Cry of the Fairy Mound

Cry of the Fairy Mound On a cold grey night by the pale moonlight, I was walking the heathered ground, When a silver comb by the old sea foam At my weary feet was found. Then a wailing rose where the black wind blows, Like a widow’s broken vow, And I knew too well by that mournful yell There was death upon me now. Refrain Oh the banshee cries where the dark hills rise, And her voice will chill your bone. For the ones she mourns never see the dawn, When she sings her sorrowed tone. So turn your face from the fairy place When the night is drifting down— For the banshee’s song means a life is gone, From the hills of the fairy mound. I could see her there with her long white hair Falling wild around her gown, And her eyes so red from the tears she shed For the fate she must pass down. “Leave the comb,” she said, “or you’ll soon be dead,” With a voice like a river drowned— So I bowed my head, full of fear and dread, And I laid it on the ground. Oh the banshee cries where the dark hills rise, And her voice will chill your bone. For the ones she mourns never see the dawn, When she sings her sorrowed tone. So turn your face from the fairy place When the night is drifting down— For the banshee’s song means a life is gone, From the hills of the fairy mound. Then she vanished fast like a winter blast Through the mist on the moorland bare, And the stars grew dim as I whispered hymns For the soul she’d claimed somewhere. When the morning came, they had called my name— Said my brother had fallen down. And I knew that cry in the midnight sky Was her warning, cold and sound. Oh the banshee cries where the dark hills rise, And her voice will chill your bone. For the ones she mourns never see the dawn, When she sings her sorrowed tone. So heed her call when the shadows fall And the winds of fate resound— For the banshee’s song means a life is gone, From the hills of the fairy mound.