Who is John Barleycorn? || Gruesome Origins & Modern Retellings

What are your thoughts on this theory? 🤓Share your ideas below.

Barley grows tufts or a "beard" when it's ready for harvest. It just extends the metaphor, not to do with druids.

When the crop was cut the very last bail of corn/barley was made into a " corn dolly / John barleycorn " which was a thank you to the spirit of the fields.

You crack me up. I have been a farmer for years. I have grown wheat, oats and yes barley and harvested them all. The three men were investors in a ambitious project. They planted and amazingly the crop grew good. Barley, and wheat grows long spiny hairs at the end of each kernel of grain . They cut the straw about knee high. They used pitchforks to gather the cut grain with straw attached, tied it together and piled it up leaving piles around the field. The loader drove around and picked it up. They took it to a barn where they pounded it with flails which separated grain from chaff and straw. They malted the grain and ground it. Some was eaten some was used to make brandy and beer . The huntsman and the tinker couldn't get into it with out a couple of drinks. I know I missed some points in the story but I can say it's just a story about growing grain .that's all it is. Sorry folks no mumbo jumbo, witches or human sacrifice. Just plain old cereal. Think I'll have a beer .

You may be interested to know that in some parts of England, early English farmers used to cut in a spiral from the outside of the field to the inside. this would drive any wild game into the middle of the field where they could easily be caught and dispatched. this could account for going around and around the field in a cart.

The line refers to the malting process, which converts the starch to sugar and required for the fermentation process of making beer. They spread the barleycorns on the floor and wet them, which causes the grain to begin sprouting. They then roast this newly sprouted barley over heat to stop the process. You can see videos of this being done in the making of single malt whiskey. It's just a witty murder ballad about beer making.

Anyone else here after watching Inside No 9?

the long beards can refer to the tops of the crop as it sprouts before harvest

Yeah, I have to go with the imagery all being that of actual barley harvest. I don't really see the violence from the imagery. But then, I grew up on a farm. 🤷‍♀️

I think the whole song refers to the fact that after all the evil they did to John barleycorn.. he wins.. because all the people can't manage without alcohol.. therefore hes the strongest man at last...

"Wheeling him around and around" is a method of "threshing" grain, i.e. beating harvested stalks to separate the cereal grain part from the straw. It also helps loosen the husk around the grain. Threshing is the next necessary step after harvesting. In the Burns version, the 'enemies' use cudgels for threshing. For very large quantities, "wheeling around and around the field" is a common and less laborious way of threshing (animal hooves help trample).

I believe you are overthinking this. The poem is the story of the barley harvest. No human sacrifice here. I've been a pagan my whole life (65 yrs) and a practicing witch since 1992. My hedgewitch grandmother would laugh at the idea. She raised me to believe the stories of human sacrifice came, as many things did, from the Christian attempt to destroy our belief system and convert all to their new religion.

This is very interesting, I'd always wondered if there were more to this song/poem. I'd always assumed that the "beard" referred to the long hairs that grow out of the barley grains, and that "Wheeled him around and around the field" simply described the path taken by the cart in harvesting the grain row by row. What I always found most curious, however, is that, while planting and harvesting are described in detail, the entire process from milling to the finished beverage is left out.

The barley tops are sometimes called beards.

A novel called "Harvest Home" (1973) by Thomas Tryon and the resulting miniseries called "The Dark Secret of Harvest Home" (1978) starring Bette Davis is based on a version of the John Barleycorn story in which a group of pagan women sacrifices the "Harvest Lord" at the autumnal equinox to ensure the corn harvest. (Unfortunately, it's another one of those horror movies that slanders pagans as well as women who have too much religious power.)

Hey Ms. Ravenswood, good video. I could be wrong but I believe the "The Three Men" in the poem is referring to the constellation of Orion, which appears in the Northwest. Our ancestors used the sky as their calendar and the sun, moon and stars as their timekeepers for planting and harvesting. Orion is visible in late summer and fall which is the time of the harvest.

I wanted to write about his story on my grimoire but i wasnt sure where to begin,so this was really interesting!! Thank you so much for making this video!

If anyone does go and see The Wicker Man, I urge you to see the 1973 version not only is the Cage version awful but if you see the Cage version first then by the time you’ve hunted the original down, the ending will be ruined. Also the original has a really good soundtrack as well as boasting some cracking performances by the likes of Christopher Lee, Edward Woodward, Britt Ekland ect.

the violent imagry sounds exactly like harvesting and milling grains, thrashed on the floor-the thresh hold- then ground between two stones-a millstone- and drinking his blood- well that's a big more imaginative but if that is beer from barely then that is why they get more happy. A great many of the harvest gods are blond headed- an interpretation of grain being harvested, even Sif and Baldur could represent this. I think the long beard shows he's fully matured, from archology it seems like the people who were sacrified in the celtic/iron age were criminals I'd give Caesar a major grain of salt. remember he had to justify why he exterminated the druids. Overall it seems like the poet was showing how the well known, at the time, actions of the harvest, ties into the ancient rites and rituals, the way we today repeat the stories of the pilgrims at thanksgiving I would point out in 1560's elizabeth was queen of england, not scotland.

Well done, Scarlet Ravenswood. You did your homework.