Fiddler's Green

For other uses, see Fiddler's Green (disambiguation).

Fiddler's Green is an after-life where there is perpetual mirth, a fiddle that never stops playing, and dancers who never tire. In 19th-century English maritime folklore, it was a kind of after-life for sailors who had served at least fifty years at sea.

In literature

Not all early mentions of Fiddler's Green are positive. For example, Edward Rose's The Sea-Devil, or, Son of a Bellows-Mender (1811) has the following dialogue:

and a description published in a number of magazines around 1825:

More positively, Fiddler's Green is mentioned in Frederick Marryat's novel Snarleyyow; or, The Dog Fiend (1837), in a sailors' song with the chorus:

Herman Melville describes a Fiddler's Green as a sailors' term for the place on land "providentially set apart for dance-houses, doxies, and tapsters" in his posthumous novella Billy Budd, Sailor.

In Patrick O'Brian's novel Post Captain (1972), the character Jack Aubrey describes several seamen living together on land by saying, "We'll lay in beer and skittles – it will be Fiddler's Green!".

In Neil Gaiman's The Sandman comic book series, Fiddler's Green is a place located inside of the Dreaming, a place that sailors have dreamed of for centuries. Fiddler's Green is also personified as a character as well as a location in the fictional world, the former largely based upon casual associations of G. K. Chesterton. In the 2022 TV adaption of the books, the personification is played by Stephen Fry. From November 12 to 14, 2004, a comic book convention promoted as "Fiddler's Green, A Sandman Convention" was held at the Millennium Hotel in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Author Neil Gaiman and several Sandman series artists, and others involved in the series' publication, participated in the convention, with profits benefiting the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.

Fiddler's Green is an extrasolar colony mentioned in Robert A. Heinlein's novels Friday (1982) and The Cat Who Walks Through Walls (1985).

Title names

Fiddler's Green is the title of a 1950 novel by Ernest K. Gann, about a fugitive criminal who works as a seaman after stowing away. The author Richard McKenna wrote a story, first published in 1967, titled "Fiddler's Green,” in which he considers the power of the mind to create a reality of its own choosing, especially when a number of people consent to it. The main characters in this story are also sailors, and have known of the legend of Fiddler's Green for many years. It is also the title of the last book of Richard Woodman's history of the British Merchant Navy.

In music

  • A song called "Fiddler's Green", or more often "Fo'c'sle Song", was written by John Conolly in 1966, a Lincolnshire songwriter. It has been recorded by Tim Hart and Maddy Prior for their album Folk Songs of Olde England Vol. 2 (1968), by The Dubliners for their album Plain and Simple (1973), by The Yetties for their album All at Sea (1973), and by The Irish Rovers for their album Upon a Shamrock Shore: Songs of Ireland & the Irish (2000). The American sailor band Schooner Fare credits the song for bringing together their band. The song is sung worldwide in nautical and traditional folk circles, and is often mistakenly thought to be a traditional song.
  • "Fiddler's Green" is a song from the album Road Apples by Canadian rock group The Tragically Hip, written for lead singer Gord Downie's young nephew Charles Gillespie, who died before the album was released. The track was covered by Welsh band Stereophonics on their 1999 Deluxe album Performance and Cocktails
  • "Fiddler's Green" is a song from Marley's Ghost's album Four Spacious Guys (1996).
  • Fiddler's Green is the title track and name of Tim O'Brien's Grammy Award-winning 2005 album.
  • Fiddler's Green is a German folk-rock band, formed in 1990.
  • "Fiddler on the Green" is a song by German-American power metal supergroup Demons & Wizards, from their self-titled album released in 1999.
  • Fiddler's Green is mentioned in the Archie Fisher song "The Final Trawl" from the album Windward Away, about fishermen whose livelihoods are passing away.
  • Fiddler's Green is also mentioned in the extended version of the song "Hoist the Colors" from the Pirates of the Caribbean films.
  • Friends of Fiddler's Green is a folk music group form Canada, founded in 1971.
  • Fiddler's Green is an outdoor amphitheatre in Greenwood Village, Colorado.
  • "Fiddler's Green" was recorded by the American quintet Bounding Main and released on their 2005 album Maiden Voyage.

In art

  • Statue by Ray Lonsdale, installed in 2017 on Fish Quay in North Shields, England.
  • In the fifth installment of the Monkey Island game series (Tales of Monkey Island by Telltale Games, namely Chapter 5 - The Rise of the Pirate God) Guybrush Threepwood visits the pirate crossroads, which is quoted by character Galeb as being "The stopping point before Fiddler's Green."

In film

In the United States military

The Cavalrymen's Poem, also entitled "Fiddlers' Green" was published in the US Army's Cavalry Journal in 1923 and became associated with the 1st Cavalry Division.

The name has had other military uses. Many places associated with the US military have been named Fiddler's Green:

See also

References

Further reading

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