The Silkie.
Child #113 (The Great Silkie of Sule Skerry) 3:39 V, G & F.
In Gaelic folklore, ‘silkies’ are seals that inhabit the frigid waters around the Shetland Islands but sometimes come onto land, take human form, and father half-human children, as in this story.
The tune is by Dr. James Waters.
An earthly nurse she sits and sings, and, aye she sings, "Bye, lily wean!
‘Tis little ken I my bairn's father, far less the land that he dwells in."
For he came one night to her bed's feet, 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, I am a silkie on the sea.
And when I'm far and far frae land, my home it is in Sule...Skerrie."
And he has ta'en a purse of gold, and he has placed it upon her knee,
Saying, "Give to me my little young son, and take thee up thy nurse's fee.
And it shall come to pass on a summer's day, when the sun shines bright on every stone,
That I will take my little young son and teach him how to swim...the foam.
And ye shall marry a gunner good, and a right fine gunner I'm sure he'll be,
And the very first shot that e'er he shoots will kill both my young son and me."
And she has married a gunner good, and a right fine gunner I'm sure was he,
And he's gone out on a May morning and he’s shot the son and the Great Silkie.
In Gaelic folklore, ‘silkies’ are seals that inhabit the frigid waters around the Shetland Islands but sometimes come onto land, take human form, and father half-human children, as in this story.
The tune is by Dr. James Waters.
An earthly nurse she sits and sings, and, aye she sings, "Bye, lily wean!
‘Tis little ken I my bairn's father, far less the land that he dwells in."
For he came one night to her bed's feet, 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, I am a silkie on the sea.
And when I'm far and far frae land, my home it is in Sule...Skerrie."
And he has ta'en a purse of gold, and he has placed it upon her knee,
Saying, "Give to me my little young son, and take thee up thy nurse's fee.
And it shall come to pass on a summer's day, when the sun shines bright on every stone,
That I will take my little young son and teach him how to swim...the foam.
And ye shall marry a gunner good, and a right fine gunner I'm sure he'll be,
And the very first shot that e'er he shoots will kill both my young son and me."
And she has married a gunner good, and a right fine gunner I'm sure was he,
And he's gone out on a May morning and he’s shot the son and the Great Silkie.
