(A local folk song of Bree, often hummed or sung by Taite)
The Hart And The Hind
A young hart stood in the forest
With his head held proud and tall
He heard a sweet voice singing
And followed the gentle call
His footsteps led him truly
To a glade of sun and shade
There upon the fern-bed
A lovely hind was laid
He stood a while and listened
To her song of love’s desire
And in his proud chest wakened
The heat of passion’s fire
“Oh, you have called me to you”
He cried out to the hind
“Come rise and follow after
Let us leave this glade behind”
She turned to him in sorrow
And shook her dappled head
“Don’t ask me to come with you
Nor leave my forest bed”
In grief the young stag parted
“I’ll force her from that glade”
He swore himself this promise
That in his ire was made
He waited until nightfall
When the moon shone through the trees
He found a camp of hunters
He smelled smoke on the breeze
In shadow he crept closer
And from the fire he bore
A flaming brand of oak-wood
Then swiftly fled once more
On cloven hoof he went back
To seek the hind’s dark glade
The moon refused to shine down
On the doomed oath he had made
She wept to see them draw near
The hart and his bright flame
“Now you will rise and follow
Now you are mine to claim”
He set fire to the fern-bed
The flames around her drew
She cried aloud in terror
“I cannot go with you”
As each fern was devoured
The hart at last could see
His lovely hind in fullness
Of legs, she had but three
The fire shone like midday
The glade was all alight
The cries of hart and hind
Rose high into the night
When dawn at last was broken
The hart looked on the glade
He bowed his antlered head
And by her side he stayed
Amid the ash and the smoke
A tear fell from his eye
“I did not care to listen
‘Tis my fault you should die”
He wandered back to the forest
But where his tear had lain
A shoot as green as springtime
Began to grow again
Through autumn and through winter
The stem stayed ever green
And when the sun returned
A flaming rose was seen
A young hart stood in the forest
With his face turned to the west
“I swear I smell her once more
The hind that I loved best”
