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Offoldfal

from The Peasants' Revolt by NIGHTSONG

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about

“Terra de Offoldfal” was a term used to describe the division of land between freeholders or by the duties it attracted. There was a spat between the abbeys in the area. Amid the skulduggery, charters were falsified to lay claim to land to which one party or another was not entitled. In Fenland, the wealth of the church and local nobility was based more on agricultural produce than the wool trade, which at the time was the country’s most important industry.

lyrics

OFFOLDFAL

Edmunds to Elmham, to the ‘Isle of Eels’
Causeways carried the harvest yield
That ‘The Great Heathen Army’ once plundered abroad
Till the fleets were held back by the gathering silt
Washed by waters, flooded by sea
Fertile expanse of Aethelthryth’s terrain,
Trackless bogs to a solitary place
Where the morning mists would silence the paddles

Carried by stealth past ollands and lakes
Ferrying wealth from husbands to abbeys
Or out to the vessels that wait on the tide
Portering cargoes from rights of the common
Farmers and chieftains, clergy and saints
Coveted earth of the dismal fen
Merchants and traders, boatmen and priests
Fearful of Holland’s disorderly men

Two pence a year by Martinmas
From every man with a house and a fire
For to cut of the turves and lay of the thatch
To graze of the pasture by the open sea
To catch of their share of the fish and the fowl
And to share of the land of the offoldfal

And the fog would roll in its defensive shroud
And settle the land where the corncrake calls
Conferring its refuge, mystery and peace
Selion and meadow to serve up their feast
While innocents cut at the peat and the furze
Falsified charters wrestled the deeds
Banking the marshes for profit and lords
‘Till widening skies put a crack in their armour

Two pence a year by Martinmas
From every man with a house and a fire
For to cut of the turves and lay of the thatch
To graze of the pasture by the open sea
To catch of their share of fish and fowl
And to share of the land of the offoldfal

© Copyright NIGHTSONG 2020. All rights reserved.

credits

from The Peasants' Revolt, released December 21, 2020

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NIGHTSONG

Three creative minds with a collective interest in where we all come from and the lessons we can learn.

Using history and the good spirits of humankind to inspire love, learning, and community, and to create music for the soul.

ALI KARIM
JOHN REED
JO BETH YOUNG ... more

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