LL-L "Literature" 2005.09.14 (07) [E]

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From:  "Arthur Jones" <arthurobin2002 at yahoo.com>
Subject:  another long-winded (filuwaurdeis) poem 2005.09.13

From: Arthur A. Jones
arthurobin2002 at yahoo.com

To: Lowlands List

Liuwe Dalalandarjes,

Here is another too-long poem, again about Gothic tragedies 
(inexhaustible!).
This one is based on historical records, a series of battles and 
catastrophes that took place between 280-300 a.d. in the region of northern 
Black Sea, between Crimea and present-day Romania. The Roman troops, under 
General Velius, wiped out a Gothic army of some 3,000 troops, then took the 
remaining Goths into the empire, then cast them out again, then sent in 
troops to mop up the situation. Lady Ranilo foresees and sees it all 
simultaneously. A few notes:

verse 2: "Greuthung" comprised the tribe which later called itself 
"Ostroboths".

verse 5: "Kannabaudes" was a powerful warlord and a uniter. He won a great 
battle against the Romans at Adrianopolis a few years before, and was 
perhaps the reason the Romans broke treaty and invaded the Goths.

verse 6: Moesian moor is the lowland at the lowest reaches of the Danube and 
the Dniester rivers. Thiudan is the Gothic term for a tribal king, thus the 
name of the emperor "Theodoric" (Thiudoreiks) meant "king of kings".

verse 7: runa niman (lit.: take the runes) meant to hold urgent war counsel. 
Kniwa was the name given to at least two Ostrogothic warlords of the era. It 
means "knife". Amal was the name of a venerable royal family that produced 
the main line of Ostrogothic kings, including Alaric, Theodahad, and the 
aforementioned Theororic.

verse 8: Stiurilings= gothic term for "Lehrlinge", or apprentice soldiers.

verse 10: Ranilo shifts to third person to describe her state of isolation, 
a recitation tool also sometimes used by Norse skalds. Baurg Kaulbrunn (Burg 
Kaltenbrunn, in NHG), or Coldspring Fortress, is in the Crimea. Presentday 
name is somewhat Turkicized, i.e., "Bork Kol-burun".
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Lady Ranilo's Dream
Drauma Ranilons Fraujons

I dreamt of raging borderlords,
Whose wrath consumed the plain,
For ancient wrongs, hard-riding hordes
Did burn, and burn again.

I dreamt of Greuthung warrior men,
Like mice in great cat claws,
First caught, then freed, then caught again,
And slain against our walls.

And enemy heads lay all around
Before a golden throne;
I looked away, then to the ground:
The heads were now our own.

I dreamt three thousand widows keened
And came to claim their dead;
They cut from each one lock of hair
Then buried all the heads.

They stacked the trunks in funeral pyres,
And woefully tindered flame,
Then circling round the blood-cursed fire
Sang Kannabaudes' name.

Our couriers rode before the dawn,
Through dark Moesian moor,
To hill forts of the Thiudan
And pounded at their doors.

Runa niman! Through the gates
Came Kannabaudes' men,
Then Kniwa of the Silver Blade
And all his Amal kin.

Young soldiers ran, mere stiurilings,
Down country swift as hinds,
Through gathering stench of charnel fires,
Toward gathering Roman lines.

Then Kniwa, caught in leather straps,
Was dragged by Velius' steeds;
Our troops gave chase into the trap,
To be axed down like trees.

I dreamt that Greuthungs who took flight
Were slain against our walls;
Now Ranilo roams by candlelight,
Baurg Kaulbrunn's empty halls.

I see them still, the grim-eyed dead,
I hear their whispered gloom;
Faint lights their blood-soaked path must tread,
Ere they shine into the tomb.

I will submit a Gothic version when finished.
Met vriendelijke groeten,

Arthur

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