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The Laily Worm and the Mackerel of the Sea

[ Roud 3968 ; Child 36 ; Ballad Index C036 ; Mudcat 103201 ; trad.]

James Kinsley: The Oxford Book of Ballads

Roger Nicholson sang The Laily Worm and the Mackerel of the Sea in 1972 on his Trailer album Nonesuch for Dulcimer.

Spriguns sang Laily Worm in 1976 on their Decca album Revel Weird and Wild.

Jim and Lynette Eldon sang The Laidly Worm in 1997 on their eponymous CD Jim & Lynnette Eldon.

Graham and Eileen Pratt sang Laily Worm on their 1997 album Borders of the Ocean. They noted:

The dark tale of a wicked stepmother, a maneating serpent, his fishy sister and their gullible dad—and an unforgiving lot they are too! From the singing of Mike amp; Jacquey Gabriel, who influenced us greatly in our early Cheltenham days with their exciting approach to harmony.

Craig Morgan Robson sang The Laily Worm on their 2005 album Peppers & Tomatoes. This track was also included in 2007 on the WildGoose anthology Songs of Witchcraft and Magic. The latter album’s booklet commented:

This song has a number of elements in common with Alison Cross, although the general tone is very different. Interestingly, the witch here is the wicked stepmother who appears in folktales like Snow White and Cinderella.

As in Alison Cross, the young man is transformed into a serpent, but his sister is turned into a mackerel. This reference to a mackerel as a magical fish is unusual, although it is tempting to see a connection with the salmon, a symbol of wisdom in Celtic mythology. Both are fast-swimming and very beautiful silver fish. Silver (associated with the moon) is an important feature of this song.

Also important are the magical numbers three and seven. Three is linked with the phases of the moon (waxing, full and waning), and with time (past, present and future). There are trinities of gods in many religious systems. Seven may represent the sun, the moon and the five planets (those known before the invention of the telescope), as astrology has always played an important part in magic.

James Raynard sang The Loathsome Worm and the Mackerel of the Sea in 2005 too on his One Little Indian album Strange Histories. This track was also included in 2006 on the Sheffield anthology Forged in Sheffield. He noted:

As far as I know the text in Child is the only collected version of The Loathsome (or Laily) Worm and the Mackerel of the Sea, and there are bits missing in that. It’s probably part of some older and larger story or song. When a knight returns home from long battles abroad, he’s in for a big surprise. He is understandably shocked and outraged when he learns that in his absence his wife has transformed his children, her stepchildren, into a fish and a giant man-eating serpent. I needed to write some extra material of my own to patch a few holes in the narrative. The tune is An Italian Rant again from John Playford’s Dancing Master.

Kate Fletcher sang The Laily Worm and the Machrel of the Sea on her and Corwen Broch’s 2017 CD Fishe or Fowle. They noted:

This ballad (Child #36) has no known tune so we have borrowed one from a Danish magical transformation ballad called Nattergalen (Nightingale). The tune was collected by Evald Tang Kristensen in 1907 from a clogmaker called Christen Sørensen Thomaskjær. We omitted the last grim verse which tells us the stepmother is burnt at the stake in a fire of gorse and hawthorn.

Steeleye Span sang Mackerel of the Sea in 2019 on their 50^th anniversary album, Est’d 1969. They noted:

This is Child Ballad 36, a song which he describes as “mutilated and defaced”, but pure tradition. Much reading of ballads makes you fill in, mentally, missing parts, but here we’ve attempted to make the story clearer, and in our usual way put tunes to it of our own devising.

Worms, serpents and dragons are sometimes interchangeable and there are many stories from around the world where characters are shape shifted into these loathsome creatures. Alison Gross, another ballad we have sung, takes revenge on a lover’s rejection by turning him into a worm, but she also has the ability to change him back again and the similarity will be why Child has placed these ballads next to each other in his collection. But ballads, like fairy tales, are not driven by the need for happy endings and, if they intend to teach about life, then ballad similarities may be suggesting options of different outcomes.

Lyrics

Graham and Eileen Pratt sing Laily Worm

When I was seven year old,
My mother she did die;
My father married the worst woman
That ever your eyes did see.

And she has made me the Laily worm
That lies at the foot of the tree;
And my sister, Lady Maisery,
Made the mackerel of the sea.

And every Saturday at noon,
The mackerel comes to me,
And combs my hair with a silver comb
And washes in the sea.

It’s seven lords that I have slain
All at the foot of the tree;
If you were not my father,
The eighth one you should be.

