The Ballad of James MacBond
By Kianan from the words of a passing sailor, 1097
There was a time in Caledonia,
Fomor they swept the land,
The hale and the hearty they
Gave out at every stand.
Battles and struggles galore there was,
Against the mighty foe,
As they strove to slaughter
Us with every blow.
The fish they were a mighty stench,
So foul and fell was they,
A horror beyond our ken,
The fear did hold its sway.
There came a man from round the Isles,
A tall fella was he,
A mighty sword and fearsome poet
His voice a hope to be.
A harp was slung across his back,
His sword was by his side,
His courage it had no bounds,
His reach now it was wide.
With sword and song he rallied us,
Those few who did survive,
Hope kindled and he rallied us,
To lead a valiant drive.
‘Gainst fish and foul he led us thence,
Singing from the fore,
The Bard he led a valiant charge
Us against fomor.
His rousing song he sang again,
As the foe did strive,
His fearsome rhyme he gave again,
Till none were left alive.
Dum diddy diddy diddy dum,
Dum diddy diddy DIE!
Dum diddy diddy diddy dum,
And none were left alive!
Yet as the battle there was won,
The Bard did hear applause,
Yet while his look was far and gone,
He missed the fatal clause.
Around the bard, our hero, brave
Around the bard arose
The leaders of the enemy
Alas our bard they clove.
The Guard did wreck a bloody loss,
Their vengeance was complete,
But our Bard had done his bloody work,
Vict’ry near complete.
As the bard his corpse did drop,
Upon the bloody shore,
The heroes he had raised up,
Did rend into fomor.
Dum diddy diddy diddy dum,
Dum diddy diddy DIE!
Dum diddy diddy diddy dum,
And none were left alive!
And there he lay on ever more,
All crumpled and folorn,
Yet victory he gave us there,
Before the rising dawn.
Beside him lay his hero’s harp,
His soaring soul’s caress,
Bloody handprint across the harp,
The strings under duress.
The strings had wrent, the strings had broke, the strings played never more.
The bard again did never spoke, because them damn fomor.
Yet on the beach, and in the glen, amidst the sea-ward breeze,
One can hear a ‘diddy dum’ and fomor they flee the seas…
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