The Lay of the Sons of Nanalon

Audio recording of this poem.

In the year 330 of the First Eon, a great Nalshbori raiding party issued out from the Black Hills. In response, an army went forth from Sencankarr led by the three sons of King Nanalon. The Amborian forces were ambushed and routed, and all three princes captured. Although the bulk of the raiding bands were destroyed by a force that had come up from the Weixranbo led by Lord Lasuyar, the vanguard escaped and carried the princes to the Black Hills. After long imprisonment, the brothers escaped with some companions, and were pursued. In the end only Sanur, the eldest, returned to recount the tale, before dying of his wounds.

The story of the Sons of Nanalon is, along with The Songs of Spears and Nerias the Prince, one of the defining works of the early period of Amborian history, and remains a popular subject of court poetry (particularly the lament) down to the present day. The present work is attested in a number of good manuscripts written in a now archaic mode, the language and meter of which points to authorship sometime in the late First Eon (though some scholars have suggested possible authorship in the early Second Eon). It appears to be the work of a single author, and traditionally this has been supposed to be Vasiral, the court scribe and poet who himself makes an appearance within the work. Efforts in the time of Fanhal I and Fanhal II to record and codify the history and authenticity of the dynasty may be a more probable explanation of authorship. Many similarities between this and The Song of the Spears have been noted, although it must be mentioned that the latter is almost certainly composite in its authorship. It has been suggested that one work may have inspired the other. This seems unlikely, as the content and the tone of the two works is dissimilar. More likely, then, the commonalities in form and meter are products of the same age in which popular legends and recent tragedies alike were being adapted for the king's court and the purpose of the national epic.

CANTO I: Prologue. The frontier raid and the challenge of Gorgarath.

Who has not recalled the sorrow,

How the line of mighty Sencan

Nearly came to fail its promise--

Fail the promise Raos made him,

Him who led the Water's children.

Him who led the Water's children

From the hall of dark and bondage:

Sencan, heir of Lanenomen,

Built a throne upon a hilltop

Built and founded mighty lineage.

Built and founded mighty lineage,

Routed on the field of battle

Vishnarr's armies, slew at Denthfeld.

Then, the Peace of Sencan stablished,

Well he ruled, and Ranhor after.

Well he ruled, Ranhor after

Mighty armies raised and fielded

So reclaimed the Pleasant Isle

Which the arts of Orkon tainted:

Now stood barren, red and treeless.

Barren isle, red and treeless

Ranhor made to guard the homeland,

Caused the gates of red wrought-iron

To be hung in stark defiance

Of the gates of blackened iron.

From the gates of blackened iron

In the days of sad Nanalon--

He the son of mighty Ranhor

Hapless fated, made for sorry--

Foul Gorgarath stirred his malice.

Foul Gorgarath stirred in mountain,

He the seneschal of Orkon,

He appointed by his masters

Line of Sencan for to hinder,

Bring them down and end their lineage.

So to end great Sencan's lineage

Foul Gorgarath sent a challenge

To the sons of old Nanalon:

Sent a challenge unto combat,

So to speed those princelings' downfall.

And to speed his proud defiance,

Foul Gorgarath sped his armies

Over northern moorlands marching

Raiding town and sacking cities,

Sudden as a winter snowstorm.

Sudden as a winter snowstorm, 

So the Nalshbori descended,

Burned the land, but gave no battle,

To the armies of Nanalon.

Thus the challenge that he issued.

So the challenge that he issued.

And the sons of old Nanalon

Came unto their father's throne room

When the challenge of Gorgarath

Taunting, raised their youthful ire. 

CANTO II: The three sons of Nanalon come before their father's throne. They are outraged at the challenge and cajole their father to action.

So the challenge of Gorgarath,

Taunting, raised their youthful ire.

So the princes, young and noble,

Came before their father hoary.

Old Nanalon sat and heard them.

Sanur eldest, wise in battle,

He who led his father's armies

First addressed the awful insult

Which the Nalshbori commander,

Gorgarath, in challenge issued.

"Have you heard this mocking challenge

Which the lord of deep-delved caverns

Mocking, mocks as feeble cowards

All the sons of famed Nanalon,

Princes of the Amborian nation?

"Calls us old men who, in comfort,

Sit behind our measured fastness

Where we safely live in pleasure,

Growing soft and fat with drinking

In our foaming cups at table.

