History Music / HeatherDale

[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ny7NZPfl0l4&feature=related "Mordred's Lullaby"]] is about [[Myth/ArthurianLegend Morgause]] singing a prophecy to her son about how he is going to be used to bring about King Arthur's destruction -- and die in the process.

* VillainSong: "Mordred's Lullaby" and "Crashing Down" are straight examples, with "Joan" being an AntiHero song and "Trail of Tears" being an antivillain version.

* NoPronunciationGuide: "Culhwch and Olwen" mispronounces Culhwch's name as something like "cul-uch" rather than "kill-hooch" (with the ch in both cases sounding like the ch in "loch". Heather is just bad at pronouncing Welsh in general. In ''The Prydwen Sails Again'' she pronounces the titular ships name as "pride-wen" when it should actually be pronounced "prude-wen". To be fair, though, Welsh names are widely seen as TheUnpronouncable.

Heather Dale is a full-time touring musician, whose original songs explore legends, mythology, history and fantasy, fusing the Celtic folk tradition with a healthy mix of world music and rock influences. Her most famous songs are based on [[Myth/KingArthur Arthurian legends]], with ''Mordred's Lullaby'' in particular becoming very famous. In 2015 a musical based on these works, ''Queens of Avalon'', was funded and created via Indiegogo.

** ''Avalon'', about [[Myth/KingArthur Arthurian legend.]]

** ''May Queen'' another album about [[Myth/KingArthur Arthurian legend.]]

* AxeCrazy: The narrator of "I Follow My King" seems a little ''too'' willing to strike people down, threatening to do it once per verse for such minor offences as blocking a gate.

* {{Filk}}: Most of her music tends more toward folk subjects than filk subjects, but she does have some, such as an uptempo cover of ''Never Set the Cat on Fire''.

** "The Poachers" has a cheery, upbeat tune for a song about poaching. This downplayed for most of the text, which from the point of view of the singers is about feeding themselves by flouting tyrannical laws, but particularly glaring in the chorus, with a cheery tune describing the number of fingers poachers have cut off in punishment for taking particular animals.

Canadian recording artist and touring musician Heather Dale writes songs for "modern dreamers": witty, fun-loving, imaginative people who aren’t afraid to be different. Heather’s original songs tap into legends, mythology, history and fantasy.

** Morgan in ''Mordred's Lullaby'' definitely counts, raising her son (who's a product of BrotherSisterIncest with her half-brother Arthur) to overthrow that same brother, with MindScrew emotional abuse and demanding absolute loyalty from her son. Morgan did have a FreudianExcuse for all this, in that Uther, Arthur's father, murdered Morgan's father and married her mother, though that still doesn't make her actions right.
** Sedna's father, in ''Sedna''. He's a DirtyCoward who thinks nothing of [[OffingTheOffspring throwing his daughter into the frigid Arctic water just to make his kayak go faster]] when a storm endangers the boat. Luckily for Sedna, his KillItWithWater attempt fails, though she can't return to the surface.
* AllLoveIsUnrequited: SubvertedTrope in ''Fille du Roy''. The narrator is confident that the titular fille du roy [[note]] French orphaned girls who were sent to Quebec [[/note]] "can't want a sailor like me", but in the end she confesses her love for him.
* AllMythsAreTrue: If we assume that all her albums [[TheVerse occur in the same setting]] (except for ''Call The Names'' about the UsefulNotes/SocietyForCreativeAnachronism and ''This Endris Night'', an album of Christmas carols) then we have {{Satan}}, TheFairFolk, [[DemBones a thinking skeleton]], Robin Hood, SelkiesAndWereseals... If we include the above albums, we can add Jesus, angels, elves and dragons.
* AllThereInTheManual: Heather usually explains the stories behind the myths in live performances. If you're listening on {{Website/YouTube}} and you aren't a folklore buff, you're screwed.

* TheBard: ''Come and be Welcome'' and ''The Bards of Ealdormere'' encourage other bards and storytellers to join in, and Heather herself is one for the UsefulNotes/SocietyForCreativeAnachronism.
* ChangelingTale: ''Changeling Child'' is about a woman who accepts a changeling son from the fairies. He [[NotGrowingUpSucks remains an infant for 50 years or more]], since it's implied his human mother's ghost still cares for the immortal infant.
* ColdIron: ''Fair Folk'' exhorts the listener to "hold high the iron that they fear". Is implied in "Joan", where Joan states that "I've bloodied the Devil with steel from on high."

