Pretty Peg

[Brian Boru]

I was listening to the Pretty Peg version done by Bothy Band and I am having a bit of trouble with the words. In specific I don't know what creel is and I don't know what a lum is. I gather from context that a creel is some sort of basket and a lum is a way of getting into a house but I would love a better definition.

There is a video of Bothy Band doing Pretty Peg on YouTube. It's kind of amusing to see the singer looking all prim and proper singing a naughty song.

[djm]

The YouTube clip is ripped off of RTÉ's Come West Along the Road DVD. Yes, a creel is a large woven basket for carrying stuff in. Lum is clearly some form of slang, but we can make uninformed guesses at the meaning from its usage.

djm

[Martin Milner]

Lum is Scottish slang for chimney, according to Mirriam-Webster. Does that make sense in the context?

A creel is a wicker basket, and at the back of my mind I have it associated with lobster pots, but I'm not sure if that's an Irish usage or something I picked up somewhere else.

[djm]

Come down the chimney - Come down the lum

Yes, that fits the lyric exactly. Creel comes up in all sorts of ways: lobsters, fishing, carrying seaweed, carrying in general.

djm

[Cayden]

creel, kreel add/view comments (0)
// n. a wicker basket for transporting turf, often placed on either side of an ass's back; side rails made of wicker-work put on sides of a cart for transporting sheep, pigs, etc. to the fair < Ir. críol. 'If you think this is hard work, you should have had to be piling it into creels', 'She's as crooked as a creel is watertight'; Healy, Nineteen Acres, 35: ". . . if you had an ass and a pair of pardógs (or creels) you got the princely sum of six and sixpence for walking behind an ass", "a bouncy new pair of sally rod creels bobbing up and down as Silver did her brisk trot to Cortoon", O'Brien, A Pagan Place, 137: "The wet turf was a gift from your father to the school, a whole kreel of it sent one day in the Emma era in burst of righteousness, because tongues were wagging". See pardóg.

[Brian Boru]

I know this is over analyzing the song but are chimney's large enough in Ireland to slide down? It also seems like the creel was in the way of her mother coming to check on her. The song mentions stairs so would there be a fireplace in the daughter's bedroom or would her lover also have to sneak up the stairs? What does the song mean by "rocking her mother"?

[djm]

Yes, you are correct. This is over-analyzing the song.

djm

[Cayden]

I know this is over analyzing the song but are chimney's large enough in Ireland to slide down?

A typical fireplace/chimney (before DJM chips in: yes house normally attached) of Irish Country house :

[The Weekenders]

In Amurica, a creel is either a basket or now canvas bag for carryin' all the trout you just caught.

[Innocent Bystander]

I know this is over analyzing the song but are chimney's large enough in Ireland to slide down? It also seems like the creel was in the way of her mother coming to check on her. The song mentions stairs so would there be a fireplace in the daughter's bedroom or would her lover also have to sneak up the stairs? What does the song mean by "rocking her mother"?

As Yer Man Mr Laban has it, a creel is indeed a basket. Any kind of woven container. Or a fishing net. And since chimneys used to be swept by somebody getting up or down the thing with a brush, yes, it would be easy enough to get down.

The "Modern" Chimney was only invented at the end of the eighteenth century, when people began to realise the new industrial towns were unnecessarily smokey, and very inefficient in their use of fuel. The new "Model" towns had modern chimneys, but they took time to catch on. In fact, they didn't really beome standard until the Twentieth Century - and that's only as far as England was concerned.

[feadogin]

I know this is over analyzing the song but are chimney's large enough in Ireland to slide down? It also seems like the creel was in the way of her mother coming to check on her. The song mentions stairs so would there be a fireplace in the daughter's bedroom or would her lover also have to sneak up the stairs? What does the song mean by "rocking her mother"?

Yeah, and what is his "tiddy-right-foddle-diddle-dido?"

J.

[Brian Boru]

I know this is over analyzing the song but are chimney's large enough in Ireland to slide down? It also seems like the creel was in the way of her mother coming to check on her. The song mentions stairs so would there be a fireplace in the daughter's bedroom or would her lover also have to sneak up the stairs? What does the song mean by "rocking her mother"?

Yeah, and what is his "tiddy-right-foddle-diddle-dido?"

J.

I wondered about that too but thought I was probably too young

[Lexxicos]

I always tend to imagine the:

"O' high I rocked her,
Ho' I rocked her,
Didn't I rock her well?"

"For a fanny old wife ?...? her daughter,
I rocked her into Hell."

Portion of the song as saying that the boy had succeeded in doing the nasty, getting past the parents, or at least the daughter never objected to him trying, the mother found out, and exclaimed:

"O' I raised her,
I raised her,
Didn't I raise her well?

Some sort of old wife I am,
That I raised her straight to Hell."

But hey, my thoughts. And I always her face looked a tad bit naughty in that clip, very suiting for the tune.

[emer]

http://www.traditionalmusic.co.uk/folk- ... ty_Peg.htm


full lyrics

[feadogin]

http://www.traditionalmusic.co.uk/folk- ... ty_Peg.htm


full lyrics

That clears up a lot, thanks Emer!

J.