Minstrel Tales - Fighting South of the Fellrev

Here is a poem about the Shield Landers and their fight against Iuz and the Horned Society.

Minstrel Tales - Fighting South of the Fellrev

Last Year we were fighting at the source of the Rittensa;
This year we are fighting on the road to Critwall.
We have washed our swords in the Nyr Dyv's blooded surf;
We have pastured our horses among the snows of the Barrens,


Holmer's armies have grown grey and old
Fighting so near but never home.
The Horned Ones have no trade but battle and carnage;
They have no fields or ploughlands,


But only wastes where white bones lie among yellow sands.
Where we Shieldlanders built a wall of swords to keep them away,
There, in his turn, Iuz lit beacons of war.
The beacons are always alight, fighting and marching never stop.


Men die in the field, slashing sword to sword;The horses of the conquered 
Neigh piteously to Ehlonna.
Crows and hawks peck for human guts,
Carry them in their beaks and hang them on branches of withered trees.


Captains and soldiers are smeared on the bushes and grass;
But the Horned Ones schemed in vain.
Know therefore that the sword is a powerful thing
Which the wise man uses freely when he must.

(Altered from Li Po "Fighting South of the Rampart"