The Great Silkie of Sule Skerry
Encyclopedia
The Great Silkie of Sule Skerry
or The Grey Selkie of Suleskerry is a traditional folk song from Orkney. The song was collected by the American scholar, Francis James Child
in the late nineteenth century and is listed as Child ballad number 113. There are many different versions of the song, one of which is a part of the epic ballad, The Lady Odivere.
: a man only on the land, a seal in the water. He takes his son, gives her a purse of gold, and predicts that she will marry a gunner, who will shoot both him and their son.
An interpolated 5th stanza has also been heard:
. This is the tune that Joan Baez
popularized as "Silkie" in the early 1960s.
Although Jean Redpath
disparaged Water's tune as "phony", preferring a longer version of Child 113 to another tune, by 1965, Jim Butler had heard Water's tune sung by a Scottish student at the University of British Columbia, unaccompanied in the traditional style, and under the impression that he had learned it from his grandfather. "This has to be one of the most flattering things that has ever happened to me", added Waters, who eventually copyrighted his version and assigned it to Folk Legacy Records.
The original tune was preserved by Dr. Otto Andersson who heard it sung by John Sinclair on the island of Flotta, Orkney. Dr Andersson said, “I had no idea at the time that I was the first person to write down the tune. The pure pentatonic form of it and the beautiful melodic line showed me that it was a very ancient melody that I had set on paper.”
American folksinger Pete Seeger set the poem "I Come and Stand at Every Door" by Turkish poet Nazim Hikmet
to the tune of "The Great Silkie". The American rock band The Byrds
sang it on their third album, Fifth dimension
(1966). The song was later covered by This Mortal Coil
. Roger McGuinn
of the Byrds later recorded the song with its original lyrics as part of his Folk Den
project.
Sule Skerry
Sule Skerry is a remote skerry in the North Atlantic off the north coast of Scotland.-Geography:Sule Skerry lies 60 kilometres west of the Orkney Mainland at . Sule Skerry's sole neighbour, Sule Stack, lies 10km to the southwest. The remote islands of Rona and Sula Sgeir lie approximately 80km...
or The Grey Selkie of Suleskerry is a traditional folk song from Orkney. The song was collected by the American scholar, Francis James Child
Francis James Child
Francis James Child was an American scholar, educator, and folklorist, best known today for his collection of folk songs known as the Child Ballads. Child was Boylston professor of rhetoric and oratory at Harvard University, where he produced influential editions of English poetry...
in the late nineteenth century and is listed as Child ballad number 113. There are many different versions of the song, one of which is a part of the epic ballad, The Lady Odivere.
Synopsis
A woman laments that she does not know her son's father. A man rises up to tell her that he is the father, and that he is a silkieSelkie
Selkies are mythological creatures that are found in Faroese, Icelandic, Irish, and Scottish folklore....
: a man only on the land, a seal in the water. He takes his son, gives her a purse of gold, and predicts that she will marry a gunner, who will shoot both him and their son.
Lyrics
An earthly nourris sits and sings,
And aye she sings, "Ba lilly wean,
Little ken I, my bairns father,
Far less the land that he staps in."
Then ane arose at her bed fit,
And a grumly guest I'm sure was he,
Saying "Here am I, thy bairns father,
Although I am not comely."
I am a man upon the land,
I am a silkie in the sea,
And when I'm far frae every strand,
My home it is in Sule Skerry."
“It was na weel”, the maiden cried,
“It was na weel, indeed” quo she,
“For the Great Silkie of Sule Skerrie,
To hae come and aught a bairn to me!”
Then he has taken a purse of gold,
And he has laid it on her knee,
Saying, "give to me, my little young son,
And take thee up thy nouriss fee.
It shall come to pass on a summer's day,
When the sun shines hot on every stone,
That I shall take my little young son,
And teach him for to swim the foam.
And thou shalt marry a proud gunner,
And a very proud gunner I'm sure he'll be,
And the very first shot that e're he shoots,
he'll kill both my young son and me."
An interpolated 5th stanza has also been heard:
'Twas weel eno' the night we met,
When I'd be oot and on my way,
Ye held me close, ye held me tight,
"Just ane mair time ere the break o' day!"
