In the Australian folk song 'Waltzing Matilda' who was Matilda, and does "waltzing" refer to the dance or is it a colloquial term meaning something else?

xfacilitatorx

A "Matilda" was the name given to the pack of an Australian Bushman or Swagman. To "Waltz Matilda" was to carry your pack around the bush. 50.000 soldiers of Australia died at Gallipoli in a stupid and pointless campaign, which was a lot for a small country like Australia. About the only thing the achieved was a belated recognition that Australia was "growing up", she was becoming a nation in her own right.... http://www.fortunecity.com/tinpan/parton/2/matilda.html http://www.fortunecity.com/tinpan/parton/2/matilda.html Mar 11 06, 11:53 PM

xfacilitatorx

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. http://www.anu.edu.au/people/Roger.Clarke/WM/WMTerms.html Continued Mar 11 06, 11:53 PM

xfacilitatorx

There is even more explainations. I do not know the story behind the folk lore. Mar 11 06, 11:55 PM

picqero

Thanks indeed for such a quick and detailed reply! Mar 12 06, 12:00 AM

xfacilitatorx

Lack of life perpetuates promptness. Mar 12 06, 12:49 AM

Baloo55th

The story is very simple, but rather inexplicable in some ways. The swagman (itinerant labourer or other worker) camped by a sort of small oasis (billabong) under the shade of a certain type of tree. He was boiling his billy (small pan or pot) to make tea when he saw a sheep (jumbuk). He must have had a very large food bag (tucker bag) because he could get the sheep into it. But then up rode the owner of lessee of the land (the squatter - no real connection with someone living in a house not belonging to them). The swagman jumps into the billabong rather than submit to capture. The inexplicable bits to me are the size of his tucker bag, and the suicide at the end - unless he was really trying to get away through the water and found it deeper than he thought. The song is referred to in Eric Bogle's brilliant new one referred to by Xfac, but the original (?) can be found here (words possibly by Banjo Patterson or maybe traditional -see mudcat threads for a good dispute) http://www.mudcat.org/@displaysong.cfm?SongID=7585 Mar 12 06, 9:48 AM

gmackematix

Yes, we've all heard that "Waltzing Matilda" means to travel with a bed-roll or whatever. However, this was an Aussie song written at the height of music hall and I can't help feeling that this song was written and sung with a knowing wink and tongue planted firmly in cheek. When a lonely swagman grabs that sheep "with glee" and puts it in his tucker-bag saying "you'll come a Waltzing Matilda with me", I can see one obvious interpretation of that! Then to get troopers involved as well. Struth! Mar 12 06, 8:51 PM

lanfranco

In the words of a very politically-incorrect joke, "Sheep lie!" Mar 12 06, 9:00 PM

picqero

I knew what swagman, billabong, tuckerbag, squatter, jumbuk, etc meant. I even knew that a coolibah tree was a type of eucalypt, but hadn't really thought about the chorus line before. Thanks everyone. Mar 13 06, 9:03 AM