THE GREAT SILKIE OF SULE SKERRIE

Here is a ballad from 1f1, Milne's High School Inverness. We would like you to work out what it is about before we send you an explanation and perhaps give us suggestions about why the last verse is repeated. Any ideas?

The Great Silkie of Sule Skerrie

In Norway there sits a maid:
"By-loo, my baby", she begins,
"Little know I my child's father
Or if land or sea he's living in."

Then there arose at her bed feet,
And a grumly guest I'm sure it was he
Saying "Here am I, thy child's father,
Although that I am not comely.

"I am a man upon the land,
I am a silkie in the sea,
And when I am in my own country,
My dwelling is in Sule Skerrie."

Then he hath taken a purse of gold,
He hath put it upon her knee,
Saying "Give to me my little wee son,
And take thee up thy nurse's fee.

"And it shall come to pass on a summer day,
When the sun shines hot on every stone,
That I shall take my little wee son,
And I'll teach him for to swim in the foam

"And you will marry a gunner good
And a proud good gunner I'm sure he'll be.
And he'll go out on a May morning
And he'll kill both my wee son and me."

And lo, she did marry a gunner good,
And a proud good I'm sure it was he;
And the very first shot that e'er he did shoot
He killed the son and the great silkie.

In Norway there sits a maid:
"By-loo, my baby", she begins,
"Little know I my child's father
Or if land or sea he's living in."

Anon

Now take a look at Queen's responses to the ballad.