i dont think ive really got much to add to this but ive really enjoed reading this thread - this song was one of the first songs i learnt compleatly off by heart from my mum when i was little and we still sing it together and argue about it a lot (a good sign!). she learnt it from a record and taught it to me but recently i found a few different versions in a book somewhere which were slightly different from the version we sang and also explained a few confusions (for instance my mum had always thought it wa 'a gonner good' rather than 'gunner good' and not quite understood what it meant)

anyway, another thing i noticed thats different between the version on the database and the version ive always sang is firstly that id always sung it as ' i am a man not on the land/ i am a silkie apon the sea' and then that there is an extra verse between verse 3 and 4 which goes 'it was na' well quoth the maiden fair/ is was na' well indeed quoth she/ that the great silkie of sule skerri/should come and aught a bairn by me' which i suppose explains a bit more about whether or not she'd go ahead and marry the gunner. im being a bit perdantic really arnt i! but i suppose im aloud to seeing as its one of my favorate songs....!

love ivy b*