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by Kirame on November 26th, 2008

Kirame

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What does the song "waltzing Matilda" mean?

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  • by Andy Is Wicked Married to Penal Colony on November 26th, 2008

    Andy Is Wicked Married to Penal Colony

    The song narrates the story of an itinerant worker making a drink of tea at a bush camp and stealing a sheep to eat. When the sheep's owner arrives with three police officers to arrest the worker, he drowns himself in a small watering hole and goes on to haunt the site.

    See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waltzing_Matilda

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  • by iwnit on November 26th, 2008

    iwnit

    1) "It has been widely accepted that "Waltzing Matilda" is potentially based on the following story:
    In Queensland in 1891 the Great Shearers' Strike brought the colony close to civil war and was broken only after the Premier Samuel Griffith called in the military.
    In September 1894, on a station called Dagworth (north of Winton), some shearers were again on strike. It turned violent with the strikers firing their rifles and pistols in the air and setting fire to the woolshed at the Dagworth Homestead, killing dozens of sheep.
    The owner of Dagworth Homestead and three policemen gave chase to a man named Samuel Hoffmeister - also called Samuel "French(y)" Hoffmeister. Rather than be captured, Hoffmeister shot and killed himself at the Combo Waterhole."


    2) Some clues about the vocabulary:
    "swagman:
    a man who travelled the country looking for work. The swagman's "swag" was a bed roll that bundled his belongings.

    waltzing:
    derived from the German term auf der Walz, which means to travel while working as a craftsman and learn new techniques from other masters before returning home after three years and one day, a custom which is still in use today among carpenters.

    Matilda:
    a romantic term for a swagman's bundle. See below, "Waltzing Matilda."

    Waltzing Matilda:
    from the above terms, "to waltz Matilda" is to travel with a swag, that is, with all one's belongings on one's back wrapped in a blanket or cloth. The exact origins of the term "Matilda" are disputed; one fanciful derivation states that when swagmen met each other at their gatherings, there were rarely women to dance with. Nonetheless, they enjoyed a dance, and so they danced with their swags, which was given a woman's name. However, this appears to be influenced by the word "waltz", hence the introduction of dancing. It seems more likely that, as a swagman's only companion, the swag came to be personified as a woman.
    Another explanation is that the term also derives from German immigrants. German soldiers commonly referred to their greatcoats as "Matilda", supposedly because the coat kept them as warm as a woman would. Early German immigrants who "went on the waltz" would wrap their belongings in their coat, and took to calling it by the same name their soldiers had used.

    billabong:
    an oxbow lake (a cut-off river bend) found alongside a meandering river.

    coolibah tree:
    a kind of eucalyptus tree which grows near billabongs.

    jumbuck:
    a large difficult to shear sheep, not a tame sheep. Implies that the sheep was not 'owned' by the squatter or regularly shorn, thus not able to be stolen by the swagman.

    billy:
    a can for boiling water in, usually 2-3 pints.

    tucker bag:
    a bag for carrying food ("tucker").

    troopers:
    policemen.

    squatter:
    Australian squatters started as early farmers who raised livestock on land which they did not legally have the right to use; in many cases they later gained legal use of the land even though they did not have full possession, and became wealthy thanks to these large land holdings."
    Source and further information:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waltzing_Matilda


    3) "American singer-songwriter Tom Waits combined "Waltzing Matilda" with his own material in "Tom Traubert's Blues (Four Sheets to the Wind In Copenhagen)" on his 1976 album Small Change."
    (same source)

    Tom Waits lyrics (Tom Traubert's Blues):
    http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/Tom-Traubert's-Blues-lyrics-Tom-Waits/BCF2D16F4A448D8448256975000889CE

    The Seekers - Waltzing Matilda
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtmJ7rLuwTM

    Tom Waits Waltzing Matilda live 1977 (Tom Traubert's Blues)
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrkThaBWa5c

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