- nourris = nurse
- ken = know
- staps = stops
- bed fit = foot of the bed
- grumly = strange
Adaptations
The best known tune today is non-traditional, having been written by Jim Waters in 1954. Child was interested only in the texts of the ballads he collected, and Jim explains that the tune was "just the best I could do as a way to get a fine ballad sung". Over the next 2 years, he introduced the ballad to the Boston area at a time when "hootnannies" filled the Great Court of MIT on a weekly basis (before recorded folk songs were widely available). Jim Butler added the song to his repertoire, according to his notes, in October 1954, on a page labelled "MITOC Supp.", being the MIT Outing Club addition to his typewritten Child Ballads. Butler taught the song to several people, including Bonnie DobsonBonnie Dobson
Bonnie Dobson is a Canadian folk music songwriter, singer, and guitarist, most known in the 1960s for composing the songs "I'm Your Woman" and "Morning Dew"...
. This is the tune that Joan Baez
Joan Baez
Joan Chandos Baez is an American folk singer, songwriter, musician and a prominent activist in the fields of human rights, peace and environmental justice....
popularized as "Silkie" in the early 1960s.
Although Jean Redpath
Jean Redpath
Jean Redpath MBE is a singer of folk songs and Scottish music.Redpath was born in Edinburgh, to musical parents. Her mother knew many Scots songs and passed them on to Jean and her brother; her father played the hammer dulcimer. She was raised in Leven, Fife,Scotland, and later returned to...
disparaged Water's tune as "phony", preferring a longer version of Child 113 to another tune, by 1965, Jim Butler had heard Water's tune sung by a Scottish student at the University of British Columbia, unaccompanied in the traditional style, and under the impression that he had learned it from his grandfather. "This has to be one of the most flattering things that has ever happened to me", added Waters, who eventually copyrighted his version and assigned it to Folk Legacy Records.
The original tune was preserved by Dr. Otto Andersson who heard it sung by John Sinclair on the island of Flotta, Orkney. Dr Andersson said, “I had no idea at the time that I was the first person to write down the tune. The pure pentatonic form of it and the beautiful melodic line showed me that it was a very ancient melody that I had set on paper.”
American folksinger Pete Seeger set the poem "I Come and Stand at Every Door" by Turkish poet Nazim Hikmet
Nazim Hikmet
Nâzım Hikmet Ran , commonly known as Nâzım Hikmet , was a Turkish poet, playwright, novelist and memoirist. He was acclaimed for the "lyrical flow of his statements"...
to the tune of "The Great Silkie". The American rock band The Byrds
The Byrds
The Byrds were an American rock band, formed in Los Angeles, California in 1964. The band underwent multiple line-up changes throughout its existence, with frontman Roger McGuinn remaining the sole consistent member until the group disbanded in 1973...
sang it on their third album, Fifth dimension
Fifth Dimension (album)
Fifth Dimension is the third album by the American rock band The Byrds and was released in July 1966 on Columbia Records . Most of the album was recorded following the February 1966 departure of the band's principal songwriter Gene Clark...
(1966). The song was later covered by This Mortal Coil
This Mortal Coil
This Mortal Coil was a gothic dream pop supergroup led by Ivo Watts-Russell, founder of the British record label 4AD. Although Watts-Russell and John Fryer were technically the only two official members, the band's recorded output featured a large rotating cast of supporting artists, many of whom...
. Roger McGuinn
Roger McGuinn
James Roger McGuinn is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. He is best known for being the lead singer and lead guitarist on many of The Byrds' records...
of the Byrds later recorded the song with its original lyrics as part of his Folk Den
Folk Den
Folk Den is a folk music website founded in 1995 by Roger McGuinn, former front man of The Byrds. Hosted at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's ibiblio, the site is intended to preserve and promote folk music and offers a new folk song on a monthly basis...
project.
