Sunday 25 January 2009

The Swagman, the Jumbuck, and Matilda

I never realised. After hearing *gag* Walt *gag* Waltz *gag* Waltzing *chunky gag* WALTZING MATILDA *vomit*

....sorry

After hearing Waltzing Matilda *gag* for the 57,000,456th time since arriving on these shores almost ten years ago ... and laughing like a hyena every time it put up against the Haka I realised:

What the fuck is a Jumbuck?. Sorry, I have to post it for my fellow foreign brothahs and sistahs:

Up came the jumbuck to drink at the waterhole,
Up jumped the swagman and grabbed him in glee;
And he sang as he put him away in his tucker-bag,
'You'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me.'

Perhaps I was attempting to block it out. Turns out a Jumbuck is a wild sheep. Freaks.

OH, and ya know 'who' Matilda was?....

Matilda was the swag (bed roll). So he did the 'Waltz' in a swag with a sheep?.

...and Australians call this song their unofficial anthem. Seems suitable, really.

Oh, and he actually drowned (original lyrics before the tea company got hold of it) himself cause he got caught Waltzing Matilda with the Jumbuck in the swag.

Tea Company? ...
Fucken random stuff.


11 comments:

  1. I couldn't swear to the veracity of it but NZ lore also says that the name Matilda (Teutonic name meaning battle maiden) comes from the women of ill repute who followed the advancing army to provide comfort at night during the thirty year European war in the mid 17th century.

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  2. wow..
    your culture is weird
    ;)

    and I thought the Scots were the sheep shaggers..

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  3. Well, we Yanks used a British drinking song as the basis of our National Anthem, during the War of 1812, when we were fighting against - who else? - the British. Weirdness knows no geographical boundaries apparently.

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  4. Pete, pete pete.
    mate
    it's about a battler (swagman), sticking it to the man (squatter - land owner) and killing himself rather than lose his freedom. The term watzing matilda means to go on the road with just a swag.
    It's about freedom.
    See this is why no one likes kiwi's - just kidding, if you guys left we'd have no one to do our crap jobs.

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  5. Sheep jokes from Kiwis!!! Whatever next?

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  6. Apparently an alternate colloquial term for ‘Waltzing Matilda’ is ‘humping the bluey’. I hope that makes things clearer to you.

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  7. ROFLMAO Yes, I enjoyed this one.

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  8. AK, you're thinking of the Welsh.

    And this is no worse than "Born to Run" being the unofficial state song of New Jersey, since "Born to Run" is about, of all things, getting the fuck out of New Jersey.

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  9. You're a bunch of freaking weirdos down there.. hahahahah

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  10. Nah it's about some crim who can't do his time after doin his crime. Silverwater's to good for the like of him...

    *sponsored by the NSW Liberal party*

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  11. Kiwis trying to reverse the sheep jokes? Nice effort.

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