Mackerel of the Sea - Steeleye Span

When I was seven year old

My dear mother did die

My father married the worst woman

The world did ever see

She turned me to a loathsome worm

To lie at the foot of the tree

My sister Maisery she made

The mackerel of the sea

This father stood on the shore

And hearing sore complaint

And wondered at the laily moan

And questioned what it meant

Sing on your song you laily worm

That you now sing to me

For my two children hav been gone

This many year from me

Evry Saturday at noon

The mackerel comes to me

Changed back to my sister

The Lady Maisery

And she takes my laily head

And lays it on her knee

And combs it with a silver comb

To wash it in the sea

Seven knights I have slain

As I lay at the foot of the tree

And if you weren’t my own father

The eighth one you would be

For it was your own wife

Tied me to the foot of the tree

And turned the lovely Maisery

To the mackerel of the sea

The father sent for his own wife

As fast as send could he

Where is the son you sent from me

And my daughter Maisery?

Why cry out so loudly

And try to worry me?

Your son is at our king’s court

Serving for meat and fee

And your daughter at our queen’s court

Learning courtesy

You lie, you lie, you ill woman

So loud I hear you lie

My son is the loathsome worm

That lies at the foot of the tree

And my daughter Maisery

She is the mackerel of the sea

Every Saturday at noon

The mackerel comes to me

Changed back to my sister

The Lady Maisery

And she takes my laily head

And lays it on her knee

And combs it with a silver comb

To wash it in the sea

She has taken a silver wand

And gave him strokes three

The worm became the bravest knight

That ever your eyes did see

She has taken a golden horn

Loud and shrill she blew

And all the fish soon swam to her

But not the mackrel of the sea

You shaped me once an unseemly shape

You’ll never more shape me

And away she swam from that cold shore

And was lost forever

Every Saturday at noon

The mackerel comes to me

Changed back to my sister

The Lady Maisery

And she takes my laily head

And lays it on her knee

And combs it with a silver comb

To wash it in the sea