Dream Angus waltz

This is a traditional Scottish lullaby - works well as a waltz. Hoping it’s OK to post lots of Scottish tunes -
Scottish and Irish music cross-fertilise each other (if that’s a fit description). Words as follows:-

Dream Angus

Chorus
Dreams to sell, fine dreams to sell,
Angus is here with dreams to sell.
Hush now wee bairnie and sleep without fear,
For Angus will bring you a dream, my dear.

Can you no hush your weepin’?
All the wee lambs are sleepin’.
Birdies are nestlin‘, nestlin’ taegeher,
Dream Angus is hirplin’ through the heather.

Chorus

Sweet the lavrock sings at morn,
Heraldin’ in a bright new dawn.
Wee lambs, they coorie doon taegether
Alang with their ewies in the heather.

Chorus

hirplin’=limping
bairnie=child
lavrock=skylark
coorie=huddle

Lovely song: here’s a link to another source of the lyrics (and an extra verse), some historical background, and an mp3 of the song:
http://www.kistodreams.org/dreamangus.asp

Trish : thanks for some interesting history about the song - written, it’s suggested, between 1850 and 1890.
John L. Bell (Church of Scotland hymn composer and arranger) has I believe used this tune twice for hymns he’s
written.

Thanks for this - I’ve not known the words but played the tune. Not clear who this Angus was supposed to be? Sounds slightly creepy reading it now…

Dream Angus is a mythical Scottish figure who visits children with sweet dreams when they are sleeping (if I understand aright). In Germany, another mythical figure, the Sandman, puts sands in children’s eyes so that they will sleep. Brahms wrote a beautiful song, The Sandman. I agree, the concepts are a bit bizarre! Both songs are lullabies.

This tune seems very reminiscent of the Cherry Tree Carol (‘I gave my love a cherry that has no stone . . .’, etc. Anyone remember the Joan Baez version from about 1963?). Is it more or less the same tune, a close relative, or perhaps somehow connected ethnomusicalogically??

Oh this is lovely, thanks!

Bazza, a lot of the same notes but different timing.

@Susan K Thanks for posting this. I’m learning a setting by Anne Macdearmid for Grade 2 folk harp (Royal Conservatoire of Scotland syllabus) and had wondered about the background; it seems to be well known in Scotland but not in England, though there’s a duet setting for Northumbrian smallpipes by Derek Hobbs in The Piper’s Companion vol 2.

The Kistodreams website presents Dream Angus as a rather gentle, benevolent being bringing sweet dreams, as does http://www.amaranthpublishing.com/dreamangus.html: “From the moment Angus is born it is obvious that he is a gentle spirit and will be universally loved. Songbirds circle his head to serenade him to sleep as he rocks in his cradle, and the wildest hunting dog calms when in his presence.”

But the Wikipedia entry for Aengus, https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Aengus, describes a rather darker character and doesn’t mention bringing dreams, although he does have songbirds circling his head. Who knows.