The Lord sent for his lady gay
As fast as send can be;
Oh where’s my son that you sent from me
And my daughter, Maisery?

Your son is at the king’s court
Serving for meat and fee;
Your daughter’s at the queen’s court,
A maiden sweet and free.

You lie, you lie, you ill woman!
So loud I hear you lie!
For my son he is the Laily worm
That lies at the foot of the tree.

And she has taken the Laily worm
And given him strokes three.
He started up the bravest knight
That ever your eyes did see.

You lie, you lie, you ill woman!
So loud I hear you lie!
For my daughter, Lady Maisery,
Is the mackerel of the sea.

And she has taken a silver horn
And loud and shrill blew she;
And ne’er a mackerel came to her,
But the Lady Maisery.

My brother you made the Laily worm
And the mackerel you made me;
You shaped me once an unseemly shape,
But you’ll never more shape me!

And he has sent to the woods,
For whins and for hawthorn;
And he has taken his lady gay –
And there he did her burn.

Craig, Morgan, Robson sing The Laily Worm

“Oh I was scarcely seven year old
When my mother she did die;
And my father married the worst woman
That lived twixt the land and the sky.

“For she’s turned me into the laily worm,
That lies at the foot of the tree,
And my sister Maisry she has turned
To the mackerel of the sea.

“And every Saturday at noon
The mackerel comes to me,
And she does takes my laily head
And lays it on her knee.

“Yes, she does takes my laily head
And lays it on her knee,
And combs it with a silver comb
And washes it in the sea.”

“Sing on, sing on, you laily worm,
That song you sang to me!”
“Oh, I ne’er before could sing that song
Till I would it sing to thee.

“For seven brave knights have I slain here,
Since I lay at the foot of the tree,
An if you were not my own father,
The eight one you should be.”

And he has sent for his gay lady
As fast as send could he,
Saying, “Where is my son that you sent from me,
And my daughter, Lady Maisry?”

“Oh your son is at the king’s high court,
Serving for meat and fee,
And your daughter is at the queen’s high court,
A maiden sweet and free.”

“Oh you lie, you lie, you ill woman!
So loud you lie!” said he,
“For my son he is the laily worm
That lies at the foot of the tree!

“Oh you lie, you lie, you ill woman!
So loud you lie!” said he,
“For my daughter Maisry you have turned
To the mackerel of the sea!”

Then she took up a silver wand
And struck him three times three,
And that worm became the bravest knight
That e’er your eyes did see.

And she took up a silver horn
And blew it over the sea,
And all the fish came to her,
Save the proud mackerel of the sea.

Then up and spoke the proud mackerel,
The mackerel of the sea,
“You’ve changed me once from my own shape—
Now no more I’ll be changed by thee!”

Then this lord he has sent to the merry greenwood
For hawthorn and for whin,
And they have built a good bonfire
To burn his lady in.

Steeleye Span sings Mackerel of the Sea

When I was seven year old
My mother did die,
My father married the worst woman
The world did ever see.

She turned me to a loathsome worm
To lie at the foot of the tree,
My sister Maisery she made
The mackerel of the sea.

This father stood on the shore
And hearing sore complaint,
And wondered at the laily moan
And questioned what it meant.

“Sing on your song you laily worm
That you now sing to me,
For my two children have been gone
This many year from me.”

Chorus:
Every Saturday at noon
The mackerel comes to me,
Changed back to my sister,
The Lady Maisery.
And she takes my laily head
And lays it on her knee,
And combs it with a silver comb
To wash it in the sea.

“Seven knights I have slain
As I lay at the foot of the tree,
And if you weren’t my own father
The eighth one you would be.

“For it was your own wife
Tied me to the foot of the tree,
And turned the lovely Maisery
To the mackerel of the sea.”

The father sent for his own wife
As fast as send could he,
“Where is the son you sent from me
And my daughter, Maisery?”

“Why cry out so loudly
And try to worry me?
Your son is at our king’s court
Serving for meat and fee.
And your daughter, at our queen’s court
Learning courtesy.”

“You lie, you lie, you ill woman"
So loud I hear you lie!
My son he is the loathsome worm
That lies at the foot of the tree,
And my daughter Maisery
Is the mackerel of the sea.”

(Chorus)

She has taken a silver wand
And she gave him strokes three,
The worm became the bravest knight
That ever your eyes did see.

She has taken a golden horn
Loud and shrill she blew,
And all the fish soon swam to her
But not the mackerel of the sea.

“You shaped me once, an unseemly shape,
You’ll never more shape me!”
And away she swam from that cold shore
And was lost forever.

(Chorus)