Was sitting here looking over my research/reference notes for my NaNoWriMo month wondering how some of the sentences got so scrambled… Look down a little further and there’s a bunch of stuff about all the different sorts of fairies. Just the tip of the iceberg really.
I see that selchies are included in a group and there you have it – the icebergish tip of a song. Thinking… thinking… selchie, fisherman “his hands are his craft, his boat is his art…” and BLAM – there’s the whole thing and the melody. Put the above phrase into google and am rewarded with the recording artist’s name – Lui Collins and am doubly rewarded to be reminded that the author of the lyrics is none other than the esteemed Jane Yolen.
Oh, weeping she goes, and still weeping she stays
Her hands are her craft, her babes are her art
A year and a year and a year more she stays
A rock, a cold rock, in her heart.But what is this hid in the fisherman’s bag?
It smells like the ocean, it feels like the sea!
A bonny white sealskin closed up in the bag
And “Never a tear more!” cries she.“Goodbye to the house and goodbye to the shore
Goodbye to the babes that I never could claim
But never a thought to the man left on shore
For selchie’s my nature and name.”
