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Title: The Hail Storm
Author: George Borrow [
More Titles by Borrow]
As in Horunga haven
We fed the crow and raven,
I heard the tempest breaking
Of demon Thorgerd's waking;
Sent by the fiend in anger,
With din and stunning clangor;
To crush our might intended,
Gigantic hail descended.
A pound the smallest pebble
Did weigh, and others treble;
It drifted, dealing slaughter,
And blood ran out like water,
Ran recking, red and horrid,
From battered cheek and forehead;
But, though so rudely greeted,
No Jornsberg man retreated.
With anger ever sharper,
Thorgerda fierce, and Yrpr,
Shot lightning from each finger,
Which sped and did not linger.
Then sank our brave in numbers
To cold, eternal slumbers;
There lay the good and gallant,
Renowned for warlike talent.
To bide the storm unable
Our chieftain hewed his cable,
And with his ship departed--
We follow, broken-hearted;
For in Horunga haven
Our bravest feed the raven;
We did our best, but no men
Can stand 'gainst hail and foemen.
[The end]
George Borrow's poem: The Hail Storm
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