"In our foaming cups at table

He imagines us imprisoned.

Gorgarath the proud and foolish

Keeps behind deep walls of granite

While he issues us this challenge."

Teythbor, known for deeds of valor,

Famed for strength of arm and body

Chafed to answer Nalshbor challenge,

Stood and answered forth in anger--

Stood and made this answer, prideful:

"Long, too long, we sit in safety,

While the hosts that Sencan battled

Now despoil the Lands of Ranhor.

Should we, idle, fill our wine bowls,

Resting on on the works of fathers?

"Resting on the works of fathers--

This does not befit a ruler

Who descent may rightly boast of

From the mighty kings in splendor

Who sat upon the throne of Feihoth."

Then the youngest, fair Setela,

Youngest son of Old Nanalon--

He a skilled and famous hunter--

Thought of glory it would win him

When he hunted thralls of Orkon.

Hunting evil thralls of Orkon!

How the thought burned white within him!

Quickened then that lusty warrior,

Silvered ox-horn raised and winded.

Silvery horn-blast shook the rafters.

"Now arise ye heirs of Sencan--

Rise and quit yourselves for battle!

Never I'll pursue the red deer

While this challenge go unanswered!

Ride! Our quarry waits us eastward!"

CANTO III: The expedition is agreed upon, and Nanalon gives his blessing. But Nanalon's daughter, Thoranrai, is troubled, and seeks the counsel of Vasiral, her father's scribe. Vasiral foresees ruin.

Old Nanalon heard these sayings,

Heard the horn of hunting winding,

Raised the blade which, shining, naked,

Lay across his lap and glimmered--

Glimmered in the flaring lamplight.

"By the blade which Sencan's hammer

Under mountains forged, in darkness,

Idly sit not Sencan's offspring,

Nor the heirs of mighty Ranhor.

We will answer Gorgarath's challenge."

Then in haste the expedition

Hastily was put to order.

Princes quickly readied forces,

Ready made to ride at morning.

Fair Thoranrai ill forboded.

Fair Thoranrai, ill foreboding, 

Troubled, sought Nanalon's poet,

Vasiral, the seer famed widely,

Known for dreams of true foretelling,

Strong in lore, in wisdom mighty.

"Tell me truly, great in wisdom,

Whither dreamland's waters wend ye,

Whether war will spare my brothers--

Even now some dark foreboding

Weighs my heart and haunts my slumber."

Vaisral, most famed of prophets,

Shook his head, foreboding sorrow.

Oft in dreams the mighty river

Rushing down from icy mountains

Flooded, whelming ships which steered it.

"Thoranrai, most fair of maidens,

Well I would some word of comfort

Give to thee, thy father's daughter,

So to ease your fitful slumber.

I cannot: for poets lie not.

"True, there are some spawn of vipers

Who with honeyed words would soothe you,

So with poet's arts these liars

Win them love--but blind their vision:

Poet's gift they lack for seeing.

"I have seen in evening vision

How the Cheyth, of rivers eldest,

Swollen as with winter rainstorms

Floods its banks with lightless waters--

Whelms three ships which ride its currents.

"So my vision, this my reading:

Evil waits for these three princes,

Expedition doomed to failure.

Warnings many I have given--

Heedless think they all of conquest."

Thoranrai the Fair wept bitter

Tears when parted from her brothers.

Brothers rode from gates in splendor.

Three departed, but two would never

Come again to the House of Sencan.

CANTO IV: The strange passage of the moor, and the capture of the Nalshbori scout.

Strangely lay the moorland ancient

In the day the heirs of Sencan

Rode to answer taunting challenge.

Gray mist thickly whirled around them,

Voices cried from shadowed valleys.

Voices called from shadowed valleys,

Croaking strange like demon-voices--

Cries like ravens after battle

Haunted Sanur's army marching

Over misty moors and heather.

Looming tall like craggy islands

High the vaults of ancient stone-kings

Stood above the misty blanket

And the fog of shadowed vapors

Rolling from the Gates of Iron.

Old and ancient stood those barrows

Which recalled the Stone Kings' glories:

First, unfathered, ruled their kingdom

'Til the Serpent came to poison:

Foul, polluted holy fountain.

Silent now, with grim foreboding

Stand their tombs, a silent memory

Of the might of ancient peoples--

Their vigil long the land remembers--

Silent, brothers rode among them.

