Apr 2017
A SILKEN CHAIN
The wolf
they call Death
has taken you
to its lair
in the far far away
of long long ago.
Like those Norse craftsmen
from the Nowhere of Time
I am called upon
to fashion
a silken chain
to bind you...to me.
I unwilling
to let you go.
I search for the firstly
secondly and thirdly.
The fourthly and fifthly
and the sixthly and lastly.
Not knowing the what
and wherefore of it all.
I find the footsteps
of a cat.
The breath
of a chicken.
The spittle
of a bird.
The roots of a mountain.
Unable now to think
of the last two.
So, Death holds you
but - so do I.
You are tied
to us both.
The silken chain of
love and memory.
The wolf
they call Death
has taken you
to its lair
in the far far away
of long long ago.
Like those Norse craftsmen
from the Nowhere of Time
I am called upon
to fashion
a silken chain
to bind you...to me.
I unwilling
to let you go.
I search for the firstly
secondly and thirdly.
The fourthly and fifthly
and the sixthly and lastly.
Not knowing the what
and wherefore of it all.
I find the footsteps
of a cat.
The breath
of a chicken.
The spittle
of a bird.
The roots of a mountain.
Unable now to think
of the last two.
So, Death holds you
but - so do I.
You are tied
to us both.
The silken chain of
love and memory.
Loki setting off to the Land of the Frost Giants to have it off with the giantess Angroboda with whom he begats three children. His wife Sigyn knows nothing of all this but Odin sees it all with his one eye. There is a girl called Hel who is fair of face on one side and the face of a rotting corpse on the other side. There is a serpent child Jormungundr and a wolf child Fenrir.
Ye Gods but the Gods fear Fenrir who grows more and more bigger...more and more stronger every day. They fool him into being chained but he breaks all bonds. So it is up to those talented dwarves up North to gather ingredients to fashion a chain that cannot be broken. This is the silken chain called Gleipnir. I very much liked the ingredients (the two I couldn't remember were the beard of a woman and the sinews of a bear ) and my Da asked me what I was laughing at so I read them out to him. So he laughed too.
So this is Fenrir's story crossed with my Da's story.
As he lay dying I tired to remember the magic ingredients but failed. I wanted a chain made of words and love that could not be broken.
Ye Gods but the Gods fear Fenrir who grows more and more bigger...more and more stronger every day. They fool him into being chained but he breaks all bonds. So it is up to those talented dwarves up North to gather ingredients to fashion a chain that cannot be broken. This is the silken chain called Gleipnir. I very much liked the ingredients (the two I couldn't remember were the beard of a woman and the sinews of a bear ) and my Da asked me what I was laughing at so I read them out to him. So he laughed too.
So this is Fenrir's story crossed with my Da's story.
As he lay dying I tired to remember the magic ingredients but failed. I wanted a chain made of words and love that could not be broken.
(Guildford)
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