Name: The Old, Still Marsh by Hegri Norvidsdottir
Duration: 3 min 21 s
Description: A Wintermark funeral song, heard on The Pilgrim's Trail in Kallavesa. A filk of "The Old Churchyard" inspired by the Waterson:Carthy and Lady Maisery versions, with lyrics changed for Empire LRP's setting. Additional SFX from Janrou and ElBoss under Creative Commons 0. Photo by Roman Ivanina on Unsplash.

My Highguard song for the book. Its a lighthearted joke about how the Mother of the Empire ate, but totally didn't eat, all of the Horses. That are now dead. They were so majestic. And odd. But with all of their foibles, still they were Horses.
Oh yeah Highguard was in there too.
Filked from the amazing Daoiri Farrell

The Highguard Lament

Dawnish love song/lullaby. Filk of the traditional folk song of the same name.

Lavender's Blue

A ballad of the brave dwarf Krin the Uncaged, Ward of Celegon and hero of Harker's Lodge.

Written and performed at Eyelarp's The Five Kingdoms: Reunion in June 2021.

Krin The Uncaged

A Wintermark funeral song, heard on The Pilgrim's Trail in Kallavesa. A filk of "The Old Churchyard" inspired by the Waterson:Carthy and Lady Maisery versions, with lyrics changed for Empire LRP's setting. Additional SFX from Janrou and ElBoss under Creative Commons 0. Photo by Roman Ivanina on Unsplash.

Field Recordings 5.31.2

The Old, Still Marsh

Gabrielle_Joanne_-_Trees_of_Liathaven.m4a

Lay Me In Fire

An original song by me for the Empire Larp setting.

I think it's fair to say this is my biggest hit at Anvil. Great fun to sing, and particularly when you divide the audience in two and have them point accusingly at each other as they sing "No it was you, that broke your word!" / "No it was you, that broke your word!"

It's also nice if everyone can join in the "Ai-ai-ai-ai!" I signal this is about to happen by raising my arms.

---

Lyrics:

[CHORUS]:
No it was you that broke your word
No it was you that broke your word
In the Brass Coast have you heard, have you heard
Written contracts are always preferred (clap clap)

Once I met a charming sailor
I'll admit we led each other on
Didn't stop to try and work out
What we wanted, for how long 
They thought it was burning love but
All I wanted was a fling
Now they've snuck aboard my ship and
Offered me a wedding ring
 
Ai ai ai ai!     	What have I done?
Looks like my troubles have only begun

[CHORUS]

I've a friend I meet in Anvil
See him maybe twice a year
Once he borrowed several mana
But we didn't make things clear 
Then we left it quite some time and
The conjunctions came and went
Now neither of us agree on
The amount of crystals lent
 
Ai ai ai ai!     	That stuff's not cheap
I'm so frustrated I could curse and weep

[CHORUS]

There's some fairly distant family
I get on with splendidly
I invited my dear auntie
To come stay a bit with me
But she's been here for a month now
When I only meant a week
Somehow I know I should tell her
But I'm feeling rather meek
 
Ai ai ai ai!     	I need my space
But in the meantime she's made this her base

[CHORUS]

When I needed to go travelling
There's some neighbours that I paid
Asking them to mind the house so
I could sail off for some trade
 
When I came back beds were slept in
All my stuff was on the floor
Wine cellar greatly depleted
I guess this means bloody war
 
Ai ai ai ai!     	I'm seeing red
I really wish I could kill them all dead
 
[CHORUS]
 
Ai ai ai ai!     	I hope you've learnt
Something from these tales of how I got burnt
 
[CHORUS]

Have You Heard (aka. The Contract Song)

NOT BY ME AT ALL! This is by the Decemberists, however this gets sung a lot at Empire. This is a re-recording of my previous posted track, to replace a couple of incorrect lyrics.

Whilst some say it does not really fit with Imperial beliefs, it is reasonable to say that it is a cautionary tale about how revenge will consume a man. In the Empire vengeance (aka justice) is a false virtue and therefore considered somewhat heretical as a value. However there is a foreign nation (the Faraden) who LOVE justice, so I usually say this is a song I learnt while trading with the Faraden.