Then beyond that silent city

Brothers came to Northern Marches,

Sanur sent his scouts swift-footed--

Men on horses swift and nimble--

News to gather over moorland.

Inrark hardy, scout sure-footed

Riding swiftly through the heather

Came upon a stunted Nalshbo--

Sickly palor, pale and deathly--

Bound the fiend in cords thrice-woven.

Inrark swiftly brought the Nalshbo,

Brought the foul and surely creature,

To the camp where noble princes

Marshalled then their mighty forces

While they gathered fleeting rumors.

Princes put that loathsome creature

To the fear of pain and fire.

Pale and sickly, trembling greatly,

Nalshbo told of stony valley

Near the mouth of freezing river.

Near the mouth of freezing river

Tehre encamped the Nalshbori army,

Heedless of the threat of foe-men, 

Camp and wait to rob and plunder

Then return to hilly fortress.

Princes rode with eager onset,

Meaning then, their foes surrounding

From both sides of rocky valley,

Their retreat to stall and cut off;

They did not know Gorgarath's cunning.

CANTO V: Gorgarath's plan revealed. The three brothers attack the Nalshbori camp. Combats described.

Spoken well the words of poet--

Vasiral, the seer sagacious--

That ruin attended expedition

When the sons of Old Nanalon

Eager rode to offer battle. 

Gorgarath, fell Orkon's servant,

Little cared for gold or plunder--

Plundered as a means of luring

Princes forth by galling challenge.

Princes answered as desired.

Then Gorgarath sent a servant--

Pale and loathsome scout and tracker--

With a message for those princes,

With a word of Nalshbori army

Camped unheeding in rocky valley.

Camped unheeding in rocky valley--

So the hapless princes thought them

When they made a swift division

Of their mighty battle-forces;

Sanur led the Eastern column.

Sanur led the Eastern column,

Over hill to fall on Nalshbo

Who were camped in rocky valley.

Teythbor faced the setting chariot

Which the Ram of Dawn had carried. 

Down they charged into the valley,

Down upon the host encamped there

Found there only empty trenches,

Sick and wounded, unarmed captives,

Drunken guards with plunder laiden.

Then the host of fell Gorgarath

Down from flinty cliff-face screaming

Fell upon the host of Sanur,

Fell with scimitars red-glinting,

Filled the sky with rune-scored arrows.

Rune-scored arrows fell around them,

Fell around Nanalon's offspring.

Then the keen-eyed archers gathered

Round the standard of Setela.

Bold Setela drew an arrow.

Bold Setela drew an arrow

Long and fletched with gray goose-feathers

Quick aloft the bitter arrow

Smote the captain of the Nalshbo,

Smote, and passed to slay three others.

Teythbor bellowed, as a bullock

Angered by some stalwart rival

Lowers horns and seeks to gor him,

Proudly tosses head and shoulders,

Proudly bloodies field of battle.

Charged into the ranks of Nalshbo,

Wielding high a gleaming falchion--

Shadyalpeim, the Tusk of Iron,

Sowed the ground with blood of foe-men.

They trembled greatly at his onset.

CANTO VI: The battle continues. Combats described. The brothers are captured by the Nalshbori, knocked unconscious by great rocks hurled from above.

Bloody battle on the moorlands,

Long ago, when Old Nanalon's

Sons embarked on bitter struggle,

Rang with sounds of bloody combat

In the Valley of the Princes.

Sanur doughty ancient spear-shaft

With a head of ancient fishbone

Wielded, piercing hand-linked hauberks

As an awl in hands of tanner

Pierces through the hide of bullock.

Hot the gore in blackened rivers,

Ran about the rock where, stranded,

Sanur cleft a swath around him.

Loud the clash of mighty weapons--

Loud the screams of dying soldiers.

Forth came Agrash, Nalshbo captain,

Wielding high an iron falchion,

Hoordanor, the Ice of Midnight,

Loudly clashed against the spear-shaft

Hark-Samlon, Bane of Sea-worms.

Hark-Samlon, Bane of Sea-worms

Broke beneath the bite of iron--

Broke, below the bony spearhead,

Which was carved in days forgotten

By the folk of Orusena.

Then in Sanur's eyes there kindled

Flames of wrath, which, hotly burning,

Lent to limbs the strength of twenty.

Sanur seized a mighty boulder.

Seized, and struck the Nalshbo captain.

