https://soundcloud.com/steevm/tales-of-yore
The subject matter was inspired by a bunch of lectures on YT about the end of the Bronze Age and the fall of Troy. Part of the subject of the lectures was the question as to how much artistic liberty Homer had taken. In other words, how much was fact, and what was added to make the story engaging. I distilled the basic ingredients of a good story - a love rivalry, epic struggles glorious ideals, kings, queens etc., so pretty generic stuff really - and made the storyteller the subject, not the story.
Much of early archeology was driven by Homer's epics (written several hundred years after the fact), which of course includes the story of Helen of Troy amongst others. It's a story that has been told and retold in many incarnations, with many twists, and where the basic themes are common to many stories, old and new. Without Homer, we would not have much history from this time. The bard remains the oft unsung hero, without whom history is forgotten.
Cover art by my wonderful wife.
Come gather round and hear my tale
Sit on down let me regale
All of you with tales of yore
The likes you've never heard before
There was a king!
There was a queen!
There was a lover!
Stuck in between!
And then one night
on the plateau
There was a fight!
A fatal blow!
Come gather round and hear my tale
Sit on down let me regale
All of you with tales of yore
The likes you've never heard before
They fought for truth!
They fought for lies!
They fought for hope
that never dies!
They stood for all
of those who give
their lives for those
who are yet to live
And as they ride out in the sunset
The righteous triumph in the end
The curtain falls, and we all can take our bow
We’re just here to spread the word
So their story can be heard
So ends this tale of love and fate
and that is all, the hour is late
For every tale that I have has spun
There is one more not yet begun