perborisetal: VAETTIR * by Barrie Singleton

His eye, alone, perceives unmeasured loss

as manned ships bring man-rumour in their wake

of new beginnings and a nailed man-god

eclipsing Mother Earth for new-name’s sake.

The sanguine skies care naught what they portend:

menstrual or placental or fell-let;

henceforth shall blood of man an ocean fill

till he drown in its tide, and time forget.

The Vættir’s bones, of earth and ages wrought

absorb this fatal blow and yet endure.

Caught twixt two worlds and denizen of none

he waits till Hel should judge his heart quite pure.

From cove and strand young warriors sail forth

to lodestone-lure, they tip horizon’s sill.

The Vættir’s lupine wights one with those kin

in empathy anticipate a kill.

Ere long the boundless sea is bound with lanes

its archetypal freedoms compromised;

great ships of war and plunder navigate

each masthead-flag despising and despised.

Then rampant male goals and values rise

in unchecked Bacchanalian excess;

the Vættir weeps to see The Feminine

purged from the Earth to ultimate distress.

Shamanic guardianship the world around

cut down to break connection with the Earth;

unknown to new-robed guardians of truth

takes with it all we ever had of worth.

Thus magic dies, displaced by empty word

and Earth - defiled - endures calamity.

The Vættir, mid the trees, absorbed as one;

held evergreen, awaits eternity.

Painting & Concept Sketch by Ihsan Alnasrawi, