That Viking "Sea Shanty" (in Old Norse)
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- Опубликовано: 17 окт 2024
- A "sea shanty" from Egil's Saga is going around the internet. Here are the original words in Old Norse, a more contemporary translation, and some of the context behind the poem.
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Grimfrost presents a performance of this poem with Old Norse lyrics sung by Peter Franzén, composed by Einar Selvik and arranged and performed by Hindarfjäll: ruclips.net/video/8aveUs1o6e4/видео.html
I was about to link that video for you. I guess great minds think alike.
best version, thanks for pointing to it
And it's amazing.
Same as William I was gonna link their video to u
@@ronng21 onward to Valhalla my brother 🧨💥
A true Sea Shanty is a work song, when the crew is working together to keep rhythm. But it has been expanded to sailor songs in general. The verse is usually setup or tell the story, but the chorus is in a cadence to co-ordinate and preform the work, in many ways they are singing the action they are doing. In the great age of sail, sailors were out to sea long periods of time, so they would sing to entertain themselves off duty, as well. Spanish Ladies is an example of an entertainment song. Leave her Johnny Leave her is an example of a work song. The work songs have different types, dependent on the action. Leave Her Johnny Leave Her is a capstan song, which involves a circular motion. Where there are hauling songs which are more a linear motion.
This
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Furthermore, there are generally two different types of haul songs, long haul and short haul. Long haul songs, like Rio Grande and Blow the man down have slow pull and relax motions for long amounts of time, where short haul songs like Haul up the Bowline were shorter songs that focused more on the crew gaining power from everyone in shouting together to gain strength.
My wife and I sing sea shantys when we do housework. Really makes it easier! John kanaka is my favourite, though coming up with new verses for drunken sailor revolving around my energetic toddler is always fun.
Huuuuu ray and up she rises, huuuuuuu ray and up she rises. Eørlay in tha mornin
For anyone wandering, this is the original "My mother told me"
i had a feeling about that
makes sense
They even sing the old norse version in fifth season
@@osek64 it wasnt correct
Should be
"hit him in the brain"
How very saga-esque succinct of you.
It reminded me of the sickbed of cuchulain by the pogues.
Equivalent to 'stabbed him THROUGH the face'
Sea-shanties tend to be work-songs, to help sailors with getting a mutual rhythm for all the work they do. I would not be surprised if the Norse sailors of Egil's time sang shanties with similar themes to later mariners' songs: Alcohol, sex, dreams of home, money and so on.
That was going to be my comment! I always thought they were work songs while at sea.
sea shanties proper only really developed quite late; in the 19th century. Before that, crews on sailing vessels were small enough and had few enough jobs that required good timing that they weren't needed. That said, viking age ships had one major activity requiring good time keeping between many men, that was absent on age-of-sail ships, which is of course rowing. Whilst most media featuring large teams of rowers tends to show them being coordinated with a drum, it's certainly plausible that songs similar to those later used by packet ships were used on some ships, although these would later have died out (or at least migrated ashore) as rowing became a less and less important activity before disappearing entirely
@@tristanholderness4223 Thanks! The history of sailing is fascinating.
And whoever the equivalent figure was to the Jody of US Army cadences.
@@tristanholderness4223 I'm not so sure about this. I've rowed reconstructions of viking boats as well as 18th century ships longboats and bateaux, (colonial era wooden boats about the size of a small knarr, mostly used for lake travel/transport), and I really have to question how much breath people would have for singing while rowing a heavy boat, especially while trying to make any kind of speed.
The weird version comes from the Vikings tv show that people further changed with a ridiculous accent lol. When I was little, 25 years ago, my grandma would sing to me a similar song. “My mother once told me, she’d buy me a longship. A handsome oared vessel, to go sailing with Vikings. To stand at the stern post, and steer a fine warship. Then head back to harbor, and hew down some foe-men.”
The one from vikings aint so bad i think…but the other version that people singa in english and acapella, etc…its just sound weird and weak… idk..
@@Apiliar_bolapanas On Vikings it was two Finnish actors singing in Old Norse. I think it's Assassin's Creed that popularized an English translation that uses some odd lyrics.
@@RolfHartmann it was out before that game was released by several shanty and folk singers worldwide
@@RolfHartmann tbh i played more than 100 hours of assassins creed valhalla with all the DLC finished, and never once i hear the vikings singing this poem. The translated version is alrd out there before AC Valhalla, sung by various music group with modern touch.
