[pct-l] "Waltzing down the trail" Mathilda

[rellinwood at worldnet.att.net (Robert Ellinwood)]

Monte,

Shhh!   Don't bring our musicological discourses into public view!  I was
hiding under a rock, deleting references to Waltzing Mathilda as fast as I
could, hoping I wouldn't hear from you on this one.

As with many authentic "folk" songs there are different versions floating
around.  I believe there are over 40 versions of the folk song, Barbara
Allen, for example.  A simple check on the Internet shows that several
understandings of the text are out there. However, I think Andrew Witham
posted the most widely held, traditional understanding of the text.  I think
you have to have roots in Australia to really understand Waltzing Mathilda,
so in looking at a site at an Australian University
(www.anu.edu.au/people/Roger.Clarke/WM/WMTerms.html), one finds the
following definitions.  (Monte, you'll be sorry you asked!)

Dr Bob   (let's get back to the PCT!)
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billabong
An originally aboriginal word for a section of still water adjacent to a
river, cut off by a change in the watercourse, cf. an oxbow lake. In the
Australian outback, a billabong generally retains water longer than the
watercourse itself, so it may be the only water for miles around.

billy
A tin can, maybe two litres (four pints) in capacity, usually with a wire
handle attached to the top rim, in which 'swaggies' (and contemporary
Australian campers) boil water to make tea (and to kill the beasties in the
water they've taken out of the billabong).

swagman
A gentleman of the road, an itinerant roaming country roads, a drifter, a
tramp, a hobo. Carried his few belongings slung in a cloth, which was called
by a wide variety of names, including 'swag', 'shiralee' and 'bluey'. Given
the large number of names for them, they must have been a pretty common
sight.

tucker-bag
A bag to keep tucker in. Tucker is grub, victuals/vittles, or food.

waltzing matilda
Matilda was a mock-romantic word for a swag, and to waltz matilda was to hit
the road with a swag on your back. Very few non-Australians seem to
understand this, and hence regard the song as gibberish or cute, something
like 'Jabberwocky' set to music. "'Twas brillig and the slithy toves ..."
indeed.

The term is thought to come from a German expression. Auf die Walz gehen
means to take to the road (as of apprentices in the Middle Ages, who were
required by their Master to visit other Masters and report back, before they
could secure their release. In some trades, at least in some parts of
Germany and I believe Denmark, they still do). The dance, anglicised as
'waltz', came several centuries later). Matilda is a girl's name, applied to
one's bed-roll. As a correspondent points out, this is a bit of a come-down
for a name that originated as the Teutonic Mathilde - 'Mighty in Battle'.

So the poem (doggerel? folk song?) can be interpreted as yet another Aussie
complaint about them in authority. We're one of the most urbanised nations
in the world, who sort-of yearn for the wide open spaces (there's so much of
it out there!), and the freedom that goes with it (or at least seems to go
with it, to those that don't live there). So Waltzing Matilda strikes a
chord (so to speak), generation after generation, for the same reason that
Crocodile Dundee was as popular here as anywhere else - we know we're not
like that; but it's fun pretending for a while that we are.

Note: These are my own explanations and interpretations, checked against the
Macquarie Dictionary; except for the origins of the term to 'waltz matilda',
which, like most Australians, I didn't know until I looked it up.


> -----Original Message-----
> From: pct-l-bounces@mailman.backcountry.net [mailto:pct-l-
> bounces@mailman.backcountry.net] On Behalf Of Monty Tam
> Sent: Friday, November 04, 2005 2:34 AM
> To: Lonetrail@aol.com; awitham@postnetburney.net;
pct-l@mailman.backcountry.net
> Subject: RE: [pct-l] Clarification once twice sold
> 
> Doctor Bob Where Are You!!!
> 
> I'd like to hear from Dr. Bob on this subject!!  Our own Dr. Bob thru
hiker
> is a recently retired music professor (PhD therefore DR. Bob.)
> Myself a Songwriter/entertainer leaning toward folk and sometimes billed
as
> performing contraversial childrens music.
> 
> I asked Dr bob a question about "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" and its
> origin while we were re-caching Gate #3.
> We discussed it for more than an hour, and more every time our paths
> crossed on the trail this year.
> In all my years in music I have never met a person more knowledgable and
> clear on so many types of music.
> 
> Hey Dr. Bob!!  Waltzing Matilda!!!