Filker.com

Teaching Song

Lyrics and Music ©1983 by Bill Roper


You know you've been at the filk too long when you realize that you've heard just one too many songs about how wonderful it would be if magic still ruled the earth and we happily coexisted with the fairies and the leprechauns. People are people, and there's no reason to believe that a person with power, magical or otherwise, isn't likely to become a none-too-benevolent dictator.

So here's a history written by the winners of the fight and taught to their children so that they'll never forget what it takes to win this particular battle.

In the meantime, enjoy the chord changes. There are a great many...

	(Chorus)
	Am         Dm   C       G              Am    Em    Am
	Where were you upon the night when the magic went away?
	         F            Am               E
	When the unicorns and dragons left for places far away?
	Am         Dm   C       G              Am          Em    Am
	Where were you upon the night when the old Earth's magic died?
	G                                       F         G       Am
	Swept away by the hammer's ring and the sparks' onrushing tide.

Am     Dm   C     G       Am   Em      Am
Not so very long ago, the Sorcerer was king
         G                         F
He could do most anything with the power he could bring
   Am                         G
To bear upon the land and the people who there dwell
         F                                    E
He could make their lives a heaven.  He could make their lives a hell.
   F                               G
He ruled us all by whim.  We could never understand.
F                                 E
With the power he wielded, he was feared throughout the land.
    F                                G
The creatures born of magic were his allies against man.
    F                             E
The goblins and the dragons were enough to stay our hand.

(Chorus)

We longed to beat the Sorcerer, to send him straight to hell,
But he was armored well by the power of his spell.
Until we found an orange rock and heated it with coal 
And found we had a power that could chill a warlock's soul.
The silver metal was imbued with forces great and strange
And could destroy the magic power of all who came in range.
We hammered out our weapons.  The orange sparks did fly.
Our swords of iron possessed the power.  The Sorcerer would die!

(Chorus)

Late one night with a hundred men, we stormed the Sorcerer's keep.
The night was cold and deep.  The Sorcerer asleep.
We cleft his spells with iron swords.  His magic creatures fled.
We burst into his chambers.  He sat straight up in bed.
He tried to freeze us with a spell.  We closed to his bedside.
We plunged our swords into his heart, and then the Warlock died.
So, children, know why we retain our iron swords close at hand:
To know the power of magic will stay banished from our land!

(Chorus)