I wouldn't call it weird, it's just different, more rythmic. I can't speak for the accents on the old nordic versions, but changing lyrics for translated songwriting is just part of the process to fit the sounds of other tongues.
The song Vikinger by Danheim has the poem as the lyrics!
thank you !!
NICE thank you, I knew I’d heard it somewhere
I totally did not know this but Danheim is one of my favorites. Thanks so much!
Its actually in the song "Skylda" not "Vikinger"
It might be in Vikinger too, but i wouldnt know since my brain shuts off after the danish chanting part
Doesn't the singer for that group work on the Vikings show as composer or something?
They sang this in Vikings tv show, it's forever cemented in my brain and I sing it when I'm hanging laundry on the line or kneading bread, or any other of the mundane tasks of home keeping
Could you tell me in which episode they did? I don’t really remember but I would love to hear it.
Thanks in advance, have a great week!
@@einarbaldr3159 various episodes, most of the times in English, but I can remember two instances in which it’s sang in Norse. Once Halfdan and Harald sing it to each other before they fight on opposite fronts alongside Björn and Ivar. And another time Ubbe sings it to the “monk” who calls himself Athelstan on while they’re stranded in the ocean - Ubbe’s accent isn’t exactly great tho.
LOL yeah I sing it all the time at work 🤣
@@einarbaldr3159 just search for it on youtube, there's several versions, in Norse and English
The actors in Vikings sing in several episodes
Look up my mother told me and you'll find the song in English
"A sea shanty, chantey, or chanty is a genre of traditional folk song that was once commonly sung as a work song to accompany rhythmical labor aboard large merchant sailing vessels. They were found mostly on British and other European ships, and some had roots in lore and legend."
Not unlike work-songs sung by men working on a chain-gang or some other arduous labor.
@@VredesStall And many on whaling ships, as were/are known all up and down the Eastern Seaboard coast of the US, wherever the old whaling communities were... and also, where some of the old speak endures (such as, saying "yuh", or "ah-yuh" for "yes", or using "wicked" as an adjectival modifier, as in "wicked fast", for example). :)
Im very sad that work somgs aren't really a thing anymore
Yes for the most part, work songs, such as Bound for South Australia. However some were quite scurrilous and scatological in their subject matter, such as Drunken Sailor or The North Atlantic Squadron.
The French, I hate to admit (not really), have some amazing shanties.
I love your Guest near the end, who gave his rendition of his idea of a "sea shanty"! Bravo to the both of you! (Now, to discover the talented person who can create a sea shanty in Old Norse from Egil's Saga!)
I believe sea shanties were partly used to keep rhythm for tasks that required stuff to be done at the same time on a ship. Much easier to sing a song than to yell "ok, 3-2-1-PULL!" all the time.
Yep. Similar to the old work songs on the plantations which also have their call and response nature to them...
Also the military has them for PT runs, marches, etc
As a U.S. Merchant Marine Captain (and musician), you've literally struck a chord in my wheelhouse. Sea shanties are work songs that deliver a rhythm to the crew aboard a sailing vessel that allowed them to work together to haul lines, set sails, etc. First commonly used on British verssels, and then later European and American ships as well, the songs were often based on folk tales of the sea. Some notable examples of sea shanties that people might recognize are "(What Shall We Do With A) Drunken Sailor" and "The Irish Rover." Today, shanties have risen in popularity due largely to the rise in popularity of anything to do with pirates in movies and modern pop culture. I would not classify Egil's poem as a sea shanty, even in its current popular form, as it lacks the rhythmic pattern of men working in unison, either with sails or oars. It's still an enjoyable piece of oral art, but it's not really a shanty.
i'm really glad the internet had the shanty fever hit not too long ago, now all the songs i sing, people recognize instead of just thinking i'm crazy. i'm fond of "rolling down to old maui", "sugar in the hold", and "Santiano".
The show Vikings is what made this song popular, Harold and Halfdan sing it. It's not a shanty, but it can be sung to a tempo. There are plenty of versions of it on RUclips and Spotify.
@@brandonriggle3860 Yes, I think everyone knows that. My comment was about the current popularity of shanties in general, not thiis poem turned into a song.
@@ThorgrimThorvaldsson ah, gotcha
I think that whether or not it's a shanty is in the arrangement, and not in the text. I've listened to various interpretations of this, but they're all working from the same original. A bit of poetic license and a simple melody and you've got a saltwater work song to help you pull your oars.
The Danish band "Krauka" actually made a version using the original Old Norse lyrics. Check it out, it's called "Egils Digt" (Egil's Poem).
