I have just learned that afton means river. I had commented on one
of my
favorite old songs, "Flow gently, Sweet Afton." I had always been told that
it was a song from Scotland and understood that Afton was the name of the
river. Will someone please tell me the origin of the song and whether it
refers to rivers in general or to a particular one?
According to Adrian Room's Dictionary of Place Names, Afton may derive from
the Gaelic abhainn donn, meaning brown river. If so, this would have roughly
the same meaning as Afon Lwyd - a river in the eastern valley of what used
to be Gwent/Monmouthshire and which runs down the middle of what is now
Torfaen.
How about 'Flow gently, sweet Afon Lwyd'? The Afon Lwyd flows un-gently, at
least in its upper reaches in the Blaenavon area, and it was more often
toxic than sweet when I was a lad. We called it the 'Black River' - not
because we didn't know much Welsh but because it was generally black with
coal-dust. Nowadays it's quite idyllic in places.
Flow gently, sweet Afton was written by Robert Burns. As for its origin,
this is what John Loesberg (Traditional Folksongs and Ballads of Scotland
Vol. 2) has to say: "This song, together with only a few others, breathes
very little of the earthy Scottishness of the main body of Burns' output.
The rather genteel language may be something to do with the fact that he was
nearly embarrassed with gratefulness towards a Mrs Stewart of Afton, in
Ayrshire, who was the first person of high station to recognize his genius.
The song (1786) was dedicated to Mrs Stewart, but the 'Slumbering Fair' of
the song is likely to have been his own beloved 'Highland Mary', whom he
courted in that year. Generally, this song has a lot in common with the
types of songs Thomas Moore (who was roughly a contemporary) fashioned out
of old Irish airs."
--
Glyn Hatherall
Ealing, London UK
hatherall(a)btinternet.com
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