Today's little ditty comes from Dutch folk metal band Heidevolk...
From their album Uit Oude Grond.
Lyrics (Dutch):
As many may know, according to the sources the fictional Jewish Zombie's death occured around the time of the Jewish Passover. Now, all know the Catholic church's method of converting the pagan cultures consisted of a mixture of brute-force coercion and cultural assimilation, so the chronological equivalent they found to their Zombie Master's death and resurrection was the Spring fertility celebration, Ostara - Ēostre in the Anglo-Saxon dialect. And thus Easter was born.
So, always remember...
...is the real reason for the Easter season.
Lyrics (Dutch):
In het veld gehuld, in mist en kouLyrics (English):
Schijnt een glinstering, in de dauw
Als de hemel kleurt van zwart naart blauw
Ostara
In het oosten waar de nacht begon
Ontwaakt het licht der morgenzon
Haar ochtend zegent onze bron
Ostara
In de vroegte, als de dag begint
En de zon het sterrenveld verblindt
Als de lente winter overwint
Ostara
Bij de dageraad, door ans aanschouwd
Baant zonlicht zich een pad von goud
Door de kille nevels in het woud
Ostara
Nacht en dag bereiken evenwicht
Langverwachte terugkeer van het licht
Als de zon herrijst en kou verdwijnt
En het levenslicht het land beschijnt
Voel de warmte in de morgenstond
Weelderig groen ontspruit uit koude grond
Als het Saksisch volk de zon begroet
Op de heuvels badend in haar gloed
in the field covered, in fog and cold
shines a sparkle, in the dew
when heaven colors from black to blue
Ostara (spring)
in the east where the night began
wakes the light of morningsun
her morning blesses our well
Ostara
early in the morning, when the day begins
and when the sun blinds the starfield
when spring conquers winter
Ostara
at dawn, seen by us
opens sunlight a path of gold
through the chilly fog in the woods
Ostara
night and day reaches balance
long expected return of the light
when the sun returns and cold vanishes
and the light of life shines on the soil
feel the warmth in the morning
abundant green shoots from cold soil
when the Saxon people greets the sun
on the hills bathing in her glow
As many may know, according to the sources the fictional Jewish Zombie's death occured around the time of the Jewish Passover. Now, all know the Catholic church's method of converting the pagan cultures consisted of a mixture of brute-force coercion and cultural assimilation, so the chronological equivalent they found to their Zombie Master's death and resurrection was the Spring fertility celebration, Ostara - Ēostre in the Anglo-Saxon dialect. And thus Easter was born.
So, always remember...
Nacht en dag bereiken evenwicht,
night and day reaches balance
...is the real reason for the Easter season.
Thanks for your bilingual lyrics for the song, (and your hilarious--and accurate--historical connection), it's a really neat song. I especially like the part where they go, "Ost-tar-a!", but it's nice to know the rest of it too....like when they said, "mist en kou", and now I know that "kou" means "cold"...it's cool how in the Germanic languages, they share the simple words with English, like kou, kald, cold, or heide, hede, heath. (Also, when I was listening to this song for the first time, and didn't know the words, I just thought, 'goddess of the dawn', and now I see that they had that same thought, spring is like dawn. ^^ That was special. And that line--in the east, where the night began, wakes the light of morningsun--that was just perfect)
ReplyDeleteAlso, kudos to you for enjoying the kinda Saxon folksong here...the other day I made a joke, my parents are Irish, but I'm *totally* Danish, just like Caroline Wozniacki ^^...but I gotta say, it's pretty special that an African dude like it too...I haven't studied anything that's specifically African-folk, like, but I have read some goddess stuff, and I know that Erzulie was a goddess of love and women, I think she was originally from West Africa, which I guess would be to the north of where you are.
And, I guess you have a different opinion about teh elda gawds than I do, but that's okay. ^^ In paganism, everyone has different opinions...the one thing I've always found wierd about the Saxons and Scandinavians is that they make the Sun the Lady and the Moon the Lord, whereas the Latins, and virtually everybody else, do it opposite--which makes sense to me personally, since the Moon is all secret-like and feminine ^^
And even a pagan band like "Tyr" has these two songs, called Land', and 'Ocean' and Land is about belief, and Ocean is more about disbelief...at least as far as lies are concerned. There's even a line in it, "there are no gods to give us answers..." even though the band is named after the god Tyr, and yeah, partially to honor him, but also because *they* are Tyr, y'know?
And, you know, just because Odin hung upside-down from the World Tree for nine night long to discover the runes and the roots of wisdom, doesn't mean that he's gotta be manning the phones every hour of the day or night to answer all of our questions. His friends the ravens (the blackest birds ^^) bring him news and stuff sometimes, but the guy's gotta sleep sometimes, too, y'know? And, yeah, sometimes I bet he just wants to go picking apples with Idunn. ^^
He deserves it. :)