Axis & Allies - damowords

Vikings
The crow‐dark, horse‐swift, norse‐driven dragons,
Bow‐keen, wave‐cleaving, crossing western sea,
Quaffing culdee blood from frothing flagons
Fill Albyn coast with hosts of empery;
Highlands, islands,
New‐found Norwegian fjords;
Neutralized thro violence ‐ mace, battleaxe & sword.
Bezerker kingdom thrust its span
Entrusting their gods of war
To Lindisfarne, the Isle of Man,
All along the Pictish shore,
Then raisʹd their gaze on Aethalstan,
Blood‐eagles to the fore,
The days of village pillaging have passʹd,
These traders now intend a raid to last.
They rampage thro Northumbria
Right down to Watling Street,
East Anglia & Murcia
Low‐wittlʹd with defeat ‐
How long before the Saxons are themselves conquerʹd
complete
Sanctae Eadmundestow
880
Alfred
Only the lords of Wessex would defy
This victual flamboyance of the Vikings,
ʺAre we not Saxonsʺ rang their captainʹs cry,
The morning chorus of the English kings;
As great a man
As ever was Pompey,
He drives his battle‐plan along the old Ridgeway.
They met the Norsemen on the hill
Their liberties to defend,
A moment to make time stand still,
Immortailty suspend ‐
Britain some Nordic overspill
Or war‐heroic blend
The Saxons win the better of the fight
The ravens break the cloth & put to flight.
He builds a worthy capital
Writ law in native tongue,
The chronicle of his struggle
Preservʹd in prose & song,
Then married into Mercia to make his nation strong.
Winchester
892