LL-L "Etymology" 2006.04.14 (01) [E]

Fri Apr 14 15:35:22 UTC 2006

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14 April 2006 * Volume 01
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From: Global Moose Translations <globalmoose at t-online.de>
Subject: LL-L "Etymology" 2006.04.13 (06) [E]

Dave Singleton wrote:
>On the skerry side didn't the Gaelic have a song about Schule Skerry (hope
>that's right) about merfolk who changed fron seals to people and back
>gain  --- 

This is actually a Francis J. Child ballad; the story originated in the 
Orkney Islands.

The Great Silkie of Sule Skerry

An earthly nourris sits and sings
And aye she sings, "Ba lily wean!
Little ken I of my bairnie's father,
Far less the land that he staps in."

Then in steps he to her bedside
And a gromly guest I'm sure was he
Sang Here am I, thy bairnie's father
Although I be not comely."

"I am a man upon the land,
and I am a silkie in the sea,
And when I'm far and far frae land,
my home it is in Sule Skerry."

"It wasnae weel," quoth the maiden fair,
"It wasnae weel, indeed," quoth she,
"That the Great Silkie from Sule Skerry
Should have come and wrought a bairn on me."

Now he has ta'en a purse of gold,
And he has placed it on her knee,
Saying, "Give to me my wee young son,
And take this gold as thy nourris fee."

"It shall come to pass, on a summer's day,
When the sun shines hot on every stone,
That I will take my wee young son
And teach him for to swim the foam."

"And thou shalt marry a proud gunner,
And a proud gunner I'm sure he'll be,
And the very first shot that e'er he shoots,
He'll kill both my young son and me."

"Alas, Alas, the maiden cried
This weary fate's been laid for me
And then she said, and then she said,
I'll bury me in Sule Skerry."

I have always been very particular to stories of silkies, or selkies, 
because I could relate so well to the story of the selkie girl who marries a 
human after he managed to find and hide her seal skin, and she cannot return 
to the sea until she finds it.

This was very much like my situation when I was stranded in the USA for 
years, unable to return home to Europe because of a lengthy custody fight 
for my youngest daughter. When, during that time, I found true love in a 
place where no-one had ever thought to look, I told him that I was really a 
selkie, and warned him that some day, I would turn back into a seal and 
return to my ocean home along with my three daughters, probably leaving him 
heartbroken.

Well, the time finally came, and what happened was that he gathered all his 
courage and leaped right in after us, turning into a seal himself, leaving 
everything behind and never looking back...

Gabriele Kahn

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From: Paul Finlow-Bates <wolf_thunder51 at yahoo.co.uk>
Subject: LL-L "Etymology" 2006.04.13 (03) [E]

  From: Heather Rendall
  Subject: LL-L "Etymology" 2006.04.12 (04) [E]

  Message text written by INTERNET:lowlands-l at LOWLANDS-L.NET

  Ben asks: >Skerry? I've never seen that spelling. Is it archaic or
  something?

  A set of rocks off Anglesey are known as the Skerries. This name must be
  the same, surely?

  Heather
I've often heard rocks of this type referred to as "skerries".  In the 
English Midlands, beds of sandstone (often water-bearing) in the marls and 
mudstones of the Mercia Mudstone Group that forms a wide belt across central 
England, are also called "skerries".

Paul Finlow-Bates

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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Etymology

David (Barrow), you wrote:

> I think you may be confusing  'sheer' with 'shear'

And I responded:

> Hmmm ....  I don't think so.  Here's one of  the meanings of "sheer"
> (adj/adv) given by the _OED_:
>
> <quote>
>
> 9. a. Of a descent or ascent, the face of a wall, cliff, etc.: Continued
> perpendicularly or very steeply down or up without break or halting-place.
> </quote>
>
> Hence, you say things like "sheer cliff" and "sheer rock face."  In 
> writing,
> this is attested only as far back as 1800 ("And climbing up the hill(it 
> was
> at least Four roods of sheer ascent)" Wordsworth; "This lake,..whose
> barriers drear Are precipices sharp and sheer," Scott. 1815).

Having said all that, I hasten to add that I think it's possible that this 
"sheer" started as misspelled "shear."

On the other hand, "shear" is a verb, and an adjectival form would thus have 
to be a particial form: "sheared" (> *<sheard>).

I still think that it's really <sheer> also in the sense of "precipitous," 
possibly related to "sheer" in the sense of "pure," "bare," > "utter" *> 
"clear and simple" > "unmitigated" *> "sudden," "abrupt" (versus "gradual"). 
So you can say things like "sheer nonsense," "sheer truth" and "sheer drop 
(e.g., of a rock formation)."

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron 

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