The Wind that Shakes the Barley

"The Wind that Shakes the Barley" is a Misthalani folk ballad that has grown very popular among the lower classes of the occupied nation. The song tells the tale of a young Misthalani resistance fighter and his lover.

Lyrics

 * "I sat within a meadow green
 * I sat me with my true love
 * My sad heart strove to choose between
 * The old love and the new love
 * The old for her, the new that made
 * Me think on Mist'lin dearly
 * While soft the wind blew down the glade
 * And shook the golden barley
 * Twas hard the woeful words to frame
 * To break the ties that bound us
 * But harder still to bear the weight
 * Of foreign chains around us
 * And so I said, "The forest glen
 * I'll seek at morning early
 * And join the brave United Men
 * While soft winds shake the barley
 * While sad I kissed away her tears
 * My fond arms 'round her flinging
 * The foeman's yell burst on our ears
 * From out the wildwood ringing
 * A quarrel pierced my true love's side
 * In life's young spring so early
 * And on my breast in blood she died
 * While soft winds shook the barley
 * I bore her to some mountain stream
 * And many's the summer blossom
 * I placed with branches soft and green
 * About her gore-stained bosom
 * I wept and kissed her clay-cold corpse
 * Then rushed o'er vale and valley
 * My vengeance on the foe to wreak
 * While soft winds shook the barley

Trivia

 * In reality, this ballad was Irish in origin, referring to the early Irish struggles for independence from England.
 * But blood for blood without remorse
 * I've taken at Avar's Hill
 * And laid my true love's clay-cold corpse
 * Where I full soon may follow
 * As 'round her grave I wander drear
 * Noon, night and morning early
 * With breaking heart when e'er I hear
 * The wind that shakes the barley"