Kilkarkee Fair Ireland Ballad Faerie

Kilkarkee Fair.mp3

One day as I travelled to Kilkarkee Fair
I stopped in a town, I’m forgetting just where,
and there I set eyes on a lassie so fine
I swore on the instant that I’d make her mine.

She sat on the stones on the rim of a well,
and her spun-fire hair past her shoulders it fell.
Her statuesque face was tipped down to the ground
but her eyes they looked up until mine they had found.

I followed her out of the town to the wood,
yet I never could find just the place where she stood,
‘till I settled me down by a pool cool and clear,
exhausted and certain that she was not near.

Then softly and cat-like she stole from the trees
with a beauty so stunning I’d be brought to my knees
(had I not yet been sitting all lost in my dreams,
and watching new starlight spark watery gleams).

She bent down and kissed me and gave me her hand,
she promised me riches as prince of her land,
and soon did I learn that you never say nay
when you’re given a choice by the Queen of the Fey.

Seven years passed in the Court of the Faerie,
and in each passing year I grew ever more wary,
for only so long can a mortal be caught
in the weavings of moonbeams and magic and thought. Read more »