The Spearman's Vow
A man stood at the crown of a mountain,
Holding an old ash spear in his hand.
He bent the weapon against his knee
And broke it so it would not mend.
Into three shards he snapped the thing
And cursed it with his wind-cut breath:
"Too much life this blade has taken
And sent down to bitter, broken death."
"My warring days are over, and this I vow,
Since I am grey in mane and eye and bone,
This blade shall never draw blood again,
Or where I stand may I turn to stone."
He threw the three pieces from the peak,
And they flew apart and far and wide,
And where each broken fragment landed
Burned like a beacon in his weak eyes.
The base of the spear fell nearest,
Only halfway down the rocky slope.
No further than the border of the trees,
Caught in the root of a knotted oak.
There it stuck fast and fell no more,
As around its place, the forest grew.
And that the broken spear was hidden
In this grove, no man ever knew.
The middle of the shaft fell further,
To rest at the high mountain's feet,
And lay there in the valley's grass
Among flocks of grazing sheep.
The herder soon came by that spot,
Gathering fuel to feed his flame,
And so the ancient ashwood shaft
A draught of softer ash became.
The third part of the broken spear,
That held the battered steel head,
Flew furthest yet and far beyond
Its brothers - on the wind it fled,
And fell at last into the current
Of the valley-carving river's water,
Then carried away downstream to sea
And washed up on the shore there.
Sand-grains of many colours itched
In the edge of still-sharp steel.
A child came dancing by the waves
And found it glinting by his heel.
As innocent fingers reached to grasp
This shining prize, a child's new toy,
Too late rang out a mother's warning;
A cry of pain sprang from the boy.
The stinging blade fell to the sand,
This time the colours only red.
Tears were splashed into the salt,
As mother bound the hand that bled.
And far away, upon a mountain's crown,
There stood a granite pillar all alone,
Where the spear-breaker had made his vow,
A six-foot cairn of forlorn red stone.
