Sword, thou mighty king Of battle’s ring,-- Sword thou mighty king! Fire! fire! steel, etc.
With the rainbow’s light Be thou bright,-- With the rainbow’s light! Fire! fire! steel, Oh! steel! Fire, fire! steel and fire! Oak! oak, earth and waves! Waves, oak, earth, and oak!
The good Lord Nann and his fair bride Were young when wedlock’s knot was tied-- Were young when death did them divide.
But yesterday that lady fair Two babes as white as snow did bear; A man-child and a girl they were.
“Now, say what is thy heart’s desire, For making me a man-child’s sire? ’Tis thine, whate’er thou may’st require,--
“What food soe’er thee lists to take, Meat of the woodcock from the lake, Meat of the wild deer from the brake.”
“Oh, the meat of the deer is dainty food! To eat thereof would do me good, But I grudge to send thee to the wood.”
The Lord of Nann, when this he heard, Hath gripp’d his oak spear with never a word; His bonny black horse he hath leap’d upon, And forth to the greenwood hath he gone.
By the skirts of the wood as he did go, He was ware of a hind as white as snow.
Oh, fast she ran, and fast he rode, That the earth it shook where his horse-hoofs trode.
Oh, fast he rode, and fast she ran, That the sweat to drop from his brow began--
That the sweat on his horse’s flank stood white; So he rode and rode till the fall o’ the night.
When he came to a stream that fed a lawn, Hard by the grot of a Corrigaun.
The grass grew thick by the streamlet’s brink, And he lighted down off his horse to drink.
The Corrigaun sat by the fountain fair, A-combing her long and yellow hair.
A-combing her hair with a comb of gold,-- (Not poor, I trow, are those maidens cold).--
“Now who’s the bold wight that dares come here To trouble my fairy fountain clear?
“Either thou straight shall wed with me, Or pine for four long years and three; Or dead in three days’ space shall be.”
“I will not wed with thee, I ween, For wedded man a year I’ve been;
“Nor yet for seven years will I pine, Nor die in three days for spell of thine;
“For spell of thine I will not die, But when it pleaseth God on high.
“But here, and now, I’d leave my life, Ere take a Corrigaun to wife.
“O mother, mother! for love of me, Now make my bed, and speedily, For I am sick as a man can be.