AP: London

According to Wiccan historian Philip Heselton, Doreen Valiente's famous chant “Witches' Rune” was originally intended to be sung to the tune of the Stephen Foster tune, “Camptown Races.”

“According to some recently-discovered correspondence, that's the tune that she originally wrote the words to fit,” said Heselton. “Of course, since then it's been sung to many other tunes as well.”

American composer Stephen Foster (1826-1864) wrote “Camptown Races” (also known as “Camptown Ladies”) in 1850, and the tune was a favorite of Valiente's first husband, Joanis Vlachopoulos, who had learned it while in the Merchant Navy.

Although the Foster tune was Valiente's intended setting for her lyrics to what was to become a classic Wiccan liturgical chant, it never caught on with British witches, perhaps because they were unfamiliar with the American tune.

An interesting aspect of this discovery is the fact that the original words to “Witches' Rune” were slightly different from those now found in most recensions of the Book of Shadows.

According to Heselton, the first verse, along with a now-disused chorus, originally went:

Darksome night and shining moon

Doo dah, doo dah,

Hearken to the Witches' Rune

Oh de doo dah day.

East and west and south and north

Doo dah, doo dah,

Here I come to call thee forth

Oh de doo dah day.

Chorus

Gonna dance all night,

gonna chant all day;

when I sing that Witches' Rune,

it makes me feel OK.

Valiente herself, speaking in the ectoplasm from the Summerland, confirmed the story, and took the unmooring of her most famous poem from its intended musical setting philosophically.

“Perhaps it's just as well,” she said.

For Volkhvy

You troublemaker, you.