Forgotten Ground Regained
Mother's Song (extract)
Ideses bright, in the birthing time,come to your kinder with kindly heart,bring her the might of mothers in need:a woman awaits, wife and mother,with horn of milk and honeyed bread,Gyfu engraved, to gain your friendship.Bring, for this bairn, birth-runes ruddy.Loosen all knots, and lend to your daughterthe might beyond measure of mothers in need.
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Here settle, Ideses, settle here and there:some to help the fettered, some to harry the foe.fall upon the fear-bands, fetters of might...Unbind the birthing, bring forth the child!
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Blessed and bright are the bearers of children,the givers of life. Great in the belly,the callow one turns, kicks into ribs,pounds on the gut like a pup of the thunderer,a weight to his mother, a wyrm under earth.The ninth-moon waning, womb in her hands,she groans and grimaces, grabs at the birth-runesburning in her belly, braces the womb-web,thews of Thrud, to thrust the kinder -a brand to the flame. Her brow is hot,wet the linen - the lake of the bellyhas burst its bank. With bands of might,gripping tightly, she goads the young one,earthwife’s cargo, out of the darkness,from womb to the world. Wailing and bloody,the babe is brought to breast and milk.The cord is cut. Cradling her womb-song,defiant, she dares any deny her her prize.
Copyright © Math Jones, 1996
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