An Unfortunate Night

Summary

An Unfortunate Night

A mother, father, and child
Family modest and mild
When they took a trip
And carriage did flip
Then the Lord of the Dead smiled.

The son perceived the night close
And watched his parents death throes
The orb of the night
Left the boy affright
And chilled him right down to his toes.

About came a man with veiled head
When the parents' lives had just fled
He sat next to the boy
And with no tone of joy
Began speaking, here's what he said.

Death is a void we all enter
Both sinner and the repenter
The Lord of the Dead
With grinning horse head
Becomes the living's tormenter.

When the child then closed his eyes
And opened them to his surprise
The night had not passed
His torment would last
The Lord of the Dead claimed his prize.

-Author unknown.

Historical Basis

The rhyme was most often sung by the children of Darren during the it's High Imperial times, towards the end of the Listless Ages. Contemporaneous historians mostly considered it a metaphor for the hardship of orphans. This theory found widespread acceptance, thanks in no small part to the constant presence of war-orphans in the Kingdom in those times. However, a few scholars rejected this "simplistic" explanation, noting that the tune could be traced to an elven song about a child who braved the underworld to recover his slain parents.
Since the Age of Ascendants and the widespread rediscovery of ancient knowledge, the rhyme is viewed through a much different lens. Modern scholars almost unanimously agree that the rhyme is ancient, dating back to the end of Braka, and details the rise, fall, and rerise of Nal'rakalor, the first Lord of the Dead, and the first host of the Óvættr Death. The rhyme changed much in the following millenia, but the "Lord of the Dead" reference remains. It is argued that this represents the generational fear of necromancy in the Darrenese people.

Spread

The rhyme has many versions, and verses can vary greatly even between neighboring towns. The verses quoted above are present in most versions of the rhyme. Interestingly, there is almost no variation in the tune that the rhyme is sung to between different regions.