Spider's Web
You can hear a haunting rendition of Spider's Web by watching the YouTube video below the lyrics...
Spider's Web
Folk Song
Down in the valley,
There is a mission,
By the old oak tree.
By the mission,
There is a fountain,
Where my love told me:
There's a web like a spider's web,
Made of silk and light and shadows,*
Spun by the moon in my room at night.
It's a web made to catch a dream,
Hold it tight 'til I awaken,
As if to tell me, my dream is all right.
In the evening,
I was leaving,
My love dreamt of me.
I was sleeping,
She was weeping,
When she said to me:
There's a web like a spider's web,
Made of silk and light and shadows,
Spun by the moon in my room at night.
It's a web made to catch a dream,
Hold it tight 'til I awaken,
As if to tell me, my dream is all right.
I met a stranger,
His name was Danger,
We rode side by side.
Down in Santa Fe,
I killed a man they say
Danger told me, "Ride!"?
There's a web like a spider's web,
Made of silk and light and shadows,
Spun by the moon in my room at night.
It's a web made to catch a dream,
Hold it tight 'til I awaken,
As if to tell me, my dream is all right.
Now if I return,
They will hang me,
By the old oak tree,
Down by the mission,
Down by the fountain,
Where my love told me:
There's a web like a spider's web,
Made of silk and light and shadows,
Spun by the moon in my room at night.
It's a web made to catch a dream,
Hold it tight 'til I awaken,
As if to tell me, my dream is all right.
Notes
*This line can alternately be sung as, "Made of silver light and shadows".
Comments
Margaret wrote: "The song originates with the 1800 era Kentucky settlers - I've no idea how the girl scouts got it but they kept it alive & that is the important thing. ;) "
Thanks!
Thanks and Acknowledgements
Many thanks to Margaret B. for contributing this song and for letting us embed her lovely YouTube video rendition of Spider's Web. (Margaret calls this song Dream Catcher's Lullaby.) You can see other YouTube videos by Margaret on her YouTube Home Page.
Thanks also to Patsi for pointing out this song to me - which she remembered from Girl Scouts. (Patsi calls this song Down By the Valley.)
Thanks to Becky McLaughlin for the chords.
I find it interesting that this song has different names for different people. I welcome any information about the history of this song. Feel free to email me or comment on my blog on a post I wrote about Spider's Web -Mama Lisa
The image comes from The Bird and Insects' Post Office (1879) by Robert Bloomfield.
