to Ascalon
Aug. 23rd, 2005 12:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ellenkushnerI don't think I'd ever read Joan Aiken's The Shadow Guests before.
This verse - sung by the ghost of a young boy headed off to the Crusades who isn't very good at fighting, and repeated at the end of the novel - justabout breaks my heart:
See the crusader
Stride up the lane.
He will be a hero
When he comes again.
Gallant are they
Who now have gone
With helmet and sword
To Ascalon.
If he be not
In battle slain
He will be a hero
When he comes again.
This verse - sung by the ghost of a young boy headed off to the Crusades who isn't very good at fighting, and repeated at the end of the novel - justabout breaks my heart:
See the crusader
Stride up the lane.
He will be a hero
When he comes again.
Gallant are they
Who now have gone
With helmet and sword
To Ascalon.
If he be not
In battle slain
He will be a hero
When he comes again.