DOVER, ENGLAND: SEPTEMBER 1594
(THE RECOLLECTIONS OF A WAR-WEARY MARINER)
MEMORIES OF DEATH AND LIFE
For countless thousands of centuries I have walked the earth
I have seen endless battle,
And untold centuries of slaughter
I am reborn once more!
The same grim spirit once again given flesh
O' to be ravished by the seductress death
The Scion of the Storms:
Dethroned 'ere Atlantis fell, haunted by a dark queen's curse,
My son's soul shackled by this spell of endless death and grim rebirth
Fly, o' skyborne steed of Lyonesse, ride the tempest's wings,
I am the scion of the vengeful skies, a god to warriors and kings!
REFLECTIONS ON LIFETIMES OF CARNAGE:
I have been slain by Roman gladius,
And by Norman spear dealt a mortal wound,
The threads of my ensorcelled destiny
Endlessly woven on some unknown cosmic loom
I have lost my life to longbow shafts
Fighting for the English crown,
And mayhap I'll end this mariner's life
A good three score fathoms down!
I marched with vast armies 'ere gleaming Atlantis
sank beneath the waves
I reddened my blade against Caesar's legions long ago
I stood beside Boudicca at Colchester
I dealt honed steel death from the ranks of Arthur Pendragon
I slew and looted gloriously at Lindisfarne
I slaked my scramasax at Maldon
I crossed blades with Brian Boru at Clontarf
I slaughtered left and right with Harold at Hastings
I dispatched Norman swordsmen with Robin of Loxley
I wielded a Claymore at Stirling Bridge
I was in the thick of the fray beside Henry at Agincourt
I spilled blood for the White Rose at Bosworth Field
I captained a galleon against the great Armada of Philip II
I have witnessed the rise of corrupt religions,
but my heathen blade was red countless centuries
before their flaccid laws were ever carved in stone
They call me the Scourge of Medina Sedonia
my ship sails at dawn, and may our English steel ring
gloriously against the cutlasses of the outlander pirates!
have written for me in the stars
but the gods have decreed that this is the path I must follow,
and I am sure that my adventures are far from over