When I was small I laughed and played
In the fields and street of my home town,
And watched as men with heavy chests
And weapons to the boats went down.
My heart was with the farmer and smith,
For that small town was all I knew.
I could not ken why men would leave all this
To sail cold seas of blue.
And as I grew I noticed too
The gains and losses of the trade,
The silver coins of other lands
And the scars left by the blade.
And some of them did not return,
Their wives and children all wailed,
But this the rest of them did not deter
When the spring came again they sailed.
One day my father told me why
This world of mine was so,
He gave me an axe and a heavy shield
And said next year I'd go.
That year after chores in the evening
I trained, my father taught me all,
I felt no fear for any man
Though I was young and small.
Next year we sailed late in the spring,
My father bold and me a child,
We sailed into the Eastern sun,
To raid into the Sarkland wild.
Well I'm back from the East with silver and a scar
Five years I've been at sea.
Now I've come home to farm my land
And I've taken a woman to me.
The woman I loved was soft and fair,
I loved her more than me
Her skin was pale, her hair was black,
And that winter I never did see.
But sickness took her early in spring,
I mourned when it took her from me.
I never would another love,
So I gave my fate to the sea.
It's been twenty years I've sailed the wide world,
Father Thor must smile on me,
For I have killed three score of men
And taken their silver for me.
But a cowardly archer has laid me low,
An arrow he's given to me,
Though I his own life took from him,
I feel mine slipping from me.
Now I lay back against a rock
As my life ebbs away
And wonder if I'd farmed the land,
Would I be happy today?
The clouds this southern mountain pass,
In swirls and streaks they go,
And write the secrets of the world
In runes that I will never know.