Sorrow of the Children of Od

Author Unknown
I was born in the howling lands; the white wastes my earliest home,

I was born where the days are long and the trolls our ancient foe

Long overcome by my fathers’ fathers

And their names I do not know.

I was born where the Atalaq tents see the glacier of Atkonartoq

I was born where the peewits caw and circle in the sky

I was born to the Suaq cold

Beneath the peewit’s cry.

The Thule they came to my homeland they came and they came again

They took away my father’s life; they took my mother’s ken

And I was given as a child

To my hala’s old sworn friend.

I grew me to five years old where the goatherds and their charges are

And I grew me to parents who were proud in honour and in duty

On the flowers of the highland passes

In Skarsind’s mountain beauty.

And the Thule they came again, The Thule they won that day.

The Thule they are barbarians in fierce barbarian horde

And we ran, I knew not where Whilst clawing, eating ravens cawed.

My hala’s brothers lost their lives, their wives the same way,

And I was lost and hopeless in the freezing mountain pass

But I am born of Winter

And my loss will not last.

I wandered long and lonely as were all the empty children,

Those who walked from mountains in the final days of cost

To greener, warmer lands

That were not our home, home we had twice lost.