British Council InterLink project - "The Great Silkie of Sule Skerrie"

THE GREAT SILKIE OF SULE SKERRIE

Here are the responses to the "The Great Silkie of Sule Skerrie" by Queen's High School Dunedin. These are posted on our Web page.

Hi! we read the ballad you sent us, and here are our thoughts about it.

There is a lady in Norway, and she says to her baby that she doesn't know who the father is or if he lives in land or sea. A guest arrives and says he is the Child's father. He says on land he is a man, but in the sea he is a silkie seal, but when he is in his own country he lives in Sule Skerrie. Then he gives her some gold and says to give him his son and take the gold.

He says on a hot summer day he will take the boy and teach him to swim in the sea. He says the mother will marry a good and proud hunter, and on a May morning he will kill the father and son. And then she did marry a hunter, and with the very first shot the father and son were killed. Maybe the first verse is repeated because she has another half Silkie son, or because Silkies can't be killed the first time, or maybe it is just symbolic. Perhaps it is another woman and it just goes on and on.

Monique Le Pine and Erin Caswell

We think it is about a silkie whose wife has a child. She does not know who the father is or where he lives. The father appears and tells the mother that he is a silkie in the water and a man on the land. When the boy is old enough, the father will teach him to be a silkie and the wife will marry a hunter. The hunter kills the father and the boy. By repeating the first verse it shows that she has another baby and the same thing will happen all over again.(We think!)

Tracy and JoAnne.

I think that it's about a maid who has a baby who doesn't know where the father is on land or sea (because the father is a Silkie). The Silkie comes from the land of Sule Skerrie which I think is a land halfway between the sea and the land. He knows that one day when he teaches his son to swim the maid's future husband, who will be a gunner will come and shoot both him and his son and they will both be killed, he tells the maid. So they were both killed.

The last verse is repeated again because it could either show how there isn't really an end but there's always a beginning, or that the maid still doesn't know where the father is whether his spirit is in the sea or on the land. I think this ballad also shows that you might have a set path in your life and that you can't change it. The silkie knew that he and his son were going to be killed but he didn't do anything about it. It could also show the way that animals accept death.

Jenny Woodley-Higgins

I think that this poem is about a Norwegian women, who had a child. She didn't know if the father was alive, or if he living on land or sea. Then one night he came and said he was was a man on the land and a silkie of the sea. He then gave the women some gold and recieved the baby boy, who he took with him into the sea. The lady then married a big macho seal hunter, who was just doing his job and not knowingly shot and killed the silkie and the son. I think the maid repeats the first verse to show the continuing poem, how the poem could be a never ending story.

Jenna Trainor

Hi Milnes !

I think it's about a woman (maid) who had a child by a silkie (kind of man/seal thing) and so he tells the maid (because she doesn't know) and gives her some money to support the child and when it is grown the silkie will take it and teach it be a silkie. But he forsees a gunsman marrying the maid and the gunsman will shoot the silkie and his son. She does and because the gunsman doesn't know who the silkies are he kills them.

The last verse: The last verse is probably repeated because maybe there is another silkie who has a baby with another maid or its to do with cycles or the same silkie.

Emma Schofield