I've always thought of this one as more of a nursery rhyme or something - a child's wish for a grand adventure when he comes of age.
It was sung in that sort of format on the TV show "vikings", (first time I'd heard it that way anyway).
But at the moment, it's a song that sends my daughter to sleep. So for me at the moment.... Ill let the lyrical inaccuracies slide.
Egil Skallagrimsson deserves the credit for this. May his memory live forever
As a native speaker of Swedish, this is what I understand: That said my mother [at?] me owe buy [fley?] and beautiful oars. Go away with vikings, stand up straight, steer dear ship, hold so until harbors, stab man and other.
Edit: I may have wrongly assumed that "skyldi" meant Swedish "skyldig" (be indebted towards), but now I realize via others' understanding/translation that Google translates "skyldi" from Icelandic to Swedish as "ska" (will) and to English as "should". Or was I right after all? That someone SHOULD buy something could be seen as a sort of duty or debt to do so. Maybe my first understanding is actually correct after all. Besides, Google Translates is hardly a fully dependable translator. Thus, I left it as "owe".
At mer = att män, fley = segel?, hoggva = hugga?
Not easy, words change meaning over the centuries.
@@ZackeTheBrute You seem to have guessed wrong on "mér". Google Translate from Icelandic says "mig" (Swedish) or "me" (English). Swedish "hugga", yes! (Can also be confirmed: "Old Norse hǫggva, from Proto-Germanic hawwaną. Cognate with Danish hugge, Swedish hugga.") Good try!
Då mälde min moder
Att mig skulle köpas
Skepp och fagra åror
Fara bort med vikingar
Stå upp i stäven
Styra dyra knarren
Lägga an i hamnar
Hugga var och annan man
@@jacobnordin7183 Your translation to Swedish made me think again. (Thanks!) See comments in connection of what I thought I understood it to be. However, your use of "mälde" isn't any Swedish I have ever seen. Is it old Swedish, or in use in some Swedish dialect? It's logical, and I immediately understand it. After all we have the Swedish word "lågmäld" ("low spoken" = speaking with a low volume voice). I'm very interested in how "skyldi" should be translated. I assumed Swedish "skyldig" (indebted towards), but you write "skulle" (should), agreeing with Google from Icelandic to English, but Icelandic to Swedish said "skall" (shall). Since if someone "should" do something, that could perhaps be seen as a duty or debt to do something, if so confirming "skyldi" to be a cognate with Swedish "skyldig".
@@syntaxerror8955 "mälde" is the past tense of "mäla" which is still in use in Swedish today but it is very archaic. It means to speak or to hold a speech, which survives in words like tungomål, anmälan, and lågmäld, as you suggest, etc.
I simply chose "skyldi" as it is the past tense of "skulu", which is old norse for "skall". The declension for "skuld" I think would have been "skyldugr", which is quite different. It also makes more sense to have a verb in that position. But I agree with you in that the roots for "skuld" and "ska" are cognate since "ska" goes back to proto-germanic "skulana", which means to "owe" or "to be obliged to", and "skulle" is still used in Swedish today carrying the same meaning in the proper context.
This poem was sung in the Vikings TV show, and although I consider this show as a whole to be a cruel crime commited to the detriment of historical realism in TV, I think they did a decent job with it, it made a pretty cool impression and they didn't even butcher the pronunciation that much - I mean you could spot some mistakes and imperfections, but the mere fact that it sounds like they tried to use a reconstructed medieval pronunciation is a pleasant surprise.
This is actually really cool, I’ve been listening to a version called my mother told me for months and I knew some of its origins, but this is really cool to hear it in its original state and its actual translation thank you for posting this
We are actually singing this in Old Norse as part of our Bardic circle I'm a part of. Thank you for sharing this and confirming that this is the original poem and translation. I'm excited to share this video with the group.
Saltatio Mortis did use Norse in their version of "My mother told me"
Just a perfect coincidence, a German band called Saltatio Mortis released a version of this song just recently, last week I believe. It contains the English "My mother told me someday I would buy a galley with good oars, sail to distant shores," However it uses that as a "refrain" (?)(Sorry I don't know my music terminology) and uses Old Norse as the "verses." They have two verses however, so I don't know where they got the second. The first certainly sounds like the poem you recited, albeit with slightly different pronunciation. Definitely check it out, the band is amazing and deserves the views!
Always happy to see a new Jackson Crawford video. Thanks for all you do.
