Vigil: A Song For Gerda

Gerda gave me this song when I asked about her sacred purpose as Frey's bride. Enjoy!

Lady of briar rose climbing the walls,

Watching the grain that you know must soon fall,

As gold as the locks of your lover so tall,

As the summer comes down from its height.

Day after day all the festivals go,

And then comes the day when he walks down the road

And the people all follow to see the blood flow

And to watch your tears soon run behind.

Lady of woodruff and buckthorn and bay,

You know every bright year turns at last to this day,

When the folk must be fed and the debt must be paid,

The price of the sun and the rain.

He faces his mother in billowing black,

Will this be the one time he’ll never come back?

And the sickle like lightning, only you feel the pain

And the scarlet that splashes the grain.

Lady of cleavers and broom from the land,

They’ve laid out his body and here you must stand,

And guard him as fiercely as only you can

And wait for the first breath to come.

The quilt in your arms, like the patchwork of fields,

That waits to enfold him like hearthfire and shield,

Is wet with the tears you must shed every year

As a beacon to lead him safe home.

Lady of rampion, roseroot and rue,

Could you ever believe it would one day be you

Who is ever now doomed to the path of the Bride,

And the ending that comes at his side.

For this is the way, with each shuddering breath

To bring back a lover from the far edge of death;

You must mourn to the depth of your heart given whole,

And pray with the breadth of your soul.

Lady of hyssop and elecampane,

They’ve all gone to their beds and they don’t see your pain

Or the brilliant sunrise as he opens his eyes

And your kiss is the first breath of day,

The first kiss of day,

For this is the way,

For this is the way.