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Published below for the first time the full text of our new ballad "Hereward The Wake."
SPOKEN INTRO…
Twilight in the
greenwood, is Hereward awake?
Grey and ghostly
shadows are gliding through the brake,
Shadows of the dappled
deer, dreaming of the morn,
Dreaming of a hooded
man that winds a shadowy horn.
HARP MUSIC STARTS
In the Lincoln greenwood,
In the Bruneswald,
Yellow-haired, sky-eyed,
Great-hearted and bold,
For the soul of England;
For your own spirit's sake,
Lift your heart and voice up
For Hereward the Wake!
A wild swan, a curlew,
A fen-son, a tiger;
His high blood-tide exiled
By Edward the Confessor.
Performs magic deeds
In Cornwall and Ireland;
Fights fearless and feared
For Flanders, his wife-land.
Family home 'Normaned'
With his brother's severed head;
Returns, puts the murderers'
14 heads there instead.
In the Lincoln
greenwood,
In the Bruneswald,
Yellow-haired,
sky-eyed,
Great-hearted and
bold,
For the soul of England;
For your own spirit's
sake,
Lift your heart and
voice up
For Hereward the Wake!
As free as the waters
That flow through the fen,
As the wide heaven-skies
In the eyes of good men,
To the Saxon Abbot
Of Ely he speeds;
Lords, with King Sweyn of Denmark,
Its marsh, mere and reeds.
Raids Peterborough Abbey,
Frees God's Saxon gold
From the thief-Norman grip
Of the tyrant monk Turold.
In the Lincoln
greenwood,
In the Bruneswald,
Yellow-haired,
sky-eyed,
Great-hearted and
bold,
For the soul of England;
For your own spirit's
sake,
Lift your heart and
voice up
For Hereward the Wake!
From the Normans learns war,
From Flems love, bonds with Danes
But when King Sweyn makes peace,
Stays true to the thanes.
With Saxon Earl Morca
Defends Ely Isle
Fights war-craft and witch-fire
With fire, bow and guile.
The Norman machine
Cannot conquer that fastness;
Greed's causeway sinks
In full armour and harness.
In the Lincoln
greenwood,
In the Bruneswald,
Yellow-haired,
sky-eyed,
Great-hearted and
bold,
For the soul of
England;
For your own spirit's
sake,
Lift your heart and
voice up
For Hereward the Wake!
His wood-spirit leaves-drops
The Conqueror's hush-biz
Then is gone like a breeze
Through the secret rushes.
Though our monks will give up,
Afraid for their lands,
Their arms and his paths,
He will slip through their hands.
As free as the waters
That flow through the fens,
As the wide heaven-skies
In the eyes of good men.
In the Lincoln
greenwood,
In the Bruneswald,
Yellow-haired,
sky-eyed,
Great-hearted and
bold,
For the soul of
England;
For your own spirit's
sake,
Lift your heart and
voice up
For Hereward the Wake!
© Gareth Calway 2017
This celebration of Hereward is folk duo Waywood's latest. The world premiere as performed by the poet with harpist Vanessa Wood-Davies' latest melody was performed at Hereward's birth-place of Bourne, Lincolnshire on Thursday 7 September, the 950th anniversary of the great Saxon's homecoming. It tells the famous (and truer than you might think) story of how Hereward - delinquent son of Leofric Lord of Bourne and (some say) Lady Godiva - came to lead the English resistance to William the Conqueror from the woods and the fens, with star turns in the years 1067-72 for Bourne, Peterborough and Ely. The timeless style of Waywood's performance art - ballad verse and harp as the days of the mead hall - is a perfect fit for this hero tale. Waywood will also be performing homages to Robin Hood and Wicken Fen. And that's only our bit - there's a Bayeux tapestry to see, Hereward scholarship for a popular audience, storytelling, film and much else besides.
Waywood harpist Vanessa Wood-Davie spreparing for action in Hunstanton last June,
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