Think "What Do You Do With a Drunken Sailor" that's a sea shanty. Love ~ a sailor :)
Thank you for yet another interesting video! The last part was beyond adorable.
Loved this vid. I’ve been singing this peom for 4 years now and I never actually sought to discover it’s true origins. Thank you Dr. Crawford.
I so hoped to hear you sing 😉 thank you for this!
Just randomly stumbled upon this video tonight, only to realize I just bought one of the books you advertised and that you wrote it. I take it as a sign that good things to come
Now thats my idea of a 'shanty"!
Learning about the runes while at the same time witnessing stunning scenery in Colo!
Thank You!
Respectfully, Stephanie Sprague
Hiya!
A Sea Chantey is a type of work song particular to the early 19th C. that uses a regular rhythm and repeating chorus to help sailors coordinate work. The great bulk of the 'modern' canon is largely the creation of African-American worksong rhythms meeting with Anglo-Irish lyrics, although there are many places where the original words come through.
I'm not saying medieval Norse sailors did not use work songs, just that;
1) Chantey is an anachronistic term used to describe it retroactively, &
2) that poem, as recited, does not appear to have a regular enough pattern to offer any help in coordinating work. It is impossible to know for sure without a medieval tune that it was sung to, but the lack of any (documented) part that repeats seems to point away from such a use.
Sure, sailors sang songs for fun, and there is a common misconception that that's what chaniteys are, but they're not.
Thanks for the solid scholarship though! Always enjoy your calm rationalism.
See youtube channel "SaltyWalt" , or "Salty Walt and the Rattlin' Ratlines".
My family absolutley loves Wind River and WY. It's just too far from the Lone Star State to visit often. Thanks for the great location vid!
I listened to the group SKÁLD playing their song “Pat Maelti Min Modir,” from their 2021 album, Winter Songs. Is seems they follow the precise original Norse language version presented here. I’m new to this channel and conversation, so maybe someone already noted this in the comments. Thank you, Dr. Crawford, for sharing your incredible expertise and insights.
Thank you for this video. It helped me learn the poem in Old Norse. My pronunciation still needs work but you're videos have been instrumental in helping me learn.
From a small RUclipsr in the swamps of Florida and with much love to you all remember when it comes to faith "There's no one true way".
I love that I knew the song you were talking about once I saw the Modern English translation 😂😂😂
My favorite shanty has always been What Shall We Do with a Drunken Sailor.
So basically “my mother told me”? Awesome
It is "My Mother Told Me". Whoever created the shanty got it from the "Saga of the Icelanders" which he was reading from.
@@8mmkyle865 awesome
I love that song you're taking about. I have two versions on my ipod, but THANK YOU SO MUCH for giving us the original!
I wanted to tell you as a lit major that they probably chose the translation they did because it more closely matched the cadence of the original than the contemporary English translation. This is phenomenal though, thank you for sharing!
I could NOT have made it through my day without the smile your guests at the end gave me 🥰
HAHA I loved the end. But yeah I thought the lyrics to the version that has been going around made no sense as they first mention buying a Galley, a ship type not used by the Norse in the Viking Age, and then steering a Barque, a ship another ship that was used well after the Viking Age. While the Galley style of ship was used during the Viking Age, the Galley was a ship used on the Mediterranean its earlier life span. While a Longship and Galley are very similar in that they both are primarily man powered with sails for favorable winds, they are not the same. A Barque is more like your typical "Golden Age" of sailing style ship, a big 3 or more masted ship relying solely on its many sails for power. I understand "Longship" doesn't really fit the song but it is the proper ship, also there was other sub classes of Longship like a Karve and Knarr. With a little tweaking of the song Karve would fit in both mentions of a ship. although Karves were really only used for rivers and coastal waters, not sea or channel crossings, the Knarr which was a merchant vessel would be better at that as it was a Norse cargo ship used during the Norse expansion.
Bob is a legend!
"Did you hear that in Rawlins?" roflol! As a Wyomingite, that made my day! Thank you for the history!
This video was randomly recomended for me, and I dont really know what I'm doing here, but your voice is very handsome, have a good day!
Greetings from Denmark.
Just completed "The Poetic Edda" i enjoyed your rendition of it.
Some comments, but i would recommend it, nice work.
Great video to brighten up my day, wishing you all the best Jackson Crawford!
HI Bob! Hi Suzanne! Bob! That was wonderful! I remember that song! Wow those are old synapsis rubbing together man! Thank you!
