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Lady Franklin's Lament (E. Greenleaf & G. Mansfield) lyrics
See also: Franklin (Collected by MacEdward Leach)
We sailed away down Baffin Bay,
Where the nights and days were one;
And the Huskimaw in his skin canoe,
That was the only living soul.
The ice king came with his eyes aflame,
Perched on our noble crew;
And his chilly breath was cold as death,
It pierced our warm hearts through.
####.... Author unknown. A condensed variant of a 19th century British broadside ballad, Lady Franklin's Lament (The Sailor's Dream) [Laws K9] American Balladry From British Broadsides (G. Malcolm Laws, 1957). Also a variant of a 19th century British broadside ballad, Lady Franklin's Lament For Her Husband, published by J. Scott (Pittenweem); sold by J. Wood (Edinburgh) without a date, and archived at the Bodleian Library Broadside Ballads, shelfmark: Firth C.12(83) ....####
Sung in 1929 by Stephen John Lewis of Fleur de Lys, Newfoundland, and published in Ballads And Sea Songs Of Newfoundland, #151c on p.310 by Elisabeth Bristol Greenleaf and Grace Yarrow Mansfield (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1933; Folklore Associates, Hatboro, Pennsylvania, 1968).
A longer variant was collected in 1952 from Alphonse Sutton of Trepassey, NL, and published as Franklin in MacEdward Leach And The Songs Of Atlantic Canada © 2004 Memorial University of Newfoundland Folklore and Language Archive (MUNFLA).
