The Fall Queen

King Arthur is often called the May King and/or the Winter King. But in the long autumn of Logres that occupies so many of the stories - as the glory of Camelot begins to fade into the sunset - it is surely Gwenhwyfar who presides. Not just the sense of fading grandeur and the breaking of the fellowship but also the fact that she is often the fall girl for both (the monkish accounts often being unsympathetic to women). This poem, imitating the Welsh poetry of the period, adopts a more Celtic view, the faithful queen lamenting her missing lord. It's set to music and sung here by Maz. 

Part 1

Lord Arthur is gone, I laud my Beloved:
Cross on invincible shield, blood-red,
Dragon on young-summer green, red,
The terrible clatter of returning hooves.
I never quite believed. Always feared him
Dead. But he always came.

Arthur is gone, I laud my Beloved:
Swift white charger swooping like a spear
On the bonfire builders, the wolvers of women,
Scourging the rat run barbarian inroads,
Animal tracks of attacking Saxon,
His spur-tensed Britons beat back the Beast.

(Then Llugh fought battles within himself,
Cei fought his own rule, Bedwyr fought Llugh,
And some sought long for the holy caldron,
Sought it like a spoil of war,
And, gentle as light, my Beloved loved me.)

And Medraut gnawed through the golden years
Myrddin called a threshold to the dark,
And its beacon. Medraut, eyes on me
Like a dog’s on the moon, snapping his moment.
To Camlann the coastland, carried me off.
Gone my Beloved, my Beloved I mourn.

Bridge

Part 2

And little the faith I had yet in Arthur,
The Angel campaigner, strong as light,
His sun-bright stars above the wicked forest
Seeming to fade. Rusty the scabbard,
Still magic the sword. And, once more, he came.
I’ve believed too little. I make my Confession.

At last I understood. The flincher from spears,
Medraut, was part of Arthur, his shadow,
Chancel and gargoyle had to be cancelled 
Where all deeds are drowned, all swords returned:
Avalon. And I’ll run no more.
I’ve believed too little. I make my Confession.

Night and this nunnery will fall. Ravens
Will flock on the gore. Let others keep
A glimmer, a glorious page, of Logres alight
Until the dawn. My confession’s done.
Still my heart waits for hoofbeats.
(Still, my heart waits for hoofbeats…)

credits

released May 17, 2024
Maz: lead vocal, acoustic guitar
Gaz: bass, percussion, harmonium, vocals in Part 2, howls, common flute