The queen of the elves took a mortal man
Away from the woman who loved him,
Captured his heart in her careless hand
To keep at her side for a plaything.
He went to meet his sweetheart
At a crossroads dark and blind,
Fell beneath the silken spell
That lingers in the mind.
On our white horses of mist and moon,
Sheltered from human emotion,
Seven the voices that sang the tune
Sealing him in his devotion.
Men who worship beauty
More than they worship truth
Risk their souls in the embrace
Of immortal youth.
We were the elven and summerborn,
Cruel in our self-absorption,
Polished by time till our beauty shone
Like a stone that is carved by the ocean.
Still in his enchantment
Remembrance cried aloud.
He begged to journey home again,
Though love to her he'd vowed.
Lady of silver and spiderweb,
How could a mortal man harm her?
Unless he had found what we all must dread:
The heart beneath the armor.
He turned his back to Elfland.
Death laughed and struck him down!
And from his tread a poison spread,
And frost grew on the ground.
Queen in her tower of adamantine,
Cycles and changes defying,
She sits at her window and darkly dreams
While Elfland around her is dying.
Once the songs of summer
Were all her heart could know,
But she played thief with love and grief
And turned her world to snow.
We are the last of the elvenkind
Locked in our winter of sorrow,
Cursed with the feelings of humankind ~
Today, and for all of tomorrow.
