Born in the sorrow of my mothers death
Raised as an heir to the noblemans arts
Released from kidnap by a sea hated ship
To be harper and huntsman to my uncle the King
Your uncle, the Morholt, had challenged the barons
To duel or pay tribute to Irelands king
I fought him and left my sword tip in his skull
He died after poisoning me with his spear
And you, you alone, were the one who could heal me
And you, more than anyone, wanted me dead
Sick and imperied, the courtly in arms
Twice did I brave inhospitable lands
First, in disguise, for release from my wounds
I returned to beguile you on a quest for my king
My uncle would marry the mystery lady
Whose hair of gold fell from two quarreling beaks
I won you in victory over the beast
Then lost in deliverng you to my king
And we unaware drank a wine brewed for lovers
Yes we shared the cup of joy mixed with death
Drawn to the chamber of conjugal love
traitor to all holy marital laws
Accused, and to quiet cruel imagination,
I was exiled and fell into feverish stench
Tis love, through a poison by witchcraft created,
More fierce than the noble true love of a king
Who then disbelived the felonious barons
Whose envious charges of adultery
Were true, oh too true, and the stars were their witness
To traitorous love underneath the pine trees
Warned by the riverm our meeting was chaste
At the approach of the cuckolded king
Free from suspicion, out of exile I came,
but the witchcraft between us was to soon be revealed
A trickle of blood from my bed to your chamber
Exposed by the dwarf, led your husband to grieve
And condemn the only two persons he loved
To a mutual burning, as the law decreed
Instead, you were thrown as a whore to the lepers
I leapt from the chantry and made my escape
Freed, by my sword, from a leperous caress
You sensed no hardship, though filthy and starved
I hunted a hart. Of the woods we were lords
Although lost in this world to be reviled in the next.
We slept with a chast naked sword between us
And found it replaced by the sword of the king
Then fled to the edge of the wood till we felt
The pity expressed and we had to return
Though he would received his queen back to her chamber
Her knight must remain in the periilous wood
Banished to serve many lords in their lands
Dead though alive with no life still not dead
Remaining true when accidentally wed
Till I kissed her and left all my wits on her lips
Disguised as a fool, I returned to your chamber
My hound licked my hand and you called for the guards
Who pierced me with spears. I escaped to the wood
To die neath the pines where we first made our bed
Alas, my true ovem in my life and in death
Together now death joins with life. We have served.
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