Song, Chant, Poetry, Stories and Satire for the Pagan Community

This entry made: 11/06/1997

Title: A Hymn to the Morrigan
Lyrics by: Isaac Bonewits
Tune: Lagan Lad, or Quiet Joys of Brotherhood (Irish Traditional)
Date: 1986, 1996
Source: http://www.qed.net/Bonewits/IB_Songs.HTML
Recorded on: "Be Pagan Once Again!"- available here
Subject: Goddess

(Key of D-minor)

O Morrigan, we call your name
Across the dusty years.
You speak to us of blood and lust.
You show us all our fears.
You are a goddess old and wise.
Of holy power you have no dearth.
Beneath your wings, black, red and white,
We learn of death and birth.

You walk about this ancient land,
Your hungers raw and clear.
You make the crops grow rich and strong,
As well your geese and deer.
A flirting maid, a lusty hag,
A mother of great girth:
Without the touch of your black wings,
We cannot heal the earth.

You float upon a blood red wave,
Of swords and spears and knives.
Your voice inspires fear and dread,
That you'll cut short our lives.
You try the warriors' courage sore,
Our inner souls unearth.
Without the touch of your red wings,
We cannot know our worth.

You fly above the silver clouds,
To Avalon's shining gate.
You lead the dead along that path,
To meet our final fate.
The joke's on us, we find within,
A land of laughter and of mirth.
Without the touch of your white wings,
We cannot have rebirth.

O Morrigan, we call your name
Across the dusty years.....


[This was another song I was compelled to write for a deity 
who is usually misunderstood. The pattern again reflects the 
Indo-European tripartate division (of three major social classes),
with a verse for fertility, one for combat, and one for wisdom. 
The original recording of this happened during a sudden
thunderstorm, so we put a microphone out the window and gave 
an album credit to Taranis, the Celtic God of Thunder!]