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To: afraidfortherepublic
"The Bitter Withy" is the version I know.

Mary sends Jesus out to play with the caution, "Let me hear no ill of you when I come home." Some rich kids taunt Jesus that he is just a nobody, "born in an oxen's stall." After Jesus builds a bridge of sunbeams and the nasty little rich kids run over it, the bridge vanishes and they all fall in the river "and drownded were all three".

Mary needless to say is not pleased, and she pulls a withy (a willow branch) from the garden and whips Jesus with it. He curses the willow tree -

"O bitter withy, o bitter withy, that makes me so to smart,
The withy shall be the firstest tree, to wither from the heart."

I think Steeleye Span also did a version more recently.

23 posted on 08/10/2008 7:31:10 AM PDT by AnAmericanMother (Ministrix of Ye Chase, TTGC Ladies Auxiliary (recess appointment))
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To: AnAmericanMother

“The Bitter Withy” doesn’t sound very Christ-like. :/


26 posted on 08/10/2008 12:50:42 PM PDT by Zero Sum (Liberalism: The damage ends up being a thousand times the benefit! (apologies to Rabbi Benny Lau))
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