Teythbor raging saw his peril--

Saw the foes besetting Sanur.

Loudly bellowed, gore-stained waded,

Cleft a highway black with slaughter

With his Falchion, Tusk of Iron.

Bold Setela, keen-eyed archer,

Arrows strung on string on silver.

Often sung his bow that morning

So that never Nalshbo warrior

Fell on Teythbor's flank or rearguard.

Then the Nalshbo captains wavered,

Saw that never bite of iron,

Thrust of spear or gripe of warrior,

Could those mighty sons of battle

There subdue and take in bondage.

Nalshbo champions then took boulders--

Took, and carried up the cliffside,

Carried to the valley's bowl-rim

Boulders such as men, now lessened,

Could not hope to lift or hurl.

High they climbed, those boulders hurled,

Boulders crashing down the hillside

Pinned the brothers, crushed their liege-men,

So those mighty heirs of Sencan

Overbore and took as captives.

CANTO VII: The Sons of Nanalon are carried away captive to the Black Hills, where they gaze upon the ancient mines and delvings of the Children who were there enthralled.

Down then, down to utter darkness

Princes of the Amborian nation,

Offspring three of sad Nanalon,

Into ancient pits of thralldom

Passed, to wait Gorgarath's torment.

Waiting there Gorgarath's torment,

Waiting in the ancient stronghold

Which the might of Lanenomen,

Flying from the ruin of Feihoth,

Hewed beneath those ancient hilltops.

Kefneraia, Treians called them

When they first on verdant hilltops

Gazed, and knew that Raos Polestar

Well-fulfilled sweet heaven's promise:

Haven safe for Treian people. 

Supor-palba, ancients named them.

Seven hills which greenly shimmered

When the rosy light of Dawn's car

Cresting o'er the Peaks of Kothor

Ruby light with jade-stone mingled.

Supor-palba, Jaden Mountains,

Forest people called those seven,

Held them holy, blessed of heaven. 

For that cause the ancient Stone-kings

Worshipped there, and well revered them.

Long ago the green had withered

In the shade of Orkon's malice.

Long ago the Water's Children

Deep below the eagles' eyries

Orkon made to dig and labor.

Then, all names of love forgotten,

Water's Children new names called them:

Geroskefa, Hills of Darkness,

Ran-Orgnalsh, the Mines of Torment.

Now in torment looked the Princes.

Now in torment looked the princes

On the workings of their fathers.

"Now in torment look you, princes,

On the delvings of your fathers.

Know you are but stock of miners."

Thus Gorgarath spoke to taunt them,

Then commanded iron shackles

Forged by blows of bitter anguish,

Quenches in tears and blood of victims,

To be set on feet of princes. 

"Wander now through empty caverns,

See your fathers' ancient delvings,

Who, for sun and air despairing

Gave up breath and hope of succor.

Now their spirits hungry haunt it."

Saying thus he then commanded

Guards to drive them ever downward,

There to roam a while 'til madness

Creeping in should break their spirits.

Then he would with spells enthrall them.

CANTO VIII: The Princess Thoranrai is in agony over the fate of her brothers. She goes to the Priestess, keeper of the Queen's Pool, to seek insight into their fate.

Thoranrai, Nanalon's daughter,

Fairer was than any woman

Walking under vaulted starlight

In those days when fairer women

Lived, before the world grew tired.

Thoranrai, Nanalon's daughter,

Long in solitude had waited--

Waited coming of her brothers.

But her heart foreboded evil,

Evil dreams at night had plagued her.

At last she rose from couch of sorrow,

Took a mantle clear as starlight,

Clasped it round her lissome shoulders,

Barefoot trod the ancient flagstones

Of the Hall of Ancient Sencan.

In her mantle, barefoot treading,

Thoranrai, Nanalon's daughter,

Mounted up the holy summit

Of the Hill of Orusena--

Barefoot walked the holy hilltop.

Barefoot came that star-eyed princess

To the pool which ancient Stone Kings

Tended until Orusena

With a spear of shining copper

Slew the serpent, cleansed the waters.

There a priestess, gray-eyed, ancient,

Stood and tended starry waters,

Tended pool with net of silver,

Cleansed and hallowed with her singing

Soft and drowsy in the darkness.

