From the recording Never Look Back
There is a legend associated with a village called Wolverley in Worcestershire where a Medieval knight was supposedly carried back from a prison in the crusades by an angel and found by the bride he had left. He was very modest though so he said it was a swan that had carried him!
Lyrics
The Swan
Guitar: capo on 2nd fret except on 6th string (ie Drop D) play in D = E maj
E B A E
A knight took his lovely bride by her soft hand
A B A B
Said, “My love I must go to a far off land
A B A E
To fight in a holy war for my God and King.”
A B A E
He lifted her lovely hand and slipped off her ring.
“My Lord there’s danger there in the places you’ll go,
Sickness and famine and a murdering foe
Or for some foreign beauty’s face your heart will burn
And our love will lose its place and you’ll never return.”
Chorus
A E A E
I cut this ring in two and give one half to you
A E B
Wear it next your heart until I return
The journey was long and slow, through dangers they came
Until they faced their foe in the heat of the sun
The battle was long and hard his wounds made him frail
At last taken prisoner, he was flung in a jail.
His bride sat in the gloom of the evening sun
Watching it melt away into the moon
The hours turned into weeks, the weeks became years
And time could not heal the wounds nor banish her fears.
Chorus
Middle 8
D A E B D A B
As he lay in his dungeon dark and deep he began to pray
D A E B D A B
And as she lay on a feather bed trying to sleep his memory slipped away.
An angel appeared to him with a cross of gold
Her lovely neck was long, her white wings spread wide
She lifted and carried him, laid him in a field
And as a swan watched over him ‘til found by his bride.
He said “I have half of a ring to keep me true.”
And then from her locket she took a half ring too
And into her quivering hand his half he laid
And when they met together a circle they made.
Chorus
Copyright Kevin O'Regan 2010