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- Xref: sparky rec.music.folk:8832 soc.culture.celtic:8478
- Newsgroups: rec.music.folk,soc.culture.celtic
- Path: sparky!uunet!paladin.american.edu!darwin.sura.net!spool.mu.edu!umn.edu!csus.edu!netcom.com!dani
- From: dani@netcom.com (Dani Zweig)
- Subject: Re: The Great Selkie of Sule Skerrie
- Message-ID: <1992Dec29.205159.15497@netcom.com>
- Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest)
- References: <1gibdsINNphr@agate.berkeley.edu> <BETSYS.92Dec25230247@ra.cs.umb.edu> <1992Dec29.152733.9013@gssec.bt.co.uk>
- Date: Tue, 29 Dec 1992 20:51:59 GMT
- Lines: 24
-
- agauld@gssec.bt.co.uk (Alan Gauld):
- >And the version I have has the following last verse:
- >
- >And she has married a gunner good
- >And a gye good gunner so was he
- >And the very first shot that ever he fired
- >killed the son and the grey silkie
-
- I believe this is an add-on to the 1852 version. It's a virtual repeat
- of the preceeding verse, and it weakens its impact, but some singers
- insist on spelling everything out. There's yet another add-on verse
- that sometimes appears, in which the gunner brings home the silkie's
- locket or whatever, and the mother's heart then breaks into however
- many pieces fit the rhyme-scheme.
-
- Child refers to his version as a Shetland ballad whose spelling was
- 'Scotticized' for publication.
-
- -----
- Dani Zweig
- dani@netcom.com
-
- Roses red and violets blew
- and all the sweetest flowres that in the forrest grew -- Edmund Spenser
-