Alfar’s request for a sympathetic Viking song was one of the tougher commissions I’ve carried out. The tune of Turn Of A Friendly Card by the Alan Parsons Project, modified slightly, provided the method; the weekend of the William Marshall feast provided the opportunity; the company I was (perhaps ill-advisedly) keeping provided the motive.
A note on pronunciations: Jon the Prevert helped me out here; I believe Hedeby is /HED-uh-bee/, Bjarkoy is /BYAR-koy/, Sciringesheal is /skih-RING-gah-shall/ and Othere is /OH-thair-uh/. Anyone who has a grasp of medieval Icelandic is welcome to offer alternative advice, and I’ll try to fit it into the rhyme scheme.
[7 December 1998]
Down from Bjarkoy we ride on the slow-turning tide
With our skins and our beasts all for trading
In Sciringesheal port we will trade as we ought
No more need now for reeving and raiding.
And she’s not one to wave from the harbourside,
As we sail for the cold open sea
And I hope, while I’m gone, that her smile will shine on,
But I hope she’ll shed some tears for me.
We are Othere’s men, on the ocean again
Trading deer to the southlands for treasure.
All the brightest and best we will win, south and west,
All their jewels and their wine in full measure.
And she’s not one to vow she’ll be ever true,
‘Though I always we be so to she
And I hope, while I’m gone, that her smile will shine on,
But I hope she’ll shed some tears for me.
In a month and a week we will win what we seek
When our ship comes to Hedeby’s quarter
And our futures are made from the treasures we trade
For the life of the wind and the water
And my shipmates can dream of adventuring
But the only dream I know will be
That I hope, while I’m gone, that her smile will shine on,
But I hope she’ll shed some tears for me.