Lo! Praise the prowess of the Porcos Bravos
Of spear armed Celts in days long sped
We have heard, and what honour the Gallego’s have won
Oft wresting the cup from squandered foes
From many a Saxon the ale horn tore.
Loud were the songs of bard’s and the rune’s re-telling
The tales of deeds round campfires told
Bold they were and raimed in black
With strong shield arms for lifting many drafts
And vast their hunger for creatures of the land and sea
Our story born in the mists of legend
told the saga of a meeting before a wedding
Tween races of great renown
A battle was fought that echoed Through the ages
It shook the very heavens
The old gods shrank in fear at the coming tide
The Porcos Bravos and the Stags -
Eternal would the struggle be
Who is good and who is evil?
None can tell for sure
These matters are as of the tide
And the whims of the lords of Valhalla
But this was certain
The war would be long and bitter
And so it has proven
Eleven times the foes had met
The issue went this way and that
Who were once victorious where then defeated
A tide in the affairs of man
And so, to write another saga
One to be told by the bards of vigo and
of pontevedra and corrunna
The Porcos Bravos set forth once more
From the land of rain they came
Their ships with serpent’s prow
drove on with purpose
As for men with blood of ice and
black hearts full of dark design
fell in aspect and in humour
In their midst were heroes many
Who sat in the Halls of the Griffon and swollen Cat
And the hound named bassett
From fresh faced youth and loyal thanes with hair of silver
Main was their captain, with aspect of Crow
The blue and white banner unfurled
Martin he was named, hammer of the Stags
who many a shield wall had broken
Serge, inn-keeper and bard and Santi, the keeper
Louis the scribe and Arthur, minstrel beloved of the folk
And argie, the reaver, fandinho, an artist with ball and flagon,
And marcos, swifter than an arrow and
issac of the golden boots
and Louis named of the river
Their longships sailed the perilous waters
To do honour and battle the Saxon once more
From the North they came
To the land of Steel, fire hidden like Dragon’s breath
Sweeping like a plague through the homelands
Many a draft was taken, many an ale house left in ruin
Many a hostel and homestead defiled
They laid waste from Newcastle to the River Don
A fury unabated, stern through helmets of burnished steel
A plague upon this noble land,
a desolation, a reckoning
To meet their foes on a field of green
The Stags were readied for the coming storm
Pigs they named them, for pigs they were
With allies from the North and Chester’s Field and Rother-ham
But Stags also with hearts of English Yew
Their King, in exile, returning to lead his banner men
Steeled against the foe, the black shadow
Oaths had been taken, for such a deed,
reclaim the cup of pewter
Forged in fire, with handles two
To lay again in it’s home hearth
By the island of Kelham
The balance of the world restored
And so they met again on a field of honour
A stern test, a warrior’s test,
of arms and skill and strength
of arm and heart and liver
who should triumph?
Lo! Let the fates decide and the god’s decree
Long was the fight, and many a shield was sundered
And many a sword was broken and hauberk split
The sound and fury split the very heavens
And yet the struggle was long in doubt
First one then the other held sway
Heroes gave battle, berserk in their fury
But ere did the brave Stags win the day
Their shield wall, too stout to break
Their Saxon hearts beating as of drums of war
The Porcos Bravos, their strength subdued,
Travel had wearied them
As with too much mead and feasting
And this their prize, six feet of English soil…….