** ''This Endris Night'' twofold- it's an album of Christmas carols and all the instruments were played by Heather herself.

** ''Call The Names'', PatrioticFervor for her UsefulNotes/SocietyForCreativeAnachronism kingdom of Ealdormere.

* CourtlyLove:
** ''Tristan and Isolde'' covers the subject, even if it's of the more tragic side.
** ''With Your Grace as Inspiration'' is a happier example.
* CreationStory: ''Sedna'' is the Inuit story of the creation of sea life, rendered in song.

* DeadPersonConversation: ''Lily Maid'' is Elaine of Astolat talking about [[DeathByDespair her love for Lancelot from beyond the grave]].
* DefiantToTheEnd: The unnamed narrator of ''Hero'' (WordOfGod is that it's about Robin Hood after being captured by the Sheriff of Nottingham), who declares "Though I'd prefer a happy end, [[YouCantFightFate no man can cheat the grave]]. Another example is Captain Bryce from ''The Greyhound'' who tells his men to "curse the reaper, bend your back and cheat your sorry grave" as the titular ship is going under the waves.
* DaddysGirl: The daughter of the Duke in ''The Old Duke'' is his only child and heir, and he is clearly very fond of her, valuing her as much as a son in a society that thinks he is a fool for it.

* ExactWords: You have to [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor be extremely careful when making requests of the fairies]], as the human mother in ''Changeling Child'' discovered.

* FaceDeathWithDignity: ''Into Town'' is about an old farmer who, feeling death approaching, asks his son to take him into town so he won't upset his grandchildren.
-->I've lived a life without a lot of fuss
-->I see no need to change it now
* TheFairFolk: The song "Fair Folk" specifically addresses them and does a good job describing how ''creepy'' they can be.
** They are also the subject of "Changeling Child", where a woman asks them for a baby, [[ExactWords and ends up with a child who never grew up, with the mother nursing him eternally.]]
* FantasticAesop: The message of "Changeling Child" and "Fair Folk"- Don't make deals with TheFairFolk.
* {{Feghoot}}: ''Pierre and Marianne'' in a nutshell. Pierre goes of to Paris to marry Marianne, gives a cloak to a beggar in exchange for a magic acorn which he tucks into his underwear, is given an ass in exchange for a his tired horse and meets another beggar who mistakes him for the king because of how he rides. Pierre's final words are "My dear, I bring you my good ass/I'm told I ride it well/I've got a gift in my underwear/ We'll share at the wedding bell."

** Pierre in ''Pierre And Marianne''. Also a [[CloudCuckooLander Cloudcuckoolander]].
** Don Ambruglio in ''Up Into The Pear Tree''.
* ForeignCultureFetish: Heather has one for Medieval English culture and folklore, as evidenced by the large number of albums about Arthurian mythology

* TheGoodKing: ''I Follow My King'' is about one such King and why the singer follows him.
* TheHighQueen: Along with TheGoodKing, the leaders the listener is encouraged to acknowledge in ''Bow to the Crown''. Guinevere describes herself as this in ''Queens of Avalon''.

* InterspeciesRomance: ''The Maiden and the Selkie'' describes one between a human woman and a selkie man, complicated by the fact that she cannot breathe underwater and he cannot live on land for more than a day.
* KarmicJackpot: The protagonist in ''Fisherman's Boy'' makes a habit of [[NatureHero only taking as much fish as he needs,]] throwing the extra ones he catches back in. When he falls overboard in a storm, he's washed up alive on the shore the next morning, the sea having thrown him back out.
* LadyOfWar: The main character in ''One of Us'', who becomes an accomplished fighter in the SCA.

* LyricalDissonance: "The Poachers" has a cheery, upbeat tune for a song about poaching. This is particularly glaring in the chorus, with a cheery tune describing the number of fingers poachers have cut off.

* NoPronunciationGuide: "Culhwch and Olwen" mispronounces Culhwch's name as something like "cul-uch" rather than "kill-hooch" (with the ch in both cases sounding like the ch in "loch"."
** Heather is just bad at pronouncing Welsh in general. In ''The Prydwen Sails Again'' she pronounces the titular ships name as "pride-wen" when it should actually be pronounced "prude-wen". To be fair, though, Welsh names are widely seen as TheUnpronouncable.

* PatrioticFervor: ''Call The Names'' (both the song and the album) praise Heather's UsefulNotes/SocietyForCreativeAnachronism kingdom of Ealdormere. A downplayed example as Ealdormere is not a country outside of the SCA.

