60 - Maid Upon the Mountain

Words by © Roary Skaista and Jack Pritchard
Tune by © Roary Skaista and Jack Pritchard

Written as part of an 'Access Folk' workshop run by Roary Skaista in February 2025. This song takes its inspiration from the practice of witches selling knotted strings to sailors. The knots were said to contain the wind, and by untying a knot the sailor could control the weather.

Green: voice 1
Blue: voice 2
Purple: both

In my bag there is a knot
I made upon the mountain
In it there’s a winter gale
To make the topsails fill
I can better steer a ship
Than any man alive can
Or unknot a hurricane –
Blow this old world away

Or unknot a hurricane
To blow this world away

What brings you to this sad place
O Maid upon the mountain?
I have come to wind the wind
In knots upon a string
Take it down to Castle Town
And sell the winds to sailors
Gentle breeze or flowing gale
Or storm in the unwinding

Gentle breeze or flowing gale
To blow this world away

I will carve an Irish flute
To take the breath of sailors
Sound the airs through tropic air
A thousand miles away
I will craft breath to a song
of maids upon a mountain
Fill the lungs of sailor men
Who travel far from home

Fill the lungs of sailor men
To blow this world away

We have always plied this trade
We maids upon the mountain
We have always tied these knots
To hold the winter gales
Have you ever wondered why
Some sails fill when seas are still?
We weave knots of power
And we weave them with the wind

We weave knots of power
To blow this world away