The Ballad of Eskimo Nell (Roud 10124) is a bawdy rhymed poem or song that recounts the tale of Deadeye Dick, his accomplice Mexican Pete and a woman they meet on their travels, named Eskimo Nell. The ballad makes frequent use of body-related terminology, with humorous consequences.
Contents
Traditional words
There are multiple variations of the poem and some stanzas are left out of certain versions, but the basic narrative structure remains constant. It details the adventures of the generously endowed Deadeye Dick and his gunslinging sidekick Mexican Pete. Fed up with their sex life at Dead Man's Creek, they travel to the Rio Grande. There they visit a whore-house, but before Dick has finished with two out of the 40 whores, they are confronted by Eskimo Nell. She is described as something of a sexual champion, and challenges Dick to satisfy her. Dick accepts but Nell's skill and power soon gets the better of him and he climaxes prematurely. Pete attempts to avenge his friend's disappointment by sticking his gun into Nell's vagina and firing all six rounds, but all this achieves is to bring Nell to her own orgasm. She chides the pair for their poor performance and expresses nostalgia for her home in the frozen North, where the men apparently have better staying power. Dick and Pete return to Dead Man's Creek, their pride severely dented.
The opening lines (in one version) are:
Other stanzas:
The closing stanza echoes the opening:
Origin and history
This is a folk poem with no known author. It is in the style of Robert Service, the writer best known for his writings of the Canadian North, in particular of his poem "The Shooting of Dan McGrew". As with all traditional poems and songs, there is variation between the texts. It was geographically widespread by 1940 or earlier; It appeared in bawdy songbooks compiled by university students in South Africa in the 1940s and is referenced by name in the novella The Mathematics of Magic, published in 1940 by authors in New York City. Nell has been the subject of serious research and differences of interpretation have been recorded.
One tradition is that the poem was written by Noël Coward in the style of Robert Service's Yukon ballads. This is recounted by John Masters in his historical novel By the Green of the Spring. Masters tells of Coward's first performance of the poem in a Paris nightclub in August 1919. He includes four stanzas from the poem, which differ somewhat from those above.
Nell in print and record
Owing to its bawdy nature, the poem has generally been passed on by word of mouth or in manuscript from one generation to another. There are a few published versions.
Nell on the internet
At least four versions of Eskimo Nell can be found on the internet. Of these, the last claims to be based on five distinct versions and credits the Mudcat Café.