Thanks, Joe! That's incredibly helpful and beautiful. I would sure enjoy getting my hands on one of those original LPs some day. The links you provided bring more depth to the record for me. Here are some relevant passages from the liner notes:

From my mother's people, I think, I was given
that all things were always equal.
Though it might never appear so, all things
had equal weight: flowers, mountains, water,
wind, life and death and men and animals.
And that it wasn't so important what you were
But how you filled other things.

The Eskimo said that, in the old days,
the earth was filled with a presence called Sila.
The goodness in all things, the order between them,
and so, peace.
But, long ago, Sila began to draw itself together
and leave the lands and seas of men,
far and away to some remote corner of the sky.

[Indicating that these stories might be ancestral in nature from Gordon Bok's family on his mother's side. Seems to confirm my guess that Hadjanek could be a First Peoples legend]

Hadjenek was a man, then, and he lived in
the cold land, waiting for his people to come
and take him home.
He was not a good man; he tried to be,
but he was all alone.
But he had seen the woman Djiril,
and he wanted her.
He tried to make her come to him;
he didn't know she was a seal.

....

And, later, there is some good commentary by Bok on the meaning of the legend of Hadjanek and Djiril.


Hey robomatic, always a pleasure to know there's other Bok fans out there. If I did not love his recordings so, I would tire of spelling his name and spieling what kind of music he makes (still haven't nailed down a good way to describe it). I am going to tell Hadjanek at a community potluck tonight. Wish me luck!