Roger/Joanna

> .... the Magi are not rivals but 'rivals, the three who arrived, for God's
> sake!

Brilliant!!!

> does
> anyone know how old the song is?

The version I posted seems to be a pretty late printing -- nineteenth
century, even.  It may have been first recorded by Cecil Sharp -- not sure
on this.  But as to when it originated orally ...

> (And I really do not think there is any point
> in making clever references to Auden and David Jones in the hope of
> illuminating the song!)

I'd agree, but take it the other way.  The only thing I had in my head for
the lily-white boys when Vladamir introduced me to the song last Wednesday
was the Auden line.  I had a hunch it might be in Auden's _Light Verse_
edition, and lo and behold ...  I posted the Auden version because that
focused the "problem" aspects.  (I've got, somewhere, a more opened out
version.)  What it does do, I think, is illuminate Auden's own line (and
confirm how important his editing of _Light Verse_ was for his own writing).

[Incidentally, there's a detective novelist who uses lines from the song as
titles for about seven books -- equally useless in illuminating the song,
but an interesting bit of trivia.]

> I'd always thought the Lilywhite Boys were Castor
> and Pollux, and had it explained to me that there was or had been a
greenish
> tinge to that constellation; but I'm wondering if there might be another
> pair of heroes, perhaps more home-grown, that would fit? Anything Ancient
> British, Celtic, etc?

The problem I have here is whether or not all the references have to link
into a biblical context.  I'm still not sure on this.

I'd hoped to get all the material I've so far collected (150 Word pages so
far! -- but a fair bit of redundancy) put together yesterday, after google
returned to life, but alas, I somewhat overindulged.  What I +did+ come on,
via a google Groups search, was at least three loooong threads on groups
like alt.folk.

I need to retrive one thread (on something like H-Albion) that I lost when
my computer crashed on me the other night -- can't currently remember how I
came on it), then I'll try to make some sense of what I have.  I'll post a
note to the list when that's done, so anyone who's interested can get a copy
backchannel.  (I presume twenty odd pages would be a bit long for a post!)

Roger, thank you wife for that absolutely marvelous suggestion anent the
three (ar)rivals.  Magic!!

Robin