| Author | Topic: Add: The Grey Selkie | |
| dmcg | Posted - 07 May 03 - 02:24 pm | |
Grey Silkie, The There lived a maid in the Norway lands; "Hush ba loo lil-ly", she did sing: I dinna ken where my babe's father is Or what land he travels in. Now it happened one night As this fair maid lay fast asleep That in the came a grey selkie And laid himself down at her bed feet, Crying "Awake, awake, my pretty maid For thy babe's father's sitting at the bed feet. "For I'm a man upon the land A selkie in the sea, And I do come from the Wast'ard o' Hoy, Which wise men do call Sule Skerrie. "My name it is good Hyne Malair; I earn my livin' by the sea, An' when I'm far from ev'ry shore It then I am in Sule Skerrie." "Oh, what a fate, what a weary fate What a weary fate's been laid for me, That a selkie should come from the Wast'ard o' Hoy To the Norway lands to have a babe with me." "Oh, I will wed thee with a ring, With a ring, my dear, I'll wed with thee." "Thou may wed thu's weds with whom thou wilt, But I'm sure thou'll ne'er wed none wi' me." "Then thou shalt nurse thy little wee son For seven long years upon thy knee; And at the end of seven years I'll come an' pay thy nurse's fee." It's, oh, she's nursed her little wee son For seven years upon her knee And he's come back a gay gentleman With a coffer of gold and white monie. She says, "I'll wed thee with a ring With a ring, my dear, I'll wed wi' thee." "Thou may wed thee's weds with whom thou wilt, I'm sure thou'll ne'er wed none wi' me. "But you will get a gunner good, And aye a good gunner he'll be, And he'll gaeng out on a May morning And he'll shoot the son and the grey selkie." (So he took the son away and ...) "I'll put a gold chain about his neck, [An' a gey good gold chain it'll be] That is ever he comes to the Norway lands, it's, oh, well know-ed he may be." And, oh, she got a gunner good, And aye a good gunner was he And he gaed out one May morning An' he shot the son and the grey selkie. (Then he returned and showed her this wonderful thing that he'd found, the gold chain on the selkie's neck ...) "Oh you have shot good Hyne Malair, And oh, he was right kind to me." She gied a sigh, sobbed aince or twice, And then her tender heart did brak in three. Source: Palmer, Roy, 1998, A Book of British Ballads, Llanerch Notes: Roy Palmer wrote:
Database entry is here. | ||
| dmcg | Posted - 07 May 03 - 02:29 pm | |
I've always found "The Great Selkie of Sule Skerrie" one of the most mysterious of the ballads. For me, there is something about it that evokes the deep past, in the same sort of way that stone circles do. Perhaps part of it is that all of the tunes I know for it seem to be unlike any else I've come across as well. | ||
| Malcolm Douglas |
Posted - 07 May 03 - 03:14 pm | |
Roud 197 Child 113 Child's example (from Snarra Voe, Unst, Shetland) is the only one to have been found outside Orkney, and may represent the oldest extant form of the ballad. Child commented that it "should have followed No.40 [The Queen of Elfan's Nourice] had I known of it earlier." For a detailed examination of the ballad in its various forms, see Alan Bruford, The Grey Selkie, in Emily B. Lyle (ed.), Ballad Studies, Folklore Society, 1976. Bruford necessarily devotes much attention to The Play o' de Lathie Odivere, a long poem first published in 1894, which has been accepted quite widely and uncritically as the "16th century original" of The Grey Selkie. He concludes that it is an epic 19th century confection based in part on a traditional form of the ballad. | ||
| Abby Sale | Posted - 07 May 03 - 03:34 pm | |
1) For all the discussion of the commonality of the selkie story, are there any other English-language selkie ballads besides this'n? 2) There seem to be two separate explanations of the nature of a selkie. The ballad says clearly he's a ware-seal. A man on land, a seal in the water. Child gives the Scandanavian explanation that he is always a man, he merely dons a magic seal skin which enables him to swim as a seal to his home under, not in the sea. The theft of his sealskin leaves him (or her) stranded in human form. And other explanations or details? 3) We were told in the Isle of Lewis that even though so many of the island folk made their living as fisherman, they wouldn't kill a seal. (In fact, we often saw seals swimming undisturbed in Stornaway harbor.) The reason was that they might be killing one of their own (distant) relatives. The story lingers on. | ||
| Mary in Kentucky | Posted - 12 May 03 - 01:30 am | |
A beautiful and extremely informative site is at http://www.orkneyjar.com. I read about selkies, and standing stones in the folklore section, but it may be easier to use the search function at the site. This is one of my favorite ballads. | ||
| dmcg | Posted - 18 May 03 - 06:53 pm | |
A melody provided by Mary in Kentucky is now in the database here. | ||
| Jon Freeman | Posted - 18 May 03 - 07:04 pm | |
I like it. Thanks Dave and Mary! | ||
| Malcolm Douglas |
Posted - 18 May 03 - 09:14 pm | |
That second tune was written by Dr James Waters of Columbia University when he was a student. He didn't get around to copyrighting it for quite some years, and as a consequence lost out on a fair bit in royalties. Joan Baez' record company didn't pay him a penny (though she credits him in her songbook); Pete Seeger, however, who had set the poem Girl of Hiroshima to the tune under the impression that it was traditional, made a point of paying up. | ||
| MMario | Posted - 19 May 03 - 05:21 pm | |
copyright for the James Waters tune is administer by Sandy Patton | ||