Soft and drowsy in the darkness

Sang the Priestess, three times walking

Round the well, and sang of waters

Far away, the Sea forbidden

Washing rocks of sun-bleached Feihoth:

Washing sun-bleached bones of Feihoth

On the Isle where once the ancient

Folk of Starland made their dwelling.

Heaven's wrath rose up to purge it.

Pure it stands again--but empty.

Thoranrai, most fair of maidens

Stood beside the sacred waters

Gazing deeply, speaking nothing,

Silent pleading for her brothers.

Gray-eyed Priestess marked it, saying:

"Thoranrai, Nanalon's daughter,

Tell me of thy heavy burden.

Seldom do the feet of Princess

Come unto the sacred waters

While the moon is high in heaven."

"Gray-eyed Priestess," said Thoranrai,

"Speak I now, my heart unburden:

Seven days since any message

Came from sons of Old Nanalon.

My heart forebodes some evil outcome."

CANTO IX: The Priestess gazes into the sacred pool. Thoranrai weeps for the plight of her brothers, and her tears mingle with the water of the well.

Long ago, in ancient Eons,

Strongly ran the blood of Starland

In the veins of Sencan's lineage,

In the city Sencan founded.

Blood and vision ran together.

In the pool of sacred waters

Long the Priestess searched for answers,

Long among the heaven's image,

Long her mind in searching wandered

Through the turning paths of heaven.

Then a misty pathway opened.

There the Priestess daring wandered

Into darkness, fear unheeding,

Down to where Thoranrai's brothers

Languished long in endless darkness.

Then the starry waters clouded,

Cry of Princess broke the silence:

"Ah! my brothers! Ah, cruel vision!

Tell me truly, Gray-Eyed Priestess

If the vision shows them truly."

"True the vision, true the waters,

Which no lie has ever poisoned.

True the blood which brings the vision.

Blood of Star-folk still remembers

Winding paths of vaulted heaven."

Sweet grass stained the dress of samite

As the knees of Fair Thoranrai

Fell upon the spreading hilltop.

Rosy lips gaped wide in anguish,

White teeth clenched and ground together.

In the darkness, under mountain,

Brothers heard a cry of mourning.

"Cries of anguish, ghostly mourning,

Do not heed or be in terror.

Warriors do not fear such shadows."

So said Teythbor, boasting loudly,

But his knuckles tightened whitely.

Tall Setela harked, and listened.

"Not the shade of dead men wailing,

Such a cry is living sorrow."

Then the brothers darkly downward

Wended down to ancient dwellings.

Ever as they went she watched them--

Thoranrai, most fair of maidens--

And her tears fell down like rain-drops.

Thoranrai, star-eyed princess,

Wept, and downward starry tear-drops

Fell into the holy waters.

Then a light in darkness twinkled

Like a shining star at even.

Dimly glimmering in the darkness,

So the brothers saw that starlight

Which, perhaps through crack or fissure

Ancient, found those royal brothers,

Led them down to Sencan's anvil.

CANTO X: The brothers find the anvil of Sencan, and there they find ancient arms. They free themselves and their servants, and meet a serpent woman, who offers to show them a means of escape.

Long in darkness, after Vishnarr

First had fallen, bright with burning,

Fell and broke the Southern Isles,

When the Chasm split asunder

Serpent race the wide world wandered.

Race of serpents, long and loathsome,

Long had dwelt beneath the surface

Of the world, the rock their prison,

Languished long in lonely darkness--

So high Heaven to doom proscribed them.

Serpent woman secret watched them--

Watched the Sons of Sad Nanalon

As they groped in inky darkness,

Starlight's beacon saw and followed

Till it led to Sencan's anvil. 

There upon an anvil ancient

Seven times like falling thunder,

Seven times like flashing lightning,

Sencan's hammer heavy struck it

In the darkness of his thralldom.

In the darkness of his thralldom

Many weapons Sencan forged there--

Each one greater than the former

Till at last the tears of Children

Heaven heard, and sent deliverance.

Help was found where no light glimmers--

Crystal shining blue as glaciers

Gleam upon the Northern Highlands

When the Golden Ram at morning

Slowly heaves aloft his burden.

Blade-of-Ice-that-Brightly-Glistens,

So the Children still recall it.

Now that blade with Old Nanalon

On his knees sits quiet, waiting,

Till some younger king should wield it.

But around its maker's anvil

Many weapons forged of lesser

Steel and iron, bronze and copper

Lay, where in their haste the Children

Left the lesser blades to languish.

