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about

In the chilling open-ended ballad, Mr Fox, we meet Bluebeard, or is he the devil? or is he an inner devil? Will Mary grasp her hearts desire and escape? Will we?
I sang this song for some years in Sydney folk clubs. Then I tired of it, because I found it too dark. Many years later, in a session at Woodford Folk Festival, fragments suddenly popped into my mind. Folk singer, songwriter and repository of a great number of folksongs, Margaret Walters, obligingly taught me the words again. The song called me very strongly. As I sang it again, it realised for me, Mr Fox represented my inner critic -when it is overactive and becomes a creative block. Then the penny dropped that the song's ending is actually unfinished! I’d always assumed the ending was tragic, but then I realised I could choose to imagine a triumphant ending for Mary. For me, the song then became an open ended question: Will you meekly let dark forces snatch your golden ball? Or will you boldly and bravely snatch it back?

lyrics

Outside Mr Fox’s garden, three maids playing with a golden ball
Jenni threw it up and Susan caught it
Mary bounced it over the wall.
The wall is high,
Mr Fox has a little red eye.

In she ran to fetch her ball again
The garden gate stood open wide.
It silently closed and locked behind her.
Mr Fox stood just inside.
The wall is high,
His smile is cruel and his eyes are sly

He says I’ll keep this golden ball Miss Mary.
I shall have it and here you will stay.
You will keep my house and be my servant,
Never stir out for a year and a day.
The wall is high
The grasses shiver and the tall trees sigh

Spring and Summer passed like shadows
She watched the green leaves fade and fall
She walked alone in the empty garden
Mr Fox said nothing at all.
The wall is high
Never a soul came near nor by.

But three strange things he did forbid her
“Never touch my iron box.
Never go near the thirteenth bedroom
Nor near the bed”, said Mr Fox.
The wall is high
Mary don’t you dare ask why

Mary, she rose up one morning.
Found an iron box on the shelf,
But of all the rooms of Mr Fox’s
Bedrooms there were only twelve.
The wall is high
Mary don’t you peep or pry.

One day, Mr Fox went walking
In that box she found a key
It fitted a door she’d never unfastened
and when she opened it, what did she see?
The wall is high.
The door said Run and the key said Fly!

In Mr Fox’s thirteenth bedroom
A naked sword hung on the wall
On a silver bowl on the beds black counterpane
there she saw her golden ball.
The wall is high, the bed said
“Come” and the sword said “Die”!
In she ran to fetch her ball again
To snatch it off that great black bed.
Out jumped Mr Fox and leapt out at her.
His teeth flashed white and his eyes burned red.
The wall is high.

credits

from Stories to Light the Dark, released April 20, 2007
Lyrics by John Pole, tune by Terry Yarnell.

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The Story Tree Company Ballina, Australia

Jenni Cargill is an Australian storyteller

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