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[ohdearrainagain]

Eric Hag-slayer 2

2.

Meanwhile the good and handsome Erik Ironhand

not knowing blood of distant hero Beowulf

flowed in his veins, likewise came of age,

and when the witches whirled and washed

there came upon him strange unease,

a hot-day chill, a sense

of something yet unfinished, unfulfilled.

Eric had gathered round him through the years

three heroes of his selfsame ilk,

bold and forthright and unafraid of death

but comely, gentle, with magnetic charm:

Bjorn, a bear, sweet-tempered as a lamb,

then Frode, the wise and clever one,

and Halfdan, he the favourite of them all

with hair like a flame, of Danish blood.

Yet Eric was bravest of the four

and honoured in all forms of sport,

a feted name across the land;

when all four met to feast and drink

in gilded halls among their peers

they were the lustiest singers

and they told the best of tales.

In time they went their separate ways

each to make a name in chosen path

but not before they made deep vows

to keep their brotherhood iron-strong;

shoulder to shoulder would they stand

should there be need to right some wrong.

(to be continued Sunday December 10)

Ted Lamb

tedlambbooks.co.uk

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Eric Hag-slayer

Long after dead hero Beowulf’s triumphs over the monster Grendel and his evil mother, another deadly menace threatens Daneland - and a new hero steps up to face the challenge …

Part 1 of a saga told by Awn Lief (to be continued every Sunday from November 26 2023)

1.

When Beowulf clove the head of

Grendel’s fearsome mother, her vile remains

sank in the oblivious mire to depths

unplumbed; a writhing, twisting unform.

Black as night this lay, stirring scarce at all

while millennia passed, and more, until,

one spring as salmon hurried overhead,

it stirred. A sense had come that a son

descended through the ages from

the loins of Beowulf had birthed.

Slowly, the spiteful mass re-formed

to spawn four huge and shuddering eggs

and as the summer neared they swelled, then burst,

and, rising like mayflies from the depths,

there came four babes in cherubic human form.

Together drifting to the shore, they laid

and cried pitifully among the rushes there.

This was no accident: a mother

new bereft from losing yet another child,

her third, heard the plaintive cries they rendered,

gathered them from the mere

and took them as her own.

Great in beauty in human form these witches grew,

the foster-mother proud of their cleverness and looks,

no matter their deep eyes of blue

flashed oft in anger fiery-red:

Gertud, the spear in the old language,

Estrid, whose charms could never be surpassed,

Hilda, whose name meant ‘fighter’

and Gudrun, powerful above all, goddess.

And kept and schooled in human ways

they prospered; when womanhood’s age

stirred them they gathered, all four

at the lakeside, each knife-scored their

palms to let the blood run free,

held hands to make a blood-bond ring

and spun, vowing to avenge their

true mother and her son, whose

name they knew as Grendel one-hand,

afterwards washing in the mere

to stain the waters crimson.

In reply the surface boiled from shore to shore.

(To be continued)

(* seeking illustrator! - contact tedlambbooks.co.uk)

[ohdearrainagain]

Great winter reading

See Ted Lamb’s new website www.tedlambbooks.co.uk for a choice of fishing adventure stories (‘The Brightwell Trilogy’), muck and mystery like ‘The Prophet and the Pelicans’ (spooky!) and poetry including ‘The Missions of Gulls.’ Best seller to date is an account of a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, ‘The Fisher’s Tale’.

Pilgrim’s progress – the path to Santiago de Compostela in ‘The Fisher’s Tale’ www.tedlambbooks.co.uk

Fanatical fisherman meets monster pike in epic duel: ‘Looking for Lucie’ www.tedlambbooks.co.uk

Time travel in the Bible? The Prophet and the Pelicans www.tedlambbooks.co.uk