Beloved if you read this
then know that I am gone.
Our foe has overtaken all our lands.
Beloved if you read this
then I have burnt our home
and slaughtered all our cattle
to keep it from from their hands.
Pray for me beloved, say an ‘ave’ for your wife
who beside the home we made, soon will take her life.
They will never touch me – I would rather die
than suffer their indignities or with their demands comply.
Beloved if you read this
drink not from the stream
for I buried rotting livestock at its source.
Beloved if you read this
That our adversaries starve
I spread lye throughout our barley,
and salt’d the lands without remorse.
Beloved if you read this
know the blood upon the page
was the last thing our enemy did see.
Beloved if you read this
take my good account
for I took many from their bodies –
they did not take mine from me.
Pray for me beloved, say an ‘ave’ for your wife
who beside the home we made, soon will take her life.
They will never touch me – I would rather die
than suffer their indignities or with their demands comply.
Beloved if you read this
we shall be together soon
for I have smelled the burning since I woke
Beloved if you read this
know my soul waits for you here
God grant someday we be together –
His blessing I invoke.
Pray for me beloved, say an ‘ave’ for your wife
who beside the home we made, soon will take her life.
They will never touch me – I would rather die
than suffer their indignities or with their demands comply.
Pray for me beloved,
say an ‘ave’ for your wife
who beside the home we made
soon will take her…..
So, now that I have their blessing, this song is dedicated to Dalla and Olaf – Suzy McBroom and Samuel McBroom) because it was them with a little Viking farm which I pictured a lot as I wrote this, with Dalla thinking of Olaf as she spread the salt and dragged dead livestock to the spring.
In particular, this photo kept coming to mind as her memories as she did all these things and wrote the letter :
