Ballads and Performances
-- verses by Koin Faeysdatter the Busker
An Ode for Lady Wanton Destruction
--- by Koin Faeysdatter
In dream he wandered young and lost, alone
When sudden glimmered warrior bright
Translucent, bathed in morning light
Black and long shone the banner of her hair
Flashed eyes wild green and skin so fair
Smiled, “Join me” and whispered low
“This wondrous land to ye I'll show.”
Said, “Here is mystery and magic lore,”
Glanced at him and turned her head.
In her hand she held a gleaming sword
Razor sharp, heavy fired claidmore blade
Her prize possession, Meta made.
Tall she seemed and strong, born Giant-kin,
Bright hero of noble quest, to honor given.
Took his hand and then she spoke,
“These lands have in magic grown
Because of those who call them home.”
Sighed, “there is more than winning here,
Much more than spells that we invoke
Or the deeds and power we hold so dear.”
And in her eye there brimmed a tear.
Laid her ghostly hand upon his eyes
And touched his dreaming mind with awe.
As with the fenvoaks he thought they flew
O'r distant mountains of ragged hue
And heaving ocean, sparkling blue.
Caves of treasure hidden deep, where
Danger hungers in shadowed maw.
O'r frozen Ice Mule and Ta'Illistim fair,
Thus this land with him she shared.
Then she vanished in morning sun.
Dazzled, he was alone where he'd begun
Or so he thought. Yet to the empty air
he cried, “Oh Lady, who are ye and what thy name?”
And on the gentle breeze he fleeting heard,
“I was Wanton.” It seemed but the wind's refrain.
And he to the wind replied, “How can I repay?”
“Do this for another,” soft the answer came.
Now stilled thy generous heart so bold.
Yet wanton breezes sighing bring
What thy mortal form no more can hold.
Thy breath, breathes here, is home.
Is heard in joyous laughter on the storm
and on this air we hear thee sing,
A song that does this land enfold.
Wanton Destruction, it is thee we mourn.
Too brief the seasons ye had of life to live,
to walk these dreaming lands of magic born,
to ride these winds wild harmony.
But remains thy heart's present certainty
That we are naught but what we give.
We kiss thee sweet in memory,
We kiss thee sweet in memory.
And remains thy heart's present certainty
that we are naught but what we give.
The Paladin
--- performed Aspis Bardfest 5102
Koin says, "I have chosen the Lord Voln as the topic of my composition for this years Bardfest."
Koin says, "I was disappointed to find that there are very few accurate and detailed historical references on the Lord Voln or even very much recorded about his early life. Much seems to have been lost at the end of our ice age. I studied what few scrolls I could find and I was at last directed to an essay by the Lord Delyorik entitled "The Tragedy of Voln." I found his personal viewpoint very helpful."
Koin carefully checks the strings of her lute, plucking them lightly and adjusting the tension until the sound is perfectly pitched.
Koin says, "I have entitled my entry to this years Bardfest "The Paladin." Then she lifts her small felwood lute and begins a somber ballad, notes follow one another like dreamers wending a stately dance in a dark dream. Suddenly Koin stops playing and once again she addresses the audience. "What I really wanted was to write a song for Voln the man, whom, as I discovered, ever more surely, is well but little known. He was a real person whose life was defined by the intentions of the gods. "
Koin says, "I had hoped to learn who Lord Voln had been, how he had lived his life, what kind of a person he had been."
Koin smiles again and hesitates, studying the audience. "I did not learn much except that he was very driven and that he suffered for the privilege of being of being god got and fated.
(Koin strikes an opening chord and sings, her bright voice lifts over the resonant sound of her little felwood lute.)
With a somber expression, Koin begins playing a melancholy theme.
Koin sings:
"Stillness rules the lofty silent hall,and silvered starlight
Dances there with shadow, shining envoy from the end of night.
Bright as distant suns Koar sits, brooding, ancient and alone
His hand never moves from where it lies on richly carven throne.
Appeared one day Lorminstra at his side. "Father, it is time"
She sternly said, "Give me now what ye did promise to be mine.""
Koin bridges her song into a new key, taking it to new heights of intensity.
Koin sings:
"Koar sighed, "Daughter, truly knowest what ye ask of me?