Now a sword the hand of Teythbor

Finds, and raising, strikes off shackles.

Now do heirs of Sencan arm them

With those ancient swords and hauberks

Which no Nalshbo dared to handle.

Then the Serpent Woman seeing

How so fared the heirs of Sencan

Humbly at the feet of princes

Made herself abased and craven.

Fair she was, but green as poison.

"Holy princes, do not fear me,

I who saw the might of Sencan

When he roused the wrath of Children

'gainst the servants of foul Orkon.

Secret paths this maid can show you."

CANTO XI: The bargain struck with the Serpent Woman, she proceeds to show the brothers a means of escape. But the brothers do not keep the hateful bargain, and are cursed.

"Secret paths this maid can show you,

Upward wending through the darkness

'Til at last a secret stairway

Carved in rock by Stone Kings ancient

Up ascends, to the world of starlight." 

"Be this true," quoth young Setela,

"What can princes give in payment?

We have neither gold nor jewels

As would please a lovely maiden--

Only broken bonds and sorrow."

"One thing alone I crave of princes--

That one of three should, with me dwelling,

Stay in darkness under mountain,

There to deeply drink of pleasures

Which my ancient wisdom teaches."

Hateful, princes though this bargain--

Yet they saw no other answer.

So agreed, each swore an oath that

One of three would stay in darkness,

One enthralled to Serpent Woman.

Up, by ancient stone-carved pathways

Serpent Woman led those princes.

Older still than work of Treians,

Massive were those stony hallways,

Huge those stairs, the work of giants.

Upward wending led she onward

To a mighty stair of green stone,

Upward twisting through the darkness

'Til at last the noble offspring

Came to look on realms of starlight.

With the princes stood some thirty

Knights who in the press of battle

By their sides had stood and fallen.

These were taken with he princes

Long to linger in darkest torment.

"Now good princes, and retainers,

I have shown the path as promised.

Now a true-born heir of Sencan

Back with me into the darkness

Comes to learn of ancient wisdom."

"Never will the heirs of Sencan

Dance with you in shades of darkness.

No oath bars from glimpse of starlight

We who are the Stars' own offspring."

So Setela made their answer.

"Then upon the field of battle

Princes twain will fall in anguish.

Then one Prince alone will carry

News of woe to Old Nanalon.

Serpent folk will have their vengeance.

"Serpent folk will have their vengeance:

When the gory corpse of brother

Coldly lays in a stranger's barrow

Then the ancient folk of serpent

Sting, and broken oaths remember."

CANTO XII: The brothers make their way across the moor, but are pursued by the hunters of Gorgara. They make their stand, and Teythbor is slain.

Then the heirs of ancient Sencan

Quickly, while the curse of serpents

Rent and pierced the morning silence,

Fled across the Northern Moorland

While behind the Hills were looming.

There behind the hills were looming,

Casting shadows long, foreboding,

As the Eastern sun was rising.

Bloody red the dew on heather

Shone, as horns of doom were sounding.

Hunters tireless stalked the moorlands,

Burning eyes with hatred glowing.

Bitter spears with glinting edges

Palely glittered in the sunrise

As they closed upon the brothers.

"Now my brothers, hounds of Orkon

With feet unwearied dog our footsteps.

Foolish hope, on foot to lose them.

Tireless hunters, sped by magic,

Do not ever rest or slumber.

"Turn we now upon this hillock,

Stand, and with our father's weapons,

Iron forged in mountain's fastness,

Let us turn to flight these hunters--

Sencan's boars are not yet toothless."

Ice-born hunters, long in barrow,

Long had lain while cruel magicks,

Sanguine life from veins all draining,

Hardened with the cold of winters

Ancient, against all love or sorrow. 

Ice-born hunters, swift and tireless,

Closed upon the fleeing princes--

Their swords were cold as bitter winters

In the days when Orkon's malice

Made the Northern lands a desert.

Bold Setela stood defiant.

Sanur raised an ancient spear-shaft.

Teythbor mighty stood between them,

Raised an ancient bill-hook eastward,

Waiting there for coming slaughter.

Glad and grim with heavy hand-strokes

Princes of the Amborian nation

Met the onslaught of fell hunters.

Teythbor, roaring like a lion,

Slew six hunters with his bill-hook.

Hunters fell by Teythbor's bill-hook.

