Song of the Sea: Myths, Tales, and Folklore

Patricia Morley is professor emerita of English and Canadian Studies at
Concordia University and an avid outdoor recreationist. She is the
author of several books, including The Mountain Is Moving: Japanese
Women’s Lives, Kurlek and Margaret Laurence: T

This unusual book by a writer born and raised in Lunenberg, Nova Scotia,
is a celebration of the endless mystery and fascination which the sea
exerts over all who know it. The work combines poetry and legend with
what those who live near the sea describe as “ghostly sea tales,”
where the voices of the drowned are heard by the living.

Mark Lang is the veteran illustrator of the magnificent linotype
engravings in The Forest Family (1999). Song of the Sea has just a few
fine black-and-white illustrations by this master engraver.

One of Ann Spencer’s many tales is her beautifully rendered version
of “Jonah and the Whale,” taken from the Book of Jonah 1:17 in the
Old Testament, which makes Jonah’s fantastic sojourn in the whale’s
belly seem real as well as symbolic. After being thrown out of the
whale, Jonah begs for God’s forgiveness for having tried to evade the
call to preach to the people of Ninevah, and goes there to speak “with
newly gained wisdom and compassion.”

Song of the Sea blends the wisdom of experience with a dramatic and
poetic voice that should appeal to a wide range of readers. Highly
recommended.