This weapon born, is double edged, to slice the wet from sea,
To rend our dreams from sleep, and cut away the veil.
Bound to fight in honors name is this seeker of the grail
To kill what undead lives and carve away the angry power
That waits outside our failing gates to seize upon the hour."
The quiet strains of Koin's lugubrious melody evoke memories of cloudy autumn days and now-quiet battlegrounds.
Koin sings:
"But ware my fair and zealous child what ye want is strange,
None may know the price or what will finally be exchanged.
Against the dark and for the light stands this long promised one
But in danger is the balance and this falls far beyond the known.
Daughter do not fail to fear what this birth will cut away
And what be in the course of time at last allowed to stay."
Koin accentuates her song with emphatic strums, adding to the intensity.
Koin sings:
"Lorminstra thoughtful watched as shadow dodged the light,
Then smiling shook her head. "Koar, now the time is right"
She said, "long the die's been cast. So give me now my sword,
To cleanse the away the growing taint, to aide me in my war.
Father, I see that evil walks the land but none can e'n begin
To fight or even stand against this force, but one, my Paladin.""
Under Koin's skilled fingers the song takes on a questioning tone, as if wondering why tragedy must cast its shadow on life and light.
(Koin shifts into a minor key. Her fingers fly over the strings of her lute coaxing a simple stately melody from it. Taking a deep breath, she sings again.)
Koin sings:
"Lorminstra's season overlays the land and heavy blown,
So deep the snow in tangled wood where no star ever shone.
Here fallen lies, faithful still but reft of more to give
An ancient horse and a woman who, kneeling, begs him yet to live.
Then standing leans and listens, her breath a frozen cloud
And waits to hear her doom rend the darkness' silent shroud. "
Koin plucks her instrument's lower strings, adding a driving bass foundation to the melody.
Koin sings:
"Harsh it comes and splits the sky, a jagged shrieking sound,
A hunting cry, fel dark is the chant of Luukos' undead hounds.
Gone now the wasteful pallid hope that she might happy birth
Her child, to hold him safely in her arms, all her love ungirth.
There is no weapon in her hand but from a dead and blasted tree
She breaks a stave and bravely waits for what at last must be."
Koin makes a dramatic change in the song's dynamics, sweeping from soft to loud in a sharp crescendo then back into the middle ranges.
Koin sings:
"Close now she hears the running hungry feet of undead death.
Nearer, closer still is her life's last, sweet, hopeless breath.
She weeps and prays and knows that no god sees or cares or waits
That she might in darkness fall, or to save her from this dreadful fate.
Still she prays to live and for the soon born child she carries
Then turning fights till red on white, blood and snow do marry."
Koin sweeps the music upward in a swelling crescendo of vibrant harmony.
Koin sings:
"As from a distant place bright a growing light does shine.
A woman tall and fair reaches out and does so soft entwine
The comfort of her gentle fingers with the dying mother's hand.
And before that one last ragged breath does in her chest expand,
From dark danger's raging maw they are swift and sudden gone
To green and peaceful valley and sweet morning's careless song."
Koin modulates the harmony into higher ranges, leaving the lower tones of the funereal main theme to wander in their dark, mournful journey.
Koin sings:
"At last the living child is born and laid so welcome home
In his fair young mother's arms, and the goddess named him Voln.
But the mother only smiled and gave her solemn babe a kiss.
And died, and dying never knew her firstborn kept a promise
Pledged and never broken, to Lorminstra by her father Koar.
The destroyer Voln, his immortal son to fight the Unlife war. "
Koin deliberately strums an unhurried theme, letting each chord hang in the air for a time before striking another.
Koin sings:
"Lorminstra wrapped and to her breast the babe she gentle held.
But glanced sadly at his mother, who lay so recent felled,
The maid in death so still and spent, Koar's tool to make a son.
Young this tender red-faced babe, to be the goddess' weapon honed,
Soon forged in rage of fire and tempered hard in rain's salt kin,
Torn from all who's love might save, Great Lorminstra's Paladin."
With a final slow chord, Koin allows the notes to hang in the air for a time before their final demise into silence.
Koin places her hand on her fel lute.
Koin smiles as she lowers her lute and and takes a deep breath and gazes solemnly at the audience.
Koin slowly empties her lungs.
Koin smiles and bows deeply.