Strongbow
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Image via Pexels.
This being the tale of Kailan Strongbow, who ventured from his homeland and won fame in battle, and who is remembered in story and in song.
Attend and listen to the one wise in word-craft,
As I speak of the far-famed Strongbow,
Tell the tale of dauntless Kailan,
Brave in battle, bold in deed.
Though far from home, a hero.
A lion in far-off lands, across the wide waters,
A wolf among his foemen, fierce and daring,
And an oak, tall in the forest, fearless of axes
Golden in glory won in warfare.
So they sing the fame of Kailan Strongbow,
Finest of warriors ever seen on western seas.
By doom driven, Raven-Woman’s rune,
Kailan turned eastward to find fortune.
First he came to grey Sasana, where rain is cold,
Boldly ventured, a thane of Cerdic, throne to win him.
Then came the hour when swords were shining,
Amid the clamour of arms, and men dying.
Like the scythe at summer’s end,
When the tall corn grows golden
Ripened for reaping at the hour of harvest,
Kailan, fared forward, dauntless of danger.
None withstood him, wrathful in battle:
Like flames flaring across the stubble
When the harvest has ended as autumn comes.
Strongbow’s arrows flew, fell like thunder.
Cerdic conquered, and Kailan with him.
Wealth and riches, rings and gold, Cerdic heaped before him,
And a strong sword he girt upon him.
So Kailan parted from grey Sasana,
Where the rain is cold, when Cerdic reigned.
To find fortune and win glory,
In lands that lay far from his homeland.
Far Kailan trod in the years that followed
Over sea and under heaven, to distant deserts.
Pathless years carried him to earth’s extremest reaches:
He rode with lords of horsemen, their long hair flowing,
Brave and valiant keeping vigil upon their borders.
He held iron tomes of long-dead sages, mighty secrets
Borne from tombs beneath trackless deserts.
He passed through the gate of the strong-built city
Where a king commands kings from his halls of purple.
Then he tarried in golden lands where summer is ceaseless.
Much he dared, and much ventured,
’Til Kailan Strongbow came homeward from many battles.
Joel Balkovec
Usually, Joel writes funny blurbs about himself, but he’s worried that would ruin the grandeur and mystique of his poetry. … What do you mean, “he just did”?
Well, anyways, check out the family-friendly Fantasy stories he’s written as J.B. Norman and his website at www.realmgard.com.
