A Thousand Wolves

As I lay in a field near my home
The thunder clouds began to moan
I looked to the north and heard
The baying of a thousand wolves
And o’er their keening came a cry
That tore the blood from the sky
“Death from Odin” was the cry I heard that day
from the clouds so far away
“Death from Odin was a phase I’d never heard
Though my heart felt every word

I sought the bards from all the lands
To sing me songs of this great man
I spoke his name and people smiled or cringed
Until one day I found his kin
They smiled when I told them of
The volume of his cry
They howled like wolves in the sky
Their steel they rattled and their mugs they held up high
Then told me how he lived and died

Song steel and blood were the things that fueled his soul
Love honor and valor claimed his heart
He could craft mighty armor from the earth
And judged each man by his worth
Then they told me how he died
A fearsome dragon from the sky
And though he fought to save his home and his wife
That damned dragon took his life

“Death from Odin” was the cry they heard that day
Though he was not far away
“Death from Odin” he howled when fate had come
And now, with the wolves, does he run