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The Longships We do not fear the longships, we’ve seen longships before That sailed here from the northlands and hauled their boats to shore They brought with them the music, the language and the lore Burned their boats and stayed here on our island It’s midday in the wintertime before the moon goes pale The winter suns are very long, the storm winds and the gales The midnight sun is distant as the calling of the whales Till springtime comes again to paint our island The grey seal and the otter, the salmon and the tern The land fowl and the sea trout and the free birds of the air The shepherd and the farmer and all within their care Harmonise the music of our island Now we did not fear the longships until Lord Satûn came With armies from the plains of death to steal our souls away But one thing that was certain we'd fight him come what may Fight him for the freedom of our island Now as if the seas had realised the tragedy in store The waves rose up in anger and before a week or more Most of his men were washed away and never reached the shore And the sea regained his temper round our island So let this be a warning to all whose foolish greed Would bring them to our shorelines and not our warnings heed The sea is our protector, provider for our need The jealous guard and keeper of our island We do not fear the longships, we’ve seen longships before that sailed here from the northlands and hauled their boats to shore They brought with them the music, the language and the lore Burned their boats and died here for our island This is my adaptation of a song from the Chilled Mead album No Sleep til Ragnarok, which is itself an adaptation of a Ralph McTell song called The Islands, from the album Sand in your Shoes. © Ralph McTell |