeman it’s the oldest surviving English song

[@knightwthebascinet2099]

That is and has been my favorite song in English history.

[@RandomVidsforthought]

Ian pittaway's version is the most accurate version to date other than the modern versions mispronouncing mirie as miri and other innacuracies in the majority of modern versions

[@sethguest781]

This song is so true, Winter in those times was horrific indeed, heck, you were considered most fortunate if you were still alive and healthy come Spring.

[@sarahgray430]

Who else is listening to this in the dead of winter? Mirie it it NOT this chill winter's day!😰

[@rootmender]

Thank you, this is my favourite version so far. People either don't pronounce the 3 syllables in "Mirie", or they don't bother to even pronounce the "ch" (like in German, which it would have been) and sometimes they don't even pronounce the "th" sounds at all. Very odd and annoying. You also actually pronounce the "w" in wrong with a trilled "r", very nice indeed and something I haven't heard anyone else bother with.

[@DianaBeck1]

gracias !!!!!

[@wandafinnern4795]

Merry was the time, when children were allowed to sing, wherever they were. A long winter - all year long. We have Heyne/Schubert with the Winterreise - and You have this beautiful song. So the music may comfort us.

[@random_guy68]

1:56

[@OldWaysFollower]

Mirie it is while sumer y-last With fugheles son Oc nu neheth windes blast And weder strong. Ei, ei! What this nicht is long And ich with wel michel wrong Soregh and murne and fast. lyrics taken from: www.luminarium.org/medlit/medlyric/merryitis.php

[@mohamedalbutmeh4952]

Thanks for translating the song

[@RandomVidsforthought]

Ian pittaway's version is more accurate than any version of the song made by anyone except the original manuscript

[@Luigisislandofjoy]

I had never heard the story behind the song. Thanks!!

[@RandomVidsforthought]

Ian pittaway's version is more accurate to the original manuscript

[@OtisFan1]

Quite lovely. Nice that you sang it once in the original Middle English and then again, translated into modern English. I'm going to pick on one word, however, in spite of your past comments that you cannot be corrected for mispronunciations when singing in languages that no one speaks. The ch in "michel" (meaning "much")(2:39) was not likely the phoneme you gave it (as in "church"); more likely k (which I've found in other versions), or sh (like Michelle), or the ch of Loch Ness. Shortly before "michel" there are 2 words with ch (nicht and ich), and you pronounce both like Loch, which makes sense to me, since Middle English was still more of a Germanic language, especially in everyday words (as opposed to courtly language that absorbed more Old French/Norman words). An example in the song: the word for birds (fugheles)--compare to feigel in Yiddish, Vogel in Modern German.

[@RandomVidsforthought]

Ian pittaway's version is more accurate to the original manuscript

[@SeoDeadeHenn]

Palatalization of /k/ to /tʃ/ (and all the other velars too) near front vowels was its own phenomenon which occurred around the 5th-6th century iirc, pervasive within Anglo-Frisian, and although it varied by dialect, in both "michel" and "ich" unless the speaker is Northumbrian, it would've been pronounced with /tʃ/ (the ch in "church"); this is why "much" is pronounced with this sound

[@SeoDeadeHenn]

@John Broadwell The palatalization of velars in English (/k/ to /tʃ/, /g/ and /ɣ/ to /j/ or /dʒ/, /sk/ to /ʃ/) was an entirely native phenomenon, as the average Old English speaker would have had little to no knowledge of Latin aside from "that language that we sometimes hear in church", and this sound change occurred before the Christianization of England anyways, so the only contact with Latin they would've had were place names and whatever few people still spoke Britanno-Romance. Also to my knowledge, Norman French or Old French did not have /tʃ/, but instead the result of Romance palatalization of /k/ in Oïl French was more like /ts/ which later changed to /s/ (the source of "soft c" in English where it appears in borrowings from French)

[@RandomVidsforthought]

It's still a very inaccurate version since it uses a very inaccurate source for the music which mispronounced some words like mirie and the tune is quite different than Ian pittaway's version

[@vanessat9309]

wow, just, wow!

[@manatarms9071]

Not bad sir 👍

[@RandomVidsforthought]

Ian pittaway's version is more accurate

[@AramatiPaz]

Try Tupi- guarani. I know only one band that sing in this language. Nice channel. 👍

[@jeanettewaverly2590]

Navajo (Dine) -- a tongue that makes Welsh look simple. I dare ye to sing a song in it!

[@sarahgray430]

I want Navajo too...or Inuktutuk!

[@marcjones2993]

is there tabs for this somewhere? good show.

[@Damnation3729]

Hey at some point can you do a Shetland folk song please?

[@aragornthebrave]

Starka vinda vestelie, Obadeea, obadeea, Starka vinda vestelie, Obadeea monye!

[@Stupidtiktoks1234]

Tiks egz the yr old

[@zachzabel-grell3340]

A while back at the Midsummer Fantasy Festival, I heard you sing a song in I believe it was Aramaic? Probably spelled that wrong. Was just wondering if you have that anywhere on your channel?

[@TheFoxyBard]

I believe this was the one: kzbin.info/www/bejne/mmXTZH-IdtRnntU

[@emiliarossi6538]

could you do Farsi or Urdu (don't know if I'm spelling those right but I'm sure you know what I mean.)

[@patton446]

Might I suggest Breton?

[@rkt739]

Thanks! It's short for "rocketman"

[@rkt739]

@Munuc Mann it's extra-short

[@yingansanren887]

Could you do a Czech song?

[@willardlosingersmusicchann569]

Do a song in a Polynesian language.

[@AnaxErik4ever]

Middle English, so close to the modern English and yet not because of all the exaggerated pronunciation. The second oldest song in the English language... make it so, Creepy. And yes, I, a person who is a fan of neither Star Wars, nor Star Trek, just made a Star Trek reference.

[@pillager6190]

Damn. Hard to sing, harder to play says I.

[@alexhobbs8472]

Scottish or irish

[@1963felonee]

German please

[@itsyaboiwan6416]

Byzantine empire hymn