King Largen of the Frozen North

 

King Largen of the frozen north

Took his sword and went he forth

To seek the dragon Dalenboke

That sorely plagued his peaceful folk.

Five days had passed upon his way

And then he met a princess fey

Who asked him why he bore his sword

Across her stream and tranquil fjord.

He told his tale of dragon hate

And bid her help him seek his fate.

So boon he asked, and boon he got

She led him to a sacred spot.

"Rest you now, here by this stream

When you awake perhaps you'll seem

To find a new way to your goal

Just listen to your dreaming soul."

The fey, they think in slipp'ry ways.

Unlike men: too straight their gaze.

Largen slept just like a child

And in the dreamland he was exiled.

When last he woke at break of day

The world had turned, gone was the fey.

His sword had rusted red as blood

The stream had risen like a flood.

The season changed, whole years had passed;

New trees had grown in tall green grass.

Fear and wonder filled his mind

He rose and left this place behind.

North he went to hearth and home

In ragged clothes wet with foam.

At last he found his valley fair

But as you guessed, none were there.

The massive skull of Dalenboke

Hung in the branches of an oak.

A sign he read through many tears

"Our king abandoned us for years...

At last, we found an inner fire

Against the beast so grim and dire.

Our king had fled so we must try

To slay the beast that burns the sky."

Largen's goal was reached at last

By people long dead in the past.

He stood a while with rusty blade

All alone in Springtime glade.

At last the blade found its rest

Standing from the old king's chest.

He joined his people, heroes all,

In his gods' vast, shining hall.

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