From the album Like a Bird on the Wing
"The Silkie of Sule Skerry" is Child Ballad no
113, a fragment of the epic ballad The Lady
Odivere, one of the numerous tales from the
Orkney Islands and the Hebrides concerning
the Selchies/Silkies/seafolk.
Enchanted creatures, the silkies are
creatures who are believed to occasionally
doff their seal skins to come onto land as
mortal men. Legends tell of silkies who
married mortals, and some families on the
islands still trace their ancestry to such
marriages. In longer versions of the ballad,
the Silkie's forecast of the death of himself
and his son eventually come to pass.
In some versions of the ballad the human
spouse of a silkie must hide the silkie's pelt,
for if it should find it and put it back on then
the selkie will depart forever and the human
spouse then dies of heartbreak.
Sule Skerry is a rocky islet 25 miles to the
west of Hoy Head in Orkney.
Images:
The Song of the Seals
A Seamaid sings on yonder Reef
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An earthly nourris sits and sings
and aye she sings ba lilly wean.
Little ken I my bairn's father,
far less the land that he steps in.
Then ane arose at her bedside,
and a grumly guest I'm sure was he,
saying here am I thy bairn's father,
although I be not comely.
I am a man upon the land
and I'm a silkie in the sea,
and when I'm far and far from land
my hame it is in Sule Skerry.
Now he has ta'en a purse o' gold
and he has put it on her knee,
saying gie tae me my little young son
and take thee up thy nourris-fee.
Now it shall pass on a summer's day,
when the sun shines hot on every stone
that I will fetch my little young son,
and I'll teach him how to swim the foam.
Then you will marry a proud gunner,
and a very fine gunner I'm sure he'll be.
And the very first shot that e'er he shoots
he'll shoot both my young son and me.
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In Norway land there liv'd a maid, "hush ba
loo lil-lie" this maid began,
"I know not where my bairn's father is,
whether land or sea he travels in."
It happened on a certain day, when this fair
lady fell fast asleep,
That in there came a grey Silkie and set him
down at her bed's feet.
"Awake, awake, my pretty fair maid, for oh
how soundly thou dost sleep
I'll tell thee where thy bairn's father is, he's
a-sitting close at thy bed's feet.
"I am a man upon the land; I am a Silkie in
the sea,
And when I'm far from ev'ry strand, my
dwelling is in Sule Skerry."
"Alas, alas, this woeful fate, that weary fate
that's been laid on me,
That a man should come from the Wast o'
Hoy and that he should have a bairn with
me."
"O thou wild nurse my little wee son for
seven long years upon thy knee,
And at the end of seven long years I'll come
back and pay thy nursing fee."
"I'll put a gold chain around his neck, and a
gay good gold chain it will be,
That if e'er he comes to the Norway lands
thou may have a gay good guess on he."
And thou wilt get a gunner good, and a gay
good gunner it will be,
And he shall gae out on a May morning and
shoot thy son and the grey Silkie."
Oh she has got a gunner good, and a gay
good gunner it was he,
And he gae'd out on a May morning and he
shot the son and the grey Silkie.
"Alas, alas, this woeful fate, this weary fate
that's been laid on me!"
And once or twice she sobb'd and sigh'd,
and her tender heart did break in three. |