A Bard's Telling

It's Hannah! Today I have a poem, or perhaps a legend or lore or ballad. I've been trying to think of the word for quite sometime. Perhaps an epic. For the past few days I've been calling it "A Bard's Telling".

It's dictated by Ohana Lost-tide, the scribe from this post, and tells the first part of the tale of the Dragon War (a battle in my second book).

korbox.deviantart.com

From coast to coast of the darkened land
The swords were passed from hand to hand
And ferry the news to hall and home
The devils are arrived to roam
To kill and crush and raze and burn 

A demon-king beast and blight of doom
Will raze the earth beneath our moon
Songs of mourning as warriors die
Mothers wail and children cry
Breaking of day, horrors to light 

As angers awaken
And fury will flame
For young children taken
The killers to blame

A righteous blood-wrath 
Will every face pass
For demons who dare
To darken our path 
As children of light
Lift eyes to the moon
And pray to the Lord
To save us from ruin

The heads of the family
Rise up to the call
To join with the thousands
To fire and to fall

Mothers and wives
Cling to husband and child
Songs of lamentation
Ascending and wild

Mingle with fading voices
Of men whose hearts burn
For a family to whom
They will never return

“So pull back the bows,
And let up a prayer,
Release bolts of death
Winging into the air.
Let’s summon our hearts
Unfailingly brave,
Remember our comrades
Who went to the grave.

“This is our land;
It was won by fair blood
Of our ancestors grand,
Long returned to the dust.
And these are our children;
They will not see death.
We will stand by to guard them
To our final breath.

“So pull back the bowstring,
And send up a cry,
To our faithful God,
That He won’t let us die.
And summon your hearts
Unfailingly brave,
Forget not your comrades
Who went to the grave.

“And these are our lives; 
They will not be controlled
But by king and by God,
And hearts cannot be sold.
And this is a home,
Ere protected with love.
If you steal it away,
You can bet there’ll be blood.

“So raise up the shields,
And raise up a shout,
With cries strung with victory
Let courage ring out,
And summon a song
Unfailingly brave,
To honor our comrades 
Who went to the grave.”


I've had a bit of practice doing poems, but this may very well be the first that I finished without a modicum of ridiculousness. I may later put on some of the others I've done, if I judge them not too gory or insanely strange (really, I've rewritten Clementine as a story about a gluttonous daughter of a rich guy in London).
This was heavily inspired by what I remember from reading Beowulf, and I was careful not to turn flippant, because, after all, it's an epic about a battle, and while battles are often told to be full of glory, they're definitely very frightful and devastating. I was also inspired to write a melancholy narrative-like poem by songs like Misty Mountains (I like Stephen J. Anderson and Shaun Canon's version), Tale of The Tongues, Age of Aggression, and Age of Oppression from Skyrim (look up Malukah's version on Youtube!). I actually have a recording of me singing the last part of the poem to the tune of Age of Aggression - or Age of Oppression, not sure which -that I am not going to put on here (so please don't ask, you'll be disappointed).

So what do you think? I seriously love comments and feedback. Just don't ask for aforementioned recording.


Sosrin God ignt eht ceallian,
(To God be the Glory)
Hannah

Book Recommendations - Beowulf

Beowulf 

by Unknown

Translated by Seamus Heaney

Beowulf, son Echtheow, spoke:
"Wise sir, do not grieve. It is always better
To avenge dear ones than to indulge in mourning
For every one of us, living in this world
Means waiting for our end. Let whoever can
Win glory before his death. When a warrior is gone,
That will be his best and only bulwark.
(lines 1384-1389)

Okay. 

First of all, I'd like to say that the previous book recommendations... however funny and interesting and involved those series are, they are basically fantasy fluff.

This is a really hard, deep book to read, and yes, I would recommend it. But it's one of the oldest manuscripts, and it was originally in Old English, a dead language. That means people can translate it and read it, but no one really speaks it any more to communicate. 

This book, translated by Seamus Heaney, is a bilingual edition - on the left hand side you have the Old English, on the right hand pages you have the modern English. It's really fascinating, seeing the comparisons between the languages. For instance, the equivalent of daughter is, if memory serves, dochter. See? And the introduction at the beginning is interesting too, talking about the history of Beowulf, what translating it meant, and how poetic Beowulf really is. 

Now, since this is such an old book, dated somewhere between the 8th and 11th century, it's not a terribly easy read, not at all, but in my opinion, if you can get through it, it is worth it. And if you've read Lord Of The Rings, The Hobbit, or The Inheritance Cycle, then you can really see the influence this story had on them. While he was still alive, J. R. R. Tolkien notably presented a lecture on Beowulf, and mentioned how it was among his most valued sources. And then there's Hrothgar, a main character in Beowulf, the one Christopher Paolini's dwarf king was named after.

When I first opened up Beowulf to read it, I saw the first lines:

So. the Spear-Danes in days gone by

And the kings who ruled them had courage and greatness.

We have heard of those princes' heroic campaigns.

And I just thought, "Wow. This is gonna be good."

And it was. A bit hard to get through, but still, I don't think I'll look back and think, "Oh, what a waste of time that was. Beowulf was useless. I could have done something else with my time." Which would be my opinion with some books.

There's my opinion on the book. Now a little bit about it. 

Beowulf is mainly a story about a hero of the Geats in Scandinavia. He hears about the plight of King Hrothgar, whose mead-hall is under attack by the monster Grendel. Beowulf takes several of his best men and sails to meet Hrothgar, pledging to defeat the monster or die trying. Hrothgar welcomes him into his hall and Beowulf makes ready to battle Grendel. 

I am not too great at synopses, am I?

In any case, I give it...

I'll say four stars. It was purty, purty good. Not the epic-est read-this-now-everybody-on-the-whole-world book, but worthwhile, I think, quite worthwhile.

Update: Oh, I forgot to mention. Yes, this was definitely written from a Christian viewpoint, for those of you who are concerned. But also I warn you, this gets a bit graphic in its descriptions, talking a little bit about bursting muscles and severed heads and bloody butchered corpses (Beowulf's words, not mine), so if you have a bit of a delicate constitution, you may not care to read it.

So the Geat People, his hearth companions,

Sorrowed for the lord who had been laid low,

They said that of all the kings upon the earth

He was the man most gracious and fair-minded,

Kindest to his people and keenest to win fame.

(closing lines 3178-3183)