Ox Singing

There is a story that goes that when the Welsh took oxen were taken to market in Gloucester and sold them to English farmers, the English farmers would take the ox back to their farms and discover that the ox were a little lacklustre. So they complained to the Welsh farmers at the next market, to which the response was ‘well you need to sing to them!’. Singing to ox was common place in Wales. There are records of the Welsh folk ‘singing’ or goading oxen in musical fashion going back to Giraldus Cambrensis in the 12thC, who recorded various aspects of Welsh cultural life. Iolo Morgannwg also recorded numerous ox singing songs.