The Islands

(album: Jewel In The Crown - 1995)

We do not fear the long ships
We've seen long ships before
Men sailed here from the Northlands
And hauled their boats ashore

They brought with them their music
Their language and their lore
And they burned their boats and stayed here on the Islands

It's midday in the wintertime
Before the moon goes pale
The winter songs are very long
The storm winds and the gales

The midnightsun's as distant
As the calling of the whales
Till spring returns again to paint the Islands

The grey seals and the otter
The salmon and the char
The land locked and the sea trapped
The free birds in the air

The shepherd and the farmer
And all those in their care
Harmonize the music of the Islands

We never feared the long ships
Till the coming of the Braer
The roaring sea in anger threw
That broken boat ashore

Spilled fuel enough to take that ship
Twice round the world or more
Filled the air with oil to paint the Islands

As if the sea had realized
The tragedy in store
Its waves continued pounding
About a week or more

Most of the crude was washed away
And never came ashore
And the sea regained its temper round the Islands

So may this be a warning
To those whose faceless greed
Would sail close to our shoreline
To save both fuel and speed

The sea is our protector
Provider of our needs
And a jealous guard and keeper of these Islands