I wrote but the lyrics and music to this. It’s been very popular at bardic circles. For some reason, the chords won’t stay in the right place. Generally they switch at the beginning and end of each line

The Selkie’s Son (By C.A. Sanders/ Drustan of Old Stonebridges

Am C

By ten Jack knew what his mother was

F Am

By how she wept on the shore

C F Am Em

The women’s cruel jokes and the sealskin cloak

Am G Am

That his father always wore

She couldn’t say it but Jack understood

what she pleaded for him to take

For a Selkie wife is a prisoner for life

take the cloak for mother’s sake

(chorus)

C Am

Lord curse the father that bound her

C F

Lord curse the swell of the sea

C Em

Lord curse poor Jack, the Selkie’s son

Am G Am

That waits for her patiently

She wrapped herself in the sealskin cloak

On his forehead she left a cool kiss

Light a lantern, my Jack, Someday I’ll swim back

Then she dove through the waves and the mist

The Selkie’s son was driven from home

his father raged, betrayed

Shaking from cold only ten years old

Living the choice that he made

Chorus

For fifty years he waited for her

to return when the lantern light shone

But time kills a plea, memories bleed

and loneliness crushes the bone

At times Jack dreams he sails the waves

and into the ocean he dives

and mother saves him, but her promises

like dreams, were just pretty lies

Chorus

But what would you do if you were her son

and you saw her eyes wet with tears?

And her every day was chained like a slave

and bound to a brute all her years

The Selkie’s son knew the answer

As his eyes dimmed at last lantern’s light

though at times he cried and cursed her lie

he knew at the end he was right

When they cast his body into the sea

A shadow was waiting for him

The seal left a kiss on his forehead

He sank to his fate with a grin