The best progressive rock bands can hardly lie content with simple subject matter. Their musical dexterity and munificence require much greater challenges that can best be supplied by outlandish subject matter of the kind found in the great pagan epics.
In the early 80s, with the mighty Fish at the helm, Marillion were at the peak of their powers and the height of their ambition. This concentration of musical talent and hunger required a titanic song, and "Grendel" was the result, a sprawling epic, celebrating the monster in the Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf. This performance is from a 1983 show at London's Hammersmith Odeon.
The lyrics are as follows:
Midnight sun bids moors farewell
retreats from charging dusk
Mountain's echo, curfew's bell
signal ends in tasks
They place their faith in oaken doors
cower in candle light
The panic seeps through bloodstained floors
as Grendel stalks the night
Earth rim walker seeks his meals
Prepare the funeral pyres
The shapers' songs no longer heal the fear
within their eyes, their eyes...
Wooden figures, pagan gods
stare blindly across the sea
Appeal for help from ocean fogs
for saviours born of dreams
They know their lives are forfeit now
Priestly heads they bow in shame
They cannot face the trembling crowd
that flinch in Grendel's name
Earth rim walker seeks his meals
Prepare the funeral pyres
The shapers' songs no longer heal the fear
within their eyes, their eyes...
As Grendel leaves his mossy hall
beneath the stagnant air
along the forest path he roams
to Hrothgar's Hall so clear
He knows that victory is secure
His jaw will testify.
His claws will drip with mortal blood
as moonbeams haunt the sky
As Grendel leaves his mossy hall
beneath the stagnant air
along the forest path he roams
to Hrothgar's Hall so clear
He knows that victory is secure
His jaw will testify.
His claws will drip with mortal blood
as moonbeams haunt the sky
Earth rim walker seeks his meals
Prepare the funeral pyres
The shapers' songs no longer heal the fear
within their eyes, their eyes...
Silken membranes span his path
Fingerprints, elegy
Denizens of twilight lands
humbly beg him through
Mother nature's bastard child
shunned by leaf and stream
An alien in an alien land
seeks solace within dreams
The shaper's lies, his poisoned tongue
malign with mocking art
Beguiling Queen, her innocence
offends his icy heart
PART TWO
Hounds freeze in silence
bewitched by the reptile spell
Sulphurous essence
pervades round the grassy dell
Heorot awaits him
like lamb to the butcher's knife
Stellular heavents
ignore even children's cries
Screams are his music
lightning his guide
Wrapped in the darkness
death by his side
Chants rise in terror
flee round the oaken beam
Flickering firelights
portraying the grisly scene
Warriors advance
prepare for the nightmare foe
Futile their sacrifice
as even their hearts must know
Heroes' delusions
with feet in the grave
Lurker at the threshold
he cares not for the brave
He cares not for the brave
So you thought that your bolts and locks would keep me out
You should have known better after all this time
You're gonna pay in blood for all you vicious slander
With your ugly pale skins and your putrid blue eyes
Why should I feel pity
when you kill your own
and feel no shame
God's on my side, sure as hell
I'm gonna take no blame.
I'm gonna take no blame
I'm gonna take no blame.
So you say you believe in all of Mother natere's laws
You lust for gold with your sharpened knifes
and when your hordes are gathered and your enemies left to rot
you pray with your bloodstained hands at the feet of your pagan gods
Then you try to place the killer's blame in my hands
You call for justice
distort the truth
Well I've had enough of all you pretty, pretty speeches
Receive your punishment
Expose your throats to my righteous claws
and let the blood flow
and let the blood flow...
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