THE MAIDEN HIND
Words: traditional Danish
Music and arrangement ©2009 Gordon Bok
Gordon – vocal and Viol da Gamba
Carol – vocal
This song speaks from a time when we were much more closely connected to the other animals, who have been—and still are—our best teachers of the ways to live in this world.
The mother to her son did say
The little hind thou shalt not slay
You may slay the hart and shoot the doe
But the little hind thou must let go
Sir Peter rode in greenwood bound
And the little hind played before his hound
The little hind sported his feet before
And he thought on his mother’s words no more
He spanned his crossbow with hand and knee
And he shot the hind beside a tree
His gloves from off his hands he drew
To flay* the hind without ado *skin
Her neck he flayed and shining there
Was his sister’s golden hair
He has found in her bosom cold
His little sister’s rings of gold
In her side with sore affright
He has found her hands so white
His hunting-knife to the ground he threw
Now has my mother’s tale come true!
Cold on the river falleth the rime* * ice crystals
There’s luck for the lad who can take it in time
Far the crane flieth up in the sky
Lucky the lad who from trouble can fly!