Bal-Sagoth - When Rides The Scion Of The Storms

(Music: Jonny Maudling; Lyric: Byron) (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.