This version has been updated: "But, oh, what providence / What virtuous intelligence" is now sung "But what a fluke of chance / what fortunate circumstance"...

Please enjoy this sample of how I sing this song at Empire. Useful as reference for pacing etc. I like to sing it... theatrically.

---

Lyrics:

We are two mariners
Our ships' sole survivors
In this belly of a whale
Its ribs our ceiling beams
Its guts our carpeting
I guess we have some time to kill

You may not remember me
I was a child of three
And you, a lad of eighteen
But I remember you
And I will relate to you
Just how our histories interweave

At the time you were
A rake and a roustabout
Spending all your money
On the whores and hounds
(o-oh)

You had a charming air
All cheap and debonair
My widowed mother found so sweet
And so she took you in
Her sheets still warm with him
Now full with filth and foul disease

As time wore on you proved
A debt-ridden drunken mess
Leaving my mother
A poor consumptive wretch
(o-oh)

And then you disappeared
Your gambling arrears
The only thing you left behind
And then a magistrate
Reclaimed our small estate
And my poor mother lost her mind

Then, one day in spring
My dear sweet mother died
But, before she did
I took her hand as she, dying, cried:
(o-oh)

"Find him, Bind him
Tie him to a pole 
And break his fingers to splinters
Throw him in a hole until he
Wakes up naked
Clawing at the ceiling of his grave"
(o-oh)

It took me fifteen years
To swallow all my tears
Among the urchins in the street
Until a priory
Took pity and hired me
To keep their vestry nice and neat

But, never once in the employ
Of these virtuous men
Did I ever, once turn my mind
From the thought of revenge
(o-oh)

One night I overheard
The prior exchanging words
With a penitent whaler from the sea
The captain of his ship
Who matched you toe to tip
Was known for wanton cruelty

The following day
I set to sea with a privateer
And on the whisper of the wind
I could almost hear
(o-oh)

"Find him, Bind him
Tie him to a pole 
And break his fingers to splinters
Throw him in a hole until he
Wakes up naked
Clawing at the ceiling of his grave"
(o-oh)

Then came that fateful night
We had you in our sights
After twenty months at sea
Your starboard flank abeam
I was getting my crossbow clean
When came a rumbling from beneath

The ocean shook
The sky went black
And the captain quailed
And before us grew
The angry jaws
Of a giant whale                     
(O-OH!)

Don't know how I survived
The crew was all chewed alive
I must have slipped between his teeth
But what a fluke of chance!
What fortunate circumstance!
You should survive as well as me

It gives my heart great joy
To see your eyes fill with fear
So lean in close and I will whisper
The last words you'll hear         
(o-oh)

"Find him, Bind him
Tie him to a pole 
And break his fingers to splinters
Throw him in a hole until he
Wakes up naked
Clawing at the ceiling of his grave"
(o-oh)                                     [x 3] (quiet, medium, then loud and furious)

The Mariner's Revenge (revisited)

Some people looking in from the outside believe that the Navarr have no real home, endlessly walking the Trods with nothing that ties them to any one place. However, it is in the people with whom we walk, our Striding, that we find our home. Although we may travel far across the map, we do so while sticking close to our Striding, our family. It is not the land which calls to us and holds us close, but those around us as we walk the Trods, sticking close and travelling far.

Guitar by Caibre Lostchild

Sticking Close, Travelling Far

Words by: Linda Kelly
This comes from Hull, where I grew up, and is about the Triple Trawler Tragedy of 1968. Mrs Kelly's husband was scheduled to go on the Kingston Peridot on what turned out to be its final voyage, but decided against it due to financial reasons. 
The Kingston Peridot sank on the 27th of January, 1968 with all hands lost.

Hull's Luckiest Sailor

An advertising song from my character Kaylis' backstory, ideally meant to be sung by two parts, one member of the guiser troupe and one "totally real Navarii that we just happened to run into" to advertise that we would be stopping to perform in the next town.

Guiser Travelling Song

At Empire LRP, I play a mystic named Hegri Norvidsdottir. Here are folk songs, and filks of folk songs that she brings after hearing them in Wintermark. Profile photo by Adam Heritage, Yoularp.

The Old, Still Marsh

Hegri Norvidsdottir

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