Song Stories: “Cold Blows the Wind” (The Unquiet Grave)

A ghostly love ballad

In honor of All Hallows Eve and All Souls Day, I wanted to share an unsettling English folk song about a woman who mourns at the graveside of her dead lover. After listening to many different versions, I chose The Morrigan’s rendition because her voice captures the tragic essence of the song.

LYRICS

Cold blows the wind o’er my true love,

Cold are the drops of rain.

I only had but one true love,

In the greenwood he lies slain.

I’ll do as much for my true love

As any young girl may.

I’ll sit and mourn down by his grave

For a twelve month and a day.

When twelve months they were past and gone

This young man he arose.

Why weep you down by my graveside?

I can’t take my repose.

Well it’s just one kiss from your lily-white lips,

One kiss is all I crave.

One kiss, one kiss from your lily-white lips

Then return back to your grave.

Oh my lips they are as cold as clay

And my breath is heady and strong.

And if you were to kiss my lily-white lips,

Then your days would not be long.

Oh do you remember the garden groves,

Where we were used to walk?

Go fetch me the fairest flower of all,

It would wither to a stalk.

Go fetch me a lock from a dungeon deep

And water from a stone.

And white milk from a maiden’s breast

That babe has never known.

Go dig a grave both wide and deep

As quickly as you may.

I’ll lay down in it and take my sleep

For a twelve month and a day.

When will we meet again dear heart,

When will we meet again?

When the oaken leaves that fall from the trees

Have grown green and sprung up again.

This young woman’s grief prevented her lover’s spirit from being at peace. He even warns her that she may lose her own life if she refuses to move on. The idea of “true love’s kiss” reviving someone is a common theme in fairy tales, but the opposite would happen here: she would be sentenced to death if their lips were to touch. The stanza about fetching a lock confused me until I did a bit of research and found this explanation:

“If a girl was betrothed to a man, she was pledged to him if he died, and was bound to follow him to the spirit world unless she solved certain riddles, or performed certain tasks, such as fetching water from a desert, blood from a stone, milk from the breast of a virgin.” -Cecil J. Sharp, English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians*

The last two stanzas are particularly ominous as the young woman might be thinking about digging her own grave. And when she asks when they will see each other again, he tells her not until the leaves are back on the trees. Is she going to die in the spring and join him in the afterlife? It’s open to interpretation, but it seems that way to me!

“The Unquiet Grave” reminds me of Heathcliff’s melodramatic reaction to Cathy’s death in Wuthering Heights. In one of his most famous speeches, he declares:

“I pray one prayer—I repeat it till my tongue stiffens—Catherine Earnshaw, may you not rest as long as I am living! You said I killed you, haunt me then! The murdered do haunt their murderers… Be with me always—take any form—drive me mad! Only do not leave me in this abyss where I cannot find you!”

Emily Bronte’s gothic tragedy is one of the finest literary portrayals of toxic relationships and dysfunctional families ever penned. If classic literature is difficult for you, then allow me to recommend the 1992 film starring Ralph Fiennes as Heathcliff and Juliette Binoche as Cathy. This version is far superior in terms of acting, story adaptation, and cinematography.

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Works Cited:

https://www.mainlynorfolk.info/lloyd/songs/theunquietgrave.html *

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