Lyr Add: Sword of Bannockburn (Alastair McDonald)

Subject: Lyr Add: SWORD OF BANNOCKBURN (Alastair McDonald)
From: EllenV
Date: 31 Jan 11 - 11:15 AM

Transcribed from the recording.

SWORD OF BANNOCKBURN -- Alastair MacDonald

Verse 1:
Midsummers eve, thirteen fourteen
Two armies draw up on the green
The stoutest force that e'er was seen
Around the Bannock water
To crush the Scots was Edward's boast
And rule the land from coast to coast
Let Scotsmen quail before his host
Like lambs before the slaughter

Chorus: 
Draw the sword at Bannockburn
See Scottish dignity return
Let the foreign tyrant learn
Each man is at his station
Join the lion of the north
And drive the false invader forth
To show the world o' Scotland's worth
An independent nation

Verse 2:
The Scots outnumbered three-to-one
Take up their places on the run
The chilterens in the morning sun
Defiant as the thistle
The English lines of armour bright
Present an awesome, fearful sight
Behind each mounted southern knight
The spears and lances bristle

Verse 3:
The mercenary knight De Bohun
In armour black from toe to plume
Spurs out to change the Bruce's tune
And ca' the nacht o' sorrows
He thunders at him cross the plain
Bruce wields his pony in disdain
And drives his axe through skull and brain
And ends De Bohun's tomorrows

Verse 4:
Then charge the English to the field
Towards the hedge of Scottish steel
And into mud and carnage wheel
In waves of dead and fallen
The Etterick archers join the fray
And send aloft their deadly spray
And countless in their saddles slay
Who's death knell now is tollen

Verse 5:
The name of Douglas sing with pride
MacNeil and Stewart brave beside
And all who swelled that gallant tide
To stem the south's advancing
And here's to Robert Bruce by name
Our own true king renowned in fame
His flag like red and yellow flame
In Scotland's honour dancing

Here's to the Bruce at Bannockburn
With pride, each Scottish heart should burn
As Edward back to London turns
To mourn his fallen glory
Hail the lion of the north
Send trumpeter and herald forth
To tell the world of Scotland's worth
And place in freedom's story

Hail the lion of the north
Send trumpeter and herald forth
To tell the world of Scotland's worth
And place in freedom's story

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Sword of Bannockburn (Alastair McDonald)
From: Jim McLean
Date: 01 May 14 - 05:50 AM

Melody nicked from The Declaration of Arbroath by Jim McLean, 1966.