Irish traditional song lyrics — collected by Beer Belly Band.
When I was a lad on the Emerald Isle
I heard many stories both lovely and wild
About the great dragons and monsters that be
That swallow the ships when they sail on the sea
Though I was an artist with canvas and paints
I sailed with St. Brendan and his jolly saints
We told the good people good-bye for a while
Chorus:
We sailed for St. Brendan’s Fair Isle, Fair Isle
We sailed for St. Brendan’s Fair Isle
We’d been on the ocean for ninety four days
We came to the spot where the sea was ablaze
Those demons from Hades were dancing with glee
And burning the sailors alive on the sea
Then St. Brendan walked on the blistering waves
He threw all the demons right back to their caves
And all of the saints wore a heavenly smile
One night while the brethren were lying asleep
A great dragon came up from under the deep
He thundered and lightened and made a great din
He awakened St. Brendan and all of his men
The dragon came up with his mouth opened wide
We threw in a cross and the dragon died
We skinned him and cooked and feasted awhile
At last we came unto a beautiful land
We all went ashore and we walked on the sand
We took our long bows and killed a Zebu
We roasted it up and had hot barbecue
And after awhile we were singing a song
We noticed the island was moving along
We ate and we drank and we rode in high style
Now Brendan said boys it is much to my wish
We ride on the back of the world’s biggest fish
Hold fast to the rope that is pulling the ship
We’ll need it someday if this fish take a dip
We sailed every ocean we sailed every sea
We sailed every spot that a sailor could be
In forty four days we sailed ten million miles