The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #34907   Message #475460
Posted By: GUEST
02-Jun-01 - 10:18 PM
Thread Name: Origins: Breastplate of St. Patrick
Subject: RE: Help: Breastplate of Patrick
I participated in Puget Sound's Christmas Revels last year, and we did a version of that song (there was also a recitation, which I don't exactly recall) The tune was not Be Thou My Vision - it was one I hadn't heard before. I don't have the credits at my fingertips, but could probably dig them up if anyone's interested

These were the words we sang:

I call upon the noble earth
To give me strength both day and night
Her granite and her gems of worth
Are tokens of her various might
And from her shores the endless sea
In calm and tempest girds the sphere
And like the earth, the waters free
Shall be my trust against all fear

Above the earth and waters wide
The air enfolds the globe's fair breast
In it good spirits do abide,
I count on them in strife and rest
And last of all, the golden fire
Shall be my great and strong ally
The goodly spirits that never tire
Are all my strength below, on high

I bind unto myself today,
The virtues of the starlit heaven
The glorious sun's life-giving ray,
The wonders of the moon at e'en
The flashing of the lightning free
The whirling wind's tempestuous shocks
The stable earth, the deep salt sea,
Against the old eternal rocks

HTML line breaks added. --JoeClone, 21-Mar-03.