Then one servant of Gorgara

Gripping him with icy talons

Froze his heart. The great prince withered.

Bold Setela roared like thunder.

Six slew Teythbor on the heather.

Bold Setela, sword red-gleaming,

Made a wall of foes about him

Full of limbs and bodies tangled

With the steel of Sencan's anvil.

CANTO XIII: The death of Setela and the defeat of the Hunters. Only Sanur is left to bury his brothers, and he does so in the tomb of an ancient Stone King which is nigh at hand.

Thrice a horn-blast shook the moorland--

Thrice Setela blew his trumpet.

Thrice the foe gave back before him

'Til in smoking ichor withered

Smoking stump of ancient smith-work.

Some men say an Eastern zephyr

Blowing down from far-off Wasteland

Carried Westward hardy horn-blasts

Over water to Sencan's City.

Dimly in those streets it echoed.

Then the Hunters all beset him:

Mighty chains they cast around him.

Twice he threw the foe-men from him

'Til he, over-weary, fell there.

Then alone, with three retainers,

Sanur faced the Ice-born warriors.

Like a wind he fell upon them--

Memory of the might of Starland

Which had once made Orkon tremble.

Back they fell, like chaff before him--

Two he slew with single sword-stroke,

One he gored with splintered spear-shaft--

'Til the blood ran black around him

And the gore was on the heather.

So the eldest heir of Sencan--

First-born son of sad Nanalon--

Drove his foe like chaff before him

'Til the wolf and greedy raven--

Gluttons feasted on his sword-craft.

So the wolf and greedy raven

Were left to feast upon the Hunters.

Sanur took the fallen princelings,

Took the liege-men who, for lord's love,

Fell before the bitter foremen.

Sanur took those fallen warriors

To a tomb which stood near, ready

For the sons of kings to lie in.

Strange that tomb, of massy marble.

It was built by ancient Stone Kings.

Ancient Stone Kings warred with serpents

Long ago, ere Lanenomen

Tall or ancient Orusena

To the North had, homeland seeking,

Come with mighty hosts of people.

Now their tombs alone stood standing,

Carved with skill beyond all mortals

Who in after days go walking

Under heaven's shining porches.

Deep that tomb, dark and sprawling.

Deep that tomb, wide and sprawling,

Full of many golden pillars--

Precious gold of Eastern mountains--

Spices stood like mould in piles.

Incense filled the air with fragrance.

CANTO XIV: Sanur buries his brothers. He seals the tomb but is bitten by a serpent, thus fulfilling the Serpent Woman's prophecy.

Incense filled the air with fragrance

In the tomb of ancient Stone Kings.

Carpets blazed afire with colors

As the princeling lit a brazier.

Diamonds sparkled as the heavens.

High above, a vaulted ceiling

Arched and glimmered in the torchlight.

There, in blazing gems and rubies

Ancient stars were set to glitter.

Stars no living man remembers.

Strange that sky, which still remembered

Dance of stars to ancient musics

Ere the powers of heaven battled,

And heaven's dance forever altered.

Men in wonder gazed upon it.

Then they laid the fallen princes

On a bed of ancient satin,

Left them laying there together

With the hauberks of their foe-men;

Gear of war the Princes' pillow.

Sanur sealed the tomb of Stone Kings,

Left behind those ancient treasures

And the fruit of Sencan's hammer--

Save the steel which, girt about him,

Many wolves and ravens lauded.

Men would later well remember

How that blade had served its master:

Veryalsuja, Weed of Battle,

Wielded by the sons of monarchs

Ever after in Amboria.

Sanur sealed that tomb with iron,

Barred and locked the way forever.

Then the Serpent Woman's chanting--

Hateful curse--was almost finished.

Serpent struck him, green as poison. 

Serpent struck him, green as poison,

When the ancient tomb behind him

Echoed with the clash of iron--

Ancient doors were shut forever.

But Sanur did not see the serpent.

Three companions, serpent seeing,

Made to slay the hateful monster,

So to draw its deadly venom,

Make of it a cure for poison,

Magic such as men still know of.

But the serpent glided swiftly,

Vanished in the purple heather.

"Mark it not," quoth Sanur, dying,

"But attend unto your master.

I must look on Old Nanalon.

"I must look on hoary father

Ere I sail away forever

On that ship which waits for mortals

At the Bay of No Returning.

