ballads were not early current in Orkney, a Scandinavian country; so it is very unlikely that the poem could have originated the name. The people know nothing beyond the traditional appellation of the spot, and they have no legend to tell. Spens is a Scottish, not a Scandinavian name. Is it, then, a forced conjecture, that the shipwreck took place off the iron bound coast of the northern islands, which did not then belong to the Crown of Scotland? ‘Half ower to Aberdour’ signifies nothing more than that the vessel went down half-way between Norway and the port of embarkation.” Influence The ballad fragment Hardyknute (1719), attributed to Elizabeth Halket, Lady Wardlaw, appears to draw phrases from a version of Sir Patrick Spens. Samuel Taylor Coleridge opens "Dejection: An Ode" quoting the old sailor's apprehension of the weather having seen "... the new Moon, With the old Moon in her arms". In The Old Seaport David Macbeth Moir cites Spens as an heroic seaman, mirrored in the men of Culross. In the 1903 Edinburgh: Picturesque Notes, Robert Louis Stevenson quotes the verse "O lang, lang may the ladies sit, Wi' their fans into their hand..." comparing them to the sailors' wives of Leith and the fisherwomen of Cockenzie "...crowding to the tail of the harbor with a shawl about their ears..." looking for the return of the boats. Herbert Howells: "Sir Patrick Spens", Op. 23 (1917) Louis MacNeice’s poem ‘’The North Sea’’ (1948) recounts a voyage to Norway and includes many references to Sir Patrick Spens. In Euphoria by author Lily King the lead characters Nell and Bankston, fictionalized versions of Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson recite part of the poem, alternating the opening lines, during a tense night encamped with a primitive tribe in New Guinea. Recordings Artists who have recorded musical versions of the ballad include: Buffy Sainte Marie on her album Little wheel spin and spin, released in 1966; Peter Bellamy on his 1982 album "The Maritime England Suite"; Ewan MacColl on several occasions; Fairport Convention on their 1970 album Full House, and with Sandy Denny in the reissue of Liege & Lief; Nic Jones on his 1970 album, Ballads and Songs; Jackie Leven on his 1997 album Fairytales For Hard Men; Martin Carthy on his 1998 album Signs of Life; John Roberts on his 2003 album Sea Fever, as well as a song derived from another