Bayonetta + Culture: Scarborough Fair and Elfin Knight
“Crafted by the famed demon-smith Rodin, these four guns have been crowned with the names Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme. Pushing Bayonetta's magic to its limits, these guns' rate of fire and stopping power are incredible.”
The Scarborough Fair.
Bayonetta’s first weapon that she receives from the blacksmith/bartender Rodin after Bayonetta’s scuffle with Jeanne on the falling military transport.
Four crimson guns (two for her hands and two for her feet) that each have a distinguishable gem color, jewelry that dangles from each gun’s handle and name. Each of the gun’s names are based after herbs and as we all know, herbs is a pretty important part to a witch’s brew.
But who knew the guns’ name was based off of something else?
The weapon set “Scarborough Fair” and the guns’ names is most definitely inspired by the Medieval English ballad of the same name that takes place at Yorkshire, Scarborough in England.
The first part of the ballad says the following:
“Are you going to Scarborough Fair?
Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme;
Remember me to one who lives there,
For she was once a true love of mine.
Tell her to make me a cambric shirt,
Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme;
Without any seam or needlework,
Then she shall be a true love of mine.
Tell her to wash it in yonder well,
Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme;
Where never sprung water or rain ever fell,
And she shall be a true lover of mine.
Tell her to dry it on yonder thorn,
Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme;
Which never bore blossom since Adam was born,
Then she shall be a true lover of mine.”
The plot of the ballad consists of a man telling the messenger (or you, the reader) about the tasks his crush has to complete in order for her to become his true love. As you can see the tasks are almost impossible to do.
The second part goes like this:
Now he has asked me questions three,
Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme;
I hope he'll answer as many for me,
Before he shall be a true lover of mine.
Tell him to buy me an acre of land,
Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme;
Between the salt water and the sea sand,
Then he shall be a true lover of mine.
Tell him to plough it with a ram's horn,
Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme;
And sow it all over with one peppercorn,
And he shall be a true lover of mine.
Tell him to sheer't with a sickle of leather,
Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme;
And bind it up with a peacock's feather,
And he shall be a true lover of mine.
Tell him to thrash it on yonder wall,
Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme,
And never let one corn of it fall,
Then he shall be a true lover of mine.
When he has done and finished his work.
Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme:
Oh, tell him to come and he'll have his shirt,
And he shall be a true lover of mine.
The second part of the ballad consists of the woman telling the messenger about the almost as impossible tasks the man has to do for her in order to win over her love to him. At the end of the ballad, the woman reveals that, despite the almost impossible tasks, she somehow sowed and washed a shirt for him, demonstrating that her love for him has no boundaries.
If you noticed throughout... literally the entire the ballad, the two characters says the chant “Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme” after every other line. All four of the herbs that they say to the messenger means something symbolically that, as a whole, characterizes their love for each other:
Parsley = Happiness and Festivity
Sage = Strength
Rosemary = Remembrance
Thyme = Courage
As you can see, the textures on the four guns has its own title by Rodin that reflects each herb’s symbolization.
Who knew Rodin loves browsing through the romance section of the bookstore?
As the ballad itself states, there was indeed an old medieval festival that took place in Scarborough, Yorkshire during the ruling of King Henry III of England.
The Scarborough Fair began when King Henry III decided to grant the town of Scarborough more “privileges” that included the ability to hold an annual 45-day festival for the people to enjoy.
The fair was a very important event for entertainers, merchants and tradesman alike as the opportunity to gain money and exposure is quite high. As the illustration above depicts, the festival brings a colorful and joyous atmosphere to the town while being inclusive to foreign characters who would like to share their culture and foreign goods to the Scarborians.
Unfortunately, due to intense competition by neighboring festivals and an increase in taxes in Scarborough, the festival slowly died, officially ending in 1788.
Although the fair is not active anymore, the town in Northern Yorkshire, England however, is still fruitful and mesmerizing to this day. Similar to medieval Scarborough, tourists still visit this town to garner at the many attractions and beaches while trading their own goods with Scarborough’s goods. Tourism trade is still a main source of income for Scarborough along with their fishing industry. As a matter of fact, Scarborough is England’s second most visited attraction due to the popularity of trading in the city.
Just like the olden times. King Henry III would shed a tear.
Haha...
I suppose this is a great time to mention this interesting bit that we got from the Bayonetta 3 teaser.
What many fans noticed from the gruesome yet head-scratching video was that not only was Bayonetta back to her original beehive hairstyle, she was also wielding guns that looks similar to the Scarborough Fair but was oddly named the Whittingham Fair instead.
This isn’t much, but the “Whittingham Fair” ballad is just the “Scarborough Fair” ballad but everytime the word “Scarborough” is suppose to pop up it is replaced by “Whittingham”. All-in-all, “Whittingham Fair” it is just an alternate version of the original ballad...
