It's Robert Burns day! About a year ago, I was putting together a players guide to start running some D&D games set in my Scotland-inspired setting, Legends of Alba. It wouldn't have been complete without a nod to the bard.
I wrote this poem as a sort of 'in-world' tribute to the titular Legends, the irregular phenomena that sweep through mythic Alba, waves of Otherworld chaos, changing both land and folk. I don't really write poetry so was looking for a framework to hang these ideas off of, and came across The Burns Stanza. I think this form gives it a bit of gravity, with some added "Scottishness" since it was so heavily used by Burns. I also can't vouch for the authenticity of the pseudo-Auld-Scots words, I followed my mind's ear. Besides, who knows how they spoke in this version of Alba?
Anyway, coming back to this wee poem a year later I still like it. I was going for a feeling of a wild land suffused with magic, and a hint of confrontations unseen but lurking and inevitable. The Legends have come before, have now come again, a force outside the player characters, so it's up to them how they make their mark in this time of upheaval. So it's supposed to be a bit of a call to action, and it actually puts more focus on the hubris of the clans than I remembered (which is good because that's turned out to be a big theme in the game as we've played!). Anyway here it is, with thanks and apologies to Rabbie Burns.
Tae The Legends
Auld Winter's bones begin tae thaw
An' maid-fire springs fae haggard claw
Come wolf, come deer, come hoodie craw
And listen well
Come them that ken the ancients' law
Tae seal the spell
From highland broch, the chiefs rule firm
Nae sleepin' giant nor cowerin' wyrm
Wuid tempt a dandy laird's concern
From guarded hill
They hae the mettle to return
And so they will
As river's run, cuts thro' the ben,
Fae cragged stack o'er peatland fen
'Neath merry dance a' nimble men
The augurs bide
Now see The Legends come again
Tae answer pride
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