"Saint Brendan and the Whale" from a 15th-century manuscript,
edited by Charles Ipcar.
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"Saint Brendan and the Whale" from a 15th-century manuscript,
edited by Charles Ipcar.
Chorus:
We sailed for Saint Brendan's fair isle, fair isle,
We sailed for Saint Brendan's fair isle.
When I was a lad on the Emerald Isle,
I was told many stories both lovely and wild;
About the great dragons and monsters that be,
That swallowed the ships as they sailed on the sea;
'Tho I was an artist with canvas and paints,
I sailed with Saint Brendan and his jolly saints;
We told our dear friends, "Goodbye for a while!"
We sailed for Saint Brendan's fair isle, fair isle,
We sailed for Saint Brendan's fair isle.
We had not been sailing but ninety-four days,
When we came to a spot where the sea was ablaze;
Them demons from Hell was dancing with glee,
And burning the sailors alive on the sea;
Saint Brendan strode forth on the simmering waves;
He drove all them demons right back to their caves,
And all of them saints beamed a heavenly smile,
We sailed for Saint Brendan's fair isle, fair isle,
We sailed for Saint Brendan's fair isle.
One night while the brethren were lying asleep,
A great dragon rose, up from the deep;
He thundered and lightninged and made a great din;
He awoken Saint Brendan and all of our men;
That dragon he charged with his mouth open wide;
We threw in a cross and the great dragon died;
We skinned him, we cooked him, and feasted awhile,
We sailed for Saint Brendan's fair isle, fair isle,
We sailed for Saint Brendan's fair isle.
At last we drew near that beautiful land;
We all rowed ashore and walked on the sand;
We took up our longbows and killed a Zebu;
We roasted it up, had hot barbecue,
And then while we were singing this song,
We noticed the island was moving along;
We ate and we drank and we rode in high style,
We sailed for Saint Brendan's fair isle, fair isle,
We sailed for Saint Brendan's fair isle.
Now Brendan he said, "This is just what I wish!
We ride on the back of the world's biggest fish!
Hold fast to the rope that is towing our ship,
We'll need it someday if this fish takes a dip!"
We sailed every ocean, we sailed every sea,
We sailed every spot that a sailor could be.
In forty-four days we sailed ten million miles!
We sailed for Saint Brendan's fair isle, fair isle,
We sailed for Saint Brendan's fair isle, fair isle,
We sailed for Saint Brendan's fair isle.