...Which HEAVILY supports my theory that the Bayonetta in the trailer is just an alternate universe Bayonetta and the scary fiery dude is out to kill all the Bayonettas so OUR Bayonetta is going to astral project herself to him to beat his ass.
The Elfin Knight.
An anime-exclusive set of guns Bayonetta has for the majority of the movie until they were shattered and replaced by the Scarborough Fair during Bayonetta’s second fight with Jeanne.
In its design, they are carbon copies of the original Scarborough Fair. The only difference between the two sets of guns is their name and power. In the movie, the Elfin Knight is basically an inferior version of the Scarborough Fair.
The Elfin Knight is an Scottish ballad that, similar to Scarborough Fair, has the theme of impossible tasks and an impossible love. This time... the “love” is pretty one-sided in the Elfin Knight.
The ballad goes like this:
1 The elphin knight sits on yon hill,Ba, ba, ba, lilli baHe blaws his horn both loud and shrill,The wind hath blown my plaid awa
2 He blowes it east, he blowes it west,He blowes it where he lyketh best.
3 'I wish that horn were in my kist,Yea, and the knight in my armes two.'
4 She had no sooner these words said,When that the knight came to her bed.
5 'Thou art over young a maid,' quoth he,'Married with me thou il wouldst be.'
6 'I have a sister younger than I,And she was married yesterday.
7 'Married with me if thou wouldst be,A courtesie thou must do to me.
8 'For thou must shape a sark to me,Without any cut or heme,' quoth he.
9 'Thou must shape it knife-and-sheerlesse,And also sue it needle-threedlesse.'
10 'If that piece of courtesie I do to thee,Another thou must do to me.
11 'I have an aiker of good ley-land,Which lyeth low by yon sea-strand.
12 'For thou must eare it with thy horn,So thou must sow it with thy corn.
13 'And bigg a cart of stone and lyme,Robin Redbreast he must trail it hame.
14 'Thou must barn it in a mouse-hell,And thrash it into thy shoes sell.
15 'And thou must winnow it in thy looff,And also seek it in thy glove.
16 'For thou must bring it over the sea,And thou must bring it dry home to me.
17 'When thou hast gotten thy turns well done,Then come to me and get thy sark then.'
18 'I'l not quite my plaid for my life;It haps my seven bairns and my wife.'The wind shall not blow my plaid awa
19 'My maidenhead I'l then keep still,Let the elphin knight do what he will.'The wind's not blown my plaid awa
The story of this ballad tells us about the tale of a young woman who spots a strange man who blows a horn all around him. The woman found a deep attraction to this man and summons him into her bedroom. He reveals that he is the Elfin Knight (does not explain what that is) and he has no interest for her.
The Elfin Knight proposes a series of tasks for her to complete in order for her to love him, all of them are almost impossible. The woman counters his series of tasks that she must do with a series of tasks that the Elfin Knight must do himself, almost as impossible as the Elfin Knight’s requests.
The story ends with the Elfin Knight rejecting the woman, saying he does not want to betray his wife and seven kids, and he leaves the bedroom.
Although the ending is quite the 180 compared to Scarborough Fair, you might’ve noticed that some of the requests the two characters are giving to each other are quite similar to the ones the two lovers were giving out in Scarborough Fair. For example, the woman request the Elfin Knight to find an acre of land in an ocean just like what the woman requested in Scarborough Fair.
Although these two songs are a little bit too similar, there is very little evidence to conclude that one ballad was derived from another. All the clues that I gathered was that the Eflin Knight is much older and obscure than Scarborough Fair.
On Platnium Game’s official blog, Muneyuki “Johnny” Kotegawa, the weapon designer for Bayonetta, Resident Evil and Devil May Cry, explains his process on how he created the Scarborough Fair.
He reveals that Hideki Kamiya, the creator of Bayonetta, wanted the design of Bayonetta’s guns to be based off of the Derringers simply because it would look hot in a girl’s hands.
Well... he wasn’t wrong I suppose.
The Derringer gun is one of the most smallest usable guns of a given caliber. A great size difference compared to the Scarborough Fair.
The first Derringer gun model to ever be created was the Philadelphia Derringer created by blacksmith Henry Deringer in 1852.
In general, the Derringer guns were single-muzzle loading pistols. That meant they were only able to carry one muzzle ball in the gun itself. When you shoot the gun, you had to go through a very convoluted and tedious reloading process just to shoot another one.
Not only that, the bullets that some of the older models use are slow and they might temporarily stun the attacker but not cripple them. If you miss the bullet, then you might as well start running.
This goes without saying, but this gun is not the best to use for protection despite the fact that when these guns were introduced, women usually hid them in their purses for protection.
It is clear that the external design of the Derringers played a greater role in the development of the Scarborough Fair than the functionality.
That is all for now!
Thank you for reading this addition of Games + Culture and I hope I will see you next time with my next post: All 4 One
Bye now!