Carry me to Sencan's City."

CANTO XV: Sanur returns to Sencankarr. He tells his tale before the throne, and then succumbs to the poison. Afterwards, Nanalon dies of grief.

Grieved in heart was Old Nanalon,

Grieved in heart to hear no rumor,

Hear no rumor of the princes

Save the news of bloody battles,

Host beleaguered on the moorlands.

Thoranrai, the maiden princess,

Many songs to cheer her father

Sang, although her heart was heavy.

Yet she held a hope undying,

Dim and wavering as a candle.

So her hope and fear in measure

Were both fulfilled when Sanur, dying,

Came unto the sacred hilltop

Where in ancient times the serpent

Met the spear of Orusena.

Sanur, dying from the serpent's

Bite, came carried by companions.

Thoranrai rejoiced to see him,

'Til she saw his deadly palor--

'Til she missed her other brothers.

"Tell me, Sanur, why so ghostly--

Art a shade which now draws near me?

Where is Teythbor, warrior mighty?

Where Setela, brave in hunting?

I have heard his ox-horn sounding."

"Not a shade, though now much nearer

Death's dark waters is your Sanur.

Shades of Teythbor, bold Setela,

Ne'er shall trouble living women.

Cold their corpses lie in barrow."

"Evil dreams and evil omens

Long have troubled Sanur's sister.

Vasiral, the seer of monarchs,

Foresaw that evil would be fall you.

I could wish his visions falser."

Old Nanalon saw his eldest

When companions brought the dying

Prince before the ancient dais. 

Old Nanalon wept to see him.

Sanur told there all his sorrows.

"Heaven's wrath on me is visited--

On all monarchs under heaven

Who, long-lived among their people,

Live to see their sons be buried,

Under earth, the hope of peoples.

"Three times blessed by fruit of woman--

Three times cursed by wrath of heaven.

Let all men who live on after

Mourn the fate of sad Nanalon

Why by grief, not sword, was stricken."

So Nanalon said when Sanur,

Sorrow sung out, laid his head down

On the lap of ancient father.

Then Nanalon's gray head nodded:

Once, then twice, then nevermore.

CANTO XVI: Epilogue.

We have sung Nanalon's sorrow,

How that king, thrice-blessed of heaven,

Thrice had cause to curse the bitter

Pride which drove those mighty princes

To their doom upon the moorland.

Old Nanalon died when Sanur,

Eldest son, on his lap laying

Weary head, succumbed to poison.

Sad Nanalon died of sorrow,

Thoranrai to tears abandoned.

Not for long in contemplation

Lingered last of Sencan's lineage.

Thoranrai, most fair of maidens,

Loved a lord and mighty warrior,

Fanhal called, renowned for valor.*

Fanhal marshalled mighty forces--

Amborians burned for bloody vengeance

On Gorgara, on the hateful

Spawn of Orkon's evil magics.

Eastward marched the Host of Vengeance.

Eastward marched the Host of Vengeance,

Banners high and spear-tips burnished.

Polished helm and burnished hauberk

Shone like heaven's host assembled

In ancient days against the darkness.

Fanhal's army crossed the moorland,

Dared the mists and sudden fires

Which around the ancient barrows

Led men on to loss and madness.

They came at last to gates of iron.

There before those gates of iron,

Sencan the Great in days now distant

Fought and slew the Nalshbor captains--

Ancient kings who'd bowed to Orkon,

Learned from him their eldritch powers.

There before those gates of iron

Fanhal issued loud his challenge.

Fould Gorgara feared to meet him--

But feared the more the wrath of Orkon.

Dark Gorgara the challenge answered.

There before the Gates of Iron

Fanhal raised the Sword of Sencan

Which Thoranrai, fair of maidens,

Put into her lover's keeping.

Fanhal slew the Nalshbor general.

Then the Hills of Black were scoured,

And the Nalshbori sent howling

Far away into the wasteland.

Ancient pits of loathsome torment

Were revealed to light of heaven.

Afterwards the name of Fanhal

Joined the roll of Sencan's offspring

When was born to fair Thoranrai

Fanhal's son, his father's image.

So his line endures forever.

*Later versions of this story, such as the anonymous prose account which dates to the early TE and which Norkoor later included in his Annals of the Kings, count Fanhal as one of the three surviving companions. There is no mention of this in the earliest manuscripts of the Lay.