OLD PAPA VARDIS

(Tune: "The Silkie")

Old Papa Vardis sits and sings
And softly sings "You crazy loon,
'T is little I know of your father
But I hope he comes to claim you soon.

For he came one night to my humble inn
Where I worked alone to earn my pay
With a child disowned by his mother's kin
Saying 'Raise my son in the human way.'

And now you've grown up strong and fair
And I love you as though you were mine own
But I know they mock your braided hair
Your star-filled eyes and skin like bone.

And Trader and Cloak will bid you stray
And tempt you to things best left undone
And I fear for my life on that far-off day
When the alien king shall claim his son."

Old Papa Vardis sits and sings
And softly sings "You crazy loon,
'T is little I know of your father
But I hope he comes to claim you soon."