Marillion Lyrics

Album: B-Sides Themselves

Grendel Lyrics

(Derek Dick)

I. Heorot's plea and Grendel's awakening

Midnight suns bid moors farewell, retreats from charging dusk

Mountain echo, curfews bell, signal ending tasks 

They place their faith in oaken doors, cower in candlelight

The panic seeps through bloodstained floors as Grendel stalks the night

Earth rim walker seeks his meals

Prepare the funeral pyres 

The shaper's songs no longer heal the fear

Within their eyes, [their eyes]

Wooden figures, pagan gods, stare blindly cross the sea 

Appeal for help from ocean fogs, for saviour born of dreams 

They know their lives are forfeit now, priestly head they bow in shame

They cannot face the trembling crowd that flinch in Grendel's name

Earth rim walker seeks his meals

Prepare the funeral pyres

The shaper's songs no longer heal the fear

Within their eyes, [their eyes]

As Grendel leaves his mossy home beneath the stagnant mere

Along the forest path he roams to Hrothgar's hall so clear 

He knows that victory is secured, his charm will testify 

His claws will drip with mortal blood as moonbeams haunt the sky

As Grendel leaves his mossy home beneath the stagnant mere

Along the forest path he roams to Hrothgar's hall so clear 

He knows that victory is secured, his charm will testify

His claws will drip with mortal blood, as moonbeams haunt the sky

Earth rim walker seeks his meals 

Prepare the funeral pyres 

The shaper's songs no longer heal the fear 

Within their eyes, [their eyes]

-=o=-=o=-

II. Grendel's Journey

Silken membranes span his path, fingerprints in dew 

Denizens of twilight lands humbly beg him through

Mother nature's bastard child shunned by leaf and stream

An alien in an alien land seeks solace within dreams 

The shaper's lies his poisoned tongue malign with mocking harp 

Beguiling queen her innocence offends his icy heart

-=o=-=o=-

III. Lurker at the Threshold

Hounds freeze in silence bewitched by the reptile spell 

Sulphurous essence pervades round the grassy dell 

Heorot awaits him like lamb to the butcher's knife 

Stellular heavens ignore even children's cries

Screams are his music, lightning his guide

Raping the darkness, d-d-death by his side

Chants rise in terror, free round the oaken beams 

Flickering firelight portraying the grisly scene

Warriors advance, prepare for the nightmare foe 

Futile their sacrifice as even their hearts must know

Heroes delusion, with feet in the grave

Lurker at the threshold, he cares not for the brave, he cares not for the brave

-=o=-=o=-

IV. Finale

So you thought that your bolts and your locks would keep me out

You should have known better after all this time 

You're gonna pay in blood for all your vicious slander 

With your ugly pale skins and your putrid blue eyes 

Why should I feel pity when you kill your own and feel no shame 

God's on my side, sure as hell

I'm gonna take no blame

I'm gonna take no blame

I'm gonna take no blame

So you say you believe in all of Mother Nature's laws

You lust for gold with your sharpened knives 

Oh when your hoards are gathered and your enemies left to rot 

You pray with your bloodstained hands at the feet of your pagan gods

Then you try to place the killer's blade in my hand 

You call for justice and distort the truth

Well I've had enough of all your pretty pretty speeches

Receive your punishment

Expose your throats to my righteous claws

And let the blood flow, and [let the blood flow], flow, flow, flow.