For space is wide and good friends are too few.
Braw and bold, he went a-raiding;
stout and strong, he went to war.
Long his lady will be waiting;
Gilbert’s greatsword strikes no more.
Apparently, there was an SCA contest for best elegy, so Leigh Ann Hussey wrote a song for the “death” of a player in “Steal the Sheep” earlier that day, a game where teams compete to move a stuffed sheepskin across a field.
“Gilbert’s Greatsword,” or “Elegy for Gilbert de Langspee,” by Annwn. The percussion on this is tabla, played by Aditya Gurajada.
“Come away to the hills:
come away where the wine of life distills,
to the healing of your heart’s ills
come away, come away.”
“The Bard’s Exhortation to the Salaryman,” by Annwn, which sounds like a serious song, but apparently, the singer wrote this to make fun of banjo player, because he had a real job and she didn’t.
This album, for a long time only available from a website with low-quality downloads, is now back in print! It’s available on Spotify, YouTube, and iTunes, and all profits will go towards making more of Annwn’s music available.