* RoguishPoacher: ''The Poachers'' is about a band of these in the time of William the Conqueror. They aren't evil men, but Robin Hood-esque types just trying to get by under the overlordship of a new and more tyrannical lord than King Harold.
* RuderAndCruder: ''Pierre And Marianne'', a piece of {{Feghoot}} with an amazing ending line.
** Subverted in ''The Poachers''. Despite referring to William The Conqueror as "the bastard" this was a title he held in real life.

* {{Tykebomb}}: ''Mordred's Lullaby'' is about Morgan turning Mordred into one.
* TheMagicGoesAway: ''White Rose'' is about the elves leaving the earth.

* WarriorPrince: The Prince described in ''True And Destined Prince'' is clearly one of these.

* ''Sphere'' (released in October 2018)

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar:
** "I saw a maid milk a bull" from ''Martin Said To His Man''. On the surface, it's meant to be just one of the improbable, drunken nonsensical things being said. But ''really''? "I saw that maid milk that bull/With every stroke a bucket full."
** "I've got a big knife with a rusted blade And a bunny-fur top that'll get you -- ahem!" from ''The Smith's Circle''.
** In ''Pierre and Marianne'', there's the line "My dear, I bring you my good ass I'm told I ride it well I've got a gift in my underwear We'll share at the wedding bell".
** Averted in ''Up Into The Pear Tree,'' when young Pyrrhus chides his lord for brazenly kissing his lady in public. In ''The Decameron,'' the original source, they weren't just kissing.

* NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer: "These are the actual medieval lyrics, I didn't make this up" for a radar-dodging lyric in ''Martin Said To His Man'' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1DUIDzKbPk during public performances]].

* RuderAndCruder: ''Pierre And Marianne'', a piece of {{Feghoot}} with a GettingCrapPastTheRadar ending line.

* AllThereInTheManual: Heather usually explains the stories behind the myths in live performances. If you're listening on {{Website/YouTube}} and you aren`t a folklore buff, you`re screwed.

* BadassBoast: Almost every line in "Joan" is one. Here`s a particularly badass verse:

[[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu I`ve bloodied the devil with steel from on high]]\\

* DefiantToTheEnd: The unnamed narrator of ''Hero'' (WordOfGod is that it`s about Robin Hood after being captured by the Sheriff of Nottingham), who declares "Though I`d prefer a happy end, [[YouCantFightFate no man can cheat the grave]]. Another example is Captain Bryce from ''The Greyhound'' who tells his men to "curse the reaper, bend your back and cheat your sorry grave" as the titular ship is going under the waves.

** A LighterAndSofter variant is in "Black Fox", where the fox hunters declares that if the devil arrived, they`d run after him. They get their wishes, and flee back to town unhurt but terrified.

* {{Feghoot}}: ''Pierre and Marianne'' in a nutshell. Pierre goes of to Paris to marry Marianne, gives a cloak to a beggar in exchange for a magic acorn which he tucks into his underwear, is given an ass in exchange for a his tired horse and meets another beggar who mistakes him for the king because of how he rides. Pierre`s final words are "My dear, I bring you my good ass/I'm told I ride it well/I've got a gift in my underwear/ We'll share at the wedding bell."

** "Pied Piper" also qualifies, with a happy tune about children and a wandering piper conning a town and insisting that their parents wouldn`t miss them.

* PatrioticFervor: ''Call The Names'' (both the song and the album) praise Heather`s UsefulNotes/SocietyForCreativeAnachronism kingdom of Ealdormere. A downplayed example as Ealdormere is not a country outside of the SCA.

* VulgarHumor: ''Pierre and Marianne'' which ends on an InnocentInnuendo by Pierre
Pierre:
--> "''My dear, I bring you my good ass\\
I`m told I ride it well\\

We`ll share at the wedding bell."''

* FantasticAesop: The message of "Changeling Child"- Don't make deals with TheFairFolk.

* AllMythsAreTrue: If we assume that all her albums [[TheVerse occur in the same setting]] (except for ''Call The Names'' about the UsefulNotes/SocietyForCreativeAnachronism and ''This Endris Night'', an album of Christmas carols) then we have {{Satan}}, TheFairFolk, [[DemBones a thinking skeleton]], Robin Hood, SelkiesAndWereseals...

* ActionGirl: Marie from ''Fille du Roy'', and Sedna from ''Sedna''.