The gentleman gave a great description of what a sea shanty is, cracked me up when he said, "Well idk, google it!" Lol. This is a lovely video, but he was the best thing about it ❤️
That dude at the end reciting the shanty gave you the best possible answer and example lol.
I think the translation and better knowledge of the background to this poem makes it that much cooler!
“Where did you learn that in Rawlins?” I’m dyinggggg 😂😂😂 anyone from Wyoming should appreciate that
I came for a song sung in norse, but that guy singing that guy singing that silly shanty in the end was genuine!
@Jackson Crawford what do you think of Colm McGuiness's old Norse cover of the song
That ending clip was delightful
A sea shanty is a song either meant to pass the time or to time the rhythm of seafaring tasks like pulling the line for sails, or breaking down a whale carcass for sailors out at sea, and pulling the oars in gallied ships. They kept morale high and increased the efficiency of tasks aboard the ship by giving the crew a central beat to follow. Notable examples include “the drunken sailor,” “dead horse,” and “the wellerman’s song.”
The "my mother told me" part reminded me of the shanty they sang in the TV show Vikings (which we know is wholly historically accurate...)
That is the exact shanty this video is about. The song being sung in Vikings is based on this poem
I learned a couple of big things from this video, 1st: One of my favorite songs comes from a Poem in the Saga of Skalla-Grimssonar. 2nd: One of my favorite youtubers might have his name sake from that same Saga.
Haha that was a great performance at the end!
Thank you so much sir. I have been trying so hard to find this lullaby.
That ending was unexpected but very much appreciated! Didn't expect to hear the old gentleman sing for us. XD
But yeah, sea shanties are usually work songs to keep a certain rhythm (and keep the sailors from going nuts maybe) and likely to keep the morale and mood on a good level. But nowadays right about anything that sounds 'old'/medieval based on text or instruments used will be called a sea shanty...darn kids and their habit of turning anything into an 'umbrella term' even when it shouldn't be. :/
The german metal band Saltatio Mortis have also made a version of this song (based on the one from the Vikings TV series), that uses the original norse verses. They released it about 12 days before you posted this video :P
I have never thumbs up so hard before, the shanty at the end is worth gold
My mother told me, seems a well crafted adaptation of the original, true to the spirit of the original.
I read some of your nynorsk translations on Heimskringla. Good stuff
Egil certainly lived up to his promise. I remember a scene from Egil's Saga, which I read many years ago in the Penguin edition (I don't have the book here to check). I recall that Egil and his companions were crossing some mountains in Norway at night and in winter. They spied the lights of a farmstead through the trees in the distance. They were cold and tired, so they continued on to their destination until Egil rebuked them for their moral failings: "Let's go back to the farmstead and act the warrior's part: kill everyone we can get our hands on and grab all the loot we can carry."
I’m Swedish, and I’ve got to say that you’re a whole lot better at Old Norse than I am, but I did know what a Sea Shanty is 😁
When I visited Iceland 2 years ago I met a rapper named Erpur Eyvindarsson (a legend!) by chance and he sung me this poem to a tune right there at the bar table 🤣
That was beautiful! All of it was absolutely beautiful! Thank you!
Dude…that guy at then end needs his own channel. I would totally subscribe.
I admit, I love that song. It was great to hear the story behind it.
Thanks for the bit at the end, now I know who I want to be when I get older.
This is absolutely one of my favorites of the sagas, and was before it became popular. I just don't know how it recently became popular. Like, I know it was on Vikings before, but that was a few years ago.
3:25
Thank you Bob, that just made my day! 😄
He actually answered a question I had last year so Thank you!
This was really interesting! Thanks for telling us the story behind it and it’s true form.
You’re doing a great Edward Snowden-played-by -Joseph-Gordon-Levitt impression
Omg your pronunciation is just 👨🍳💋 chef kiss. I love the way of Norse sounds! Somehow I feel like it makes any man sound instantly 10× more masculine lol 😅
love this. thank you for this video. I wish I could speak like you, but I find the rolling of the rrrrs so hard.
If anyone is wondering the group Voiceplay has a variant of the contemporary English version of this poem in song form called "My Mother Told Me" that is quite good.
Sean Dagher has an excellent channel where he sings many old Sea Shanties. He often provides various translations and explanations for the lyrics, and gives some historical background for some songs.
You probably already know this, but, the song is My Mother Told Me from the Assassin's Creed Valhalla soundtrack
And here I thought it came from the show Vikings which was inspired by this "poem" here.
The islandic version is also on YT and is called Egils Digt.
