The Great Silkie of Sule Skerry

Traditional song

"The Great Silkie of Sule Skerry" or "The Grey Selkie of Sule Skerry" is a traditional folk song from Orkney and Shetland. Sule skerry being a far flung island of the Orkney archipelago. A woman has her child taken away by its father, the great selkie of Sule Skerry which can transform from a seal into a human. The woman is fated to marry a gunner who will harpoon the selkie and their son. "The Great Silkie of Sule Skerry" is a short version from Shetland published in the 1850s and later listed as Child ballad number 113. "The Grey Selkie of Sule Skerry" is the title of the Orcadian texts, about twice in length. There is also a greatly embellished and expanded version of the ballad called "The Lady Odivere".

The original tune was preserved by Andersson, who heard it sung by John Sinclair on the island of Flotta, Orkney. 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 two years, he introduced the ballad to the Boston area at a time when "hootenannies" 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 Dobson. 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 Waters' 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. Folk Legacy reassigned all copyright interest to James Waters in August, 2012. American folksinger Pete Seeger set the poem I Come and Stand at Every Door by Turkish poet Nâzım Hikmet to Waters's tune for "The Great Silkie" in the early 1950s. In this version, the song takes the point of view of a child victim of atomic warfare.

Joan Baez recorded it as "Silkie" on her 1961 album Joan Baez, Vol. 2. Pete Seeger included his version of Hikmet's "I Come and Stand at Every Door" on a 1964 concert album, I Can See a New Day. The American rock band The Byrds included the Hikmet/Seeger version on their third album, Fifth Dimension (1966). The Seeger 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. The English folk rock band Trees included one variant, as "The Great Silkie", on The Garden of Jane Delawney, their debut album. Glasgow born folk singer Ray Fisher (1940–2011) included the song on her album The Bonny Birdy (1972). Her brother Archie Fisher has a version on his Orfeo (1970). Judy Collins included her version, "Great Selchie of Shule Skerry", on her 1962 album Golden Apples of the Sun. The Breton folk band Tri Yann also penned an adaptation in French called "Le Dauphin" (the dolphin) on their 1972 album Tri Yann an Naoned. The Highwaymen recorded this song twice, with two different versions. The first version was on their 1962 album Standing Room Only, and the second version was on their 2005 album The Water of Life. In 1981 Angelo Branduardi recorded this tune on his album Branduardi '81, with lyrics by Esenin. The song is titled "La cagna". In 2013 re recorded this tune (titled: "Silkie") with original lyrics adapted in Italian language, on his album Il Rovo E La Rosa. The Irish band Solas included one variant, "Grey Selchie", on their 1998 album The Words That Remain. A version appears on Maddy Prior's 1999 album Ravenchild. Alasdair Roberts included his version of "The Grey Silkie of Sule Skerry" on his CD You Need Not Braid Your Hair for Me: I Have Not Come A Wooing, released in 2005. Dave Bainbridge and Troy Donockley perform a version of the song on their 2005 album When Worlds Collide. The Breton singer Cécile Corbel recorded it on her album Songbook Vol.2 (2008). Steeleye Span recorded it as a hidden track on their 2009 album Cogs, Wheels and Lovers. In 2011 June Tabor recorded it on her album Ashore. English folk band The Unthanks perform a version of the song on their 2022 album 'Sorrows Away'.