In Norway land there lived a maid,
“Hush, baloo lilllie,” this maid began,
“I know not where my bairn's father is
By land or sea does he travel in.”

It happened on a certain day
When this fair maid lay fast asleep
That in came a grey silkie
And sat him down at her bed feet.

Saying, “awake awake my fair pretty maid
For oh how sound as thou dost sleep,
I'll tell thee where your bairn's father is
He's lyin' close at your bed feet.”

“I am a man upon the land,
I am a silkie in the sea.
And when I'm far from every strand
My dwelling is in Sule Skerry.”

“Alas, alas this woeful fate
This weary fate that's laid on me,
That a man should come from the West o' Hoy
All to have a bairn by me.”

He said, “Ye'll nurse my little wee son
For seven long years upon your knee,
An at the end of seven long years
I'll come back again an pay the nouris fee.”

And she has nursed her little wee son
For seven long years upon her knee,
And at the end of seven long years
He's came back again with white money.

He said, “I'll put a chain round his neck
An a gey good chain it will be,
An if ever he comes to the Norway lands
Ye'll have a good guess of who is he.”

And he said, “Ye'll wed a gunner good,
And a gay good gunner it will be,
And he'll go out on a May mornin
He'll shoot your son and the grey silkie.”

Oh she has wed a gunner good
And a gay good gunner it was he,
And he went out on a May morning
He shot the son and the grey silkie.

“Alas, alas this woeful fate
This weary fate that's been laid on me,”
She sobbed and sighed and bitter cried
Her tender heart did brak in three.

A silkie is perhaps a mermaid.