Egil's saga is my absolute favourite! Still have my old Penguin copy. Sea Shanties: Work songs with different cadences tailored to each different shipboard task.
Uncle Bob and Aunt Suzanne are just the best!! Love them Xoxox
I loved that “he hit him in the brain *slight pause* with an axe”
A sea shanty is typically a song that work was done to. Many times they’d literally sing about what they were doing.
One of my favorites is “on the railroad” because it’s an outlier because it’s a train song, it speeds up its rhythm each verse like a train picking up speed.
Love the translation videos so much!
LOL! I am that guy, and actually wikipediaed sea shanty a few years ago due to Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag. These days basically any song about sailing or the sea can count. Traditionally, though, a sea shanty seems to have been a call and response style song used to coordinate the cooperative work of multiple men on a ship such as pulling up an anchor. The supervisor would call, and then the men would exert themselves while singing the response so that the effort was timed together. It seems possible that this sort of use of song may have originated with slaves working on docks and ships in the US as the first reference to the term referred to slaves operating a cottonjack (a device to compress cotton in a ship’s hold) in Mobile Bay singing as they worked, and this sort of call and response song is common in traditional African music.
The theme to Gilligan's Island is a pretty straightforward example of a sea shanty.
Bob and Suzanne are my favourite people now
Thank you, Bob and Suzanne
That song at the end had me cracking up! Also when he said "go to Wikipedia"🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
What will we do with a drunken sailor?
What will we do with a drunken sailor?
What will we do with a drunken sailor?
Early in the morning!
Way hay and up she rises
Way hay and up she rises
Way hay and up she rises
Early in the morning!
Shave his belly with a rusty razor
Shave his belly with a rusty razor
Shave his belly with a rusty razor
Early in the morning!
Keel haul until he's sober,
Keel haul until he's sober,
Keel haul until he's sober early in the morning...
Put him in the longboat 'till he's sober!
Put him in the scuppers with the hose-pipe on him!
Give him a hair of the dog that bit him!
Put him in bed with the captain's daughter!
Heave him by the leg in a running bowline!
Tie him to the taffrail when she's yardarm under!
That's what to do with a drunken sailor!
Also a sea shanty is a song that is sung by Mariner workers to make the work a bit less strenuous and the time at sea go by quicker.
The US Navy song "Anchors Aweigh" is actually a good example of a sea shanty.
i dont know why i keep watching his videos at 3am but its hella interesting
Egil was a beast, the axe story is where Vikings got it from for Ivar when he is young playing with the children when floki is teaching him
"They are chant songs... I don't know... Google them!" lol
Just in case no one quite knows what he's talking about, he's referring to the song that (in popular rendition) goes like this:
My mother told me/
Someday I would buy/
Galley with good oars/
Sail to distant shores/
Stand upon the prow/
Noble barque I steer/
Steady course to the haven/
Hew many foe-men/
I love your videos I wish you would put the norse words with the English rendition beneath them so I may better learn what each word means as I tend to replay your videos many times trying to learn the words
Saltatio mortis has a pretty decent version with the icelandic in it.
Sea shanties bring out the best in family. Lol! Love the modern translation. Thanks for your continued work! 💜
So to answer the question. Sea shanties are work songs with a specific rhythm for specific work. Their categorized by the job they were sung during, so a capstan shanty is one sung while pushing the capstan (big wheel that hoists anchor, requires a bunch of guys pushing). Theres a guy called the shantyman, who sings solo verses and keeps time, and the rest sing the refrain to keep in step together. The glorious piece sung at the end there is a more modern song, more like a showtune. This might have been written by the royal navy, but doesn’t really match the structure of traditional shanties. Also, wind river is beautiful.
There's a little difference between a chanty (or shanty) and a basic sailor's song. Chanties were generally strongly cadenced like "Blow the Man Down," "Drunken Sailor" or "Leaver 'er Johnny, Leave 'er." Chanties were often composed to provide a working rhythm for pulling lines, weighing the anchor and other jobs where teams had to work in synchrony. "Haul away Joe" is a good example where "haul" occurs in the lyrics right where the team should pull.
They have a short shanty song in the tv series "Vikings" on Hulu which may have been an interpretation of this poem. I see many people talking about it in the comments so here's the lyrics:
"-"=slight pause
My mother told me - someday I will buy - galley with good oars - sail to distant shores -- Stand up on the prow - noble barque I steer - steady course to the haven - hew many foe men - hew many foe men.
Repeat x1