30th Anniversary Edition. New Introduction and Notes. This thought-provoking book suggests that certain basic images found in traditional songs, and certain musical phrases linked inseparably with them, were once common to Celtic-and indeed, pre-Celtic-forms of worship, and were only later absorbed in Christian ritual. To support his theory R.J. Stewart analyses in depth five well-known folksongs-all of them collected originally in the West Country-and examines the "hidden" meaning of their words in relation to pagan myth and ritual; while in a section on "Musical Considerations" he demonstrates how plainsong, the basis of formal music, developed from folk-music roots. By comparing these songs with other examples and by drawing upon mythology, classical parallels, early church records, oral lore and poetical intuition to illustrate his argument, the author shows clearly that the key to folksong tradition is the primitive consciousness from which it arose.