Irish folklore maintains fairies are no strangers to kidnapping mortals, with the ethereal beings often replacing mortal infants with changelings and snatching human women to serve as nurses for their fairy babies.[1] In his poem, “The Fairy Nurse,” Edward Walsh explores the myth of these abducted nannies.
Sweet babe! a golden cradle holds thee,
And soft the snow-white fleece enfolds thee;
In airy bower I’ll watch thy sleeping,
Where branchy trees to the breeze are sweeping.
Shuheen, sho, lulo lo!
When mothers languish broken-hearted,
When young wives are from husbands parted,
Ah! little think the keeners lonely,
They weep some time-worn fairy only.
Shuheen, sho, lulo lo!
Within our magic halls of brightness,
Trips many a foot of snowy whiteness;
Stolen maidens, queens of fairy -
And kings and chiefs a sluagh-shee airy.
Shuheen, sho, lulo lo!
Rest thee, babe! I love thee dearly,
And as thy mortal mother nearly;
Ours is the swiftest steed and proudest,
That moves where the tramp of the host is loudest.
Shuheen, sho, lulo lo!
Rest thee, babe! for soon thy slumbers
Shall flee at the magic koelshie’s numbers
In airy bower I’ll watch thy sleeping,
Where branchy trees to the breeze are sweeping.
Shuheen, sho, lulo lo![2]
Works Referenced
“Changelings, Fairy-Men, and Fairy-Women.” Haverty’s Irish-American Illustrated Almanac. New York: P.M. Haverty, 1892. 93-97.
Walsh, Edward. “The Fairy Nurse.” The Popular Poets and Poetry of Ireland and Choice Selections in Prose from the Works of Famous Irish Writers and Orators. Ed. Richard Nagle. Boston, MA: Richard Nagle, 1887. 408-409.
____________________
[1] “Changelings, Fairy-Men, and Fairy-Women,” 94.
[2] Walsh, 408-409.
No comments:
Post a Comment