The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #118307   Message #2556200
Posted By: Sleepy Rosie
03-Feb-09 - 11:19 AM
Thread Name: Info Req: The Witches' Ballad
Subject: Lyr Add: THE WITCHES' BALLAD (Doreen Valiente)
Written by Doreen Valiente
I've heard this one sung, and unlike a lot of other Pagan songs I've heard, I liked it (though I've also heard gross renderings of it too.)
Can't find the tune anyplace. Can someone provide?
Here are the lyrics as pimped off Sacred Texts page


THE WITCHES' BALLAD

Oh, I have been beyond the town, where nightshade black and mandrake grow,
And I have been and I have seen what righteous folk would fear to know!

For I have heard, at still midnight, upon the hilltop far, forlorn,
With note that echoed through the dark, the winding of the heathe horn.

And I have seen the fire aglow and glinting from the magic sword,
And with the inner eye beheld The Horned One, the Sabbat's lord.

We drank the wine, and broke the bread, and ate it in the Old One's name.
We linked our hands to make the ring, and laughed and leaped the Sabbat game.

Oh, little do the townsfolk reck, when dull they lie within their bed!
Beyond the streets, beneath the stars, a merry round the witches tread!

And round and round the circle spun, until the gates swung wide ajar,
That bar the boundaries of the earth, from faery realms that shine afar.

Oh, I have been and I have seen in magic worlds of Otherwhere.
For all this world may praise or blame, for ban or blessing nought I care.

For I have been beyond the town, where meadowsweet and roses grow,
And there such music did I hear as worldly-righteous never know.