- The English folk rockFolk rockFolk rock is a musical genre combining elements of folk music and rock music. In its earliest and narrowest sense, the term referred to a genre that arose in the United States and the UK around the mid-1960s...
band TreesTrees (folk band)Trees was an English folk rock band that existed between 1969 and 1972. Although the group met with little commercial success in their time, the reputation of the band has grown over the years. Like other folk contemporaries, Trees' music was influenced by Fairport Convention, but with a heavier...
included one variant, as "The Great Silkie", in The Garden of Jane DelawneyThe Garden of Jane DelawneyThe Garden of Jane Delawney is the debut album of British folk rock band Trees. Whilst nearly every song on the album appears to be a traditional folk song, this is actually only the case for about half of them, the others having been penned for the album by front-man Bias Boshell...
, their debut album. - The BretonBrittanyBrittany is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Previously a kingdom and then a duchy, Brittany was united to the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province. Brittany has also been referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain...
folk band Tri YannTri YannTri Yann is a French band from Nantes , who play folk rock music drawing on traditional Breton folk ballads.The band was founded in 1970 by Jean Chocun, Jean-Paul Corbineau and Jean-Louis Jossic – all of whom remain members – hence the suggested name of Tri Yann an Naoned , Jean and Yann being...
also penned an adaptation in FrenchFrench languageFrench is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
called "Le Dauphin" (the dolphin) on their 1972 album Tri Yann an Naoned. - In 1981 Angelo BranduardiAngelo BranduardiAngelo Branduardi , is an Italian folk singer and composer who scored relevant success in Italy and European countries such as France, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands.- Biography :...
recorded this tune in his album Branduardi '81, with a lyrics by Esenin. The song is titled "La cagna". - The Philadelphia folk band Broadside ElectricBroadside ElectricBroadside Electric are an American electric folk band from Philadelphia. Formed in 1990, they are still active in 2011...
included a version of the ballad on their 1996 album More Bad News ...More Bad News ...More Bad News ... is the title of the third album by Broadside Electric. It was released on June 18, 1996 in the United States. Currently out of print, it has recently become available once again via several popular online music retailers.-Track listing:... - The Irish band SolasSolasSolas is an Irish-American musical group formed in 1994, playing Irish traditional music as well as original compositions, sometimes demonstrating an inclination towards Country music in recent albums....
included one variant, titled "Grey Selchie", in their 1998 album The Words That RemainThe Words That RemainThe Words That Remain is the third album by Solas, released in 1998 on the Shanachie Records label.-Track listing:# "Pastures of Plenty" – 3:24# "The Stride Set: The Stride/Tom Doherty's/The Contradiction/Viva Galicia" – 6:09...
. - Alasdair Roberts included his version of "The Grey Silkie of Sule Skerry" on his limited-edition CD, You Need Not Braid Your Hair For Me: I Have Not Come A-Wooing, released in 2005.
- The BretonBrittanyBrittany is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Previously a kingdom and then a duchy, Brittany was united to the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province. Brittany has also been referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain...
singer Cécile CorbelCécile CorbelCécile Corbel is a French-Brettone singer and harper. She has released four albums of original music and worked for Studio Ghibli as a composer for their 2010 film, The Borrower Arrietty...
recorded it in her album Songbook Vol.2 (2008). - Steeleye SpanSteeleye SpanSteeleye Span are an English folk-rock band, formed in 1969 and remaining active today. Along with Fairport Convention they are amongst the best known acts of the British folk revival, and were among the most commercially successful, thanks to their hit singles "Gaudete" and "All Around My Hat"....
recorded it as a hidden track on their 2009 album, Cogs, Wheels and LoversCogs, Wheels and LoversCogs, Wheels & Lovers is the twenty-first studio album by the electric folk band Steeleye Span. It was released on the 26th October 2009. It is the band's fourth studio album to feature the line-up of Maddy Prior, Peter Knight, Rick Kemp, Ken Nicol and Liam Genockey.The songs on the album are...
. - In 2011 June TaborJune TaborJune Tabor is an English folk singer.- Early years :June Tabor was inspired to sing by hearing Anne Briggs' EP Hazards of Love in 1965. "I went and locked myself in the bathroom for a fortnight and drove my mother mad. I learned the songs on that EP note for note, twiddle for twiddle. That's how I...
recorded it in her album AshoreAshore (album)Ashore is a folk album by June Tabor released in 2011 on Topic Records, catalogue number TSCD 577.It is a collection of songs concerning humankind's relationship with the sea.-Track listing:# Finisterre...
.