Thanks for taking a look Mouse and Emily

No unfortunately Emily, not heard of any schools which teach the old tunes, it's a shame. 

I was listening to a girl on you tube singing this one in Gaelic, gives it a magical sound I think. 

All the old festivals were celebrated in England at one time, Imbolc, lughnasad, beltaine and samhaine. They were all Celtic festivals with Wiccan associations, eventually, England was a lot of different Celtic kingdoms as was Ireland, were I come from was originally Brigantia, named after the tribe who inhabited the area who were  the Brigantes. 

I think it's impossible to play these old tunes without being dragged deep into history, you know what I mean, the meaning and thought behind them. A lot were very mystical, like Banish misfortune for instance.

Have you heard the cuckoo song, this is probably the oldest documented English folk song, its 12th or 13th century and is sung in middle English which is possibly remnants of Saxon, but by this time we had been conquered by the Norman's, who as you probably know were originally vikings, so the language could be a mixture of both

Not to everyone's taste but I think extremely interesting

Must have been a lot of drinking and singing going on in those days

If you like the history of knights, read about William Marshall, the most perfect Knight, he actually existed. His tomb is in the Knight templer Church just off the strand in London.

Don't know if you know this but the Troubadors were  Cathars, a religious sect, they were massacred at Montsegur in france, well actually committed suicide because their teaching ran against those of the church,  their teachings were  complex and I can't really go into great detail here, they willingly walked into a bonfire in the fortress courtyard rather than be taken prisoner.

A crusade had been called against them by the pope, the Cathars made their stand at the place I mention in France. Later , Troubadours spread the teachings  of the Cathars under the guise of wandering minstrels. They were the originators of the tarot deck which they used for secret teachings. All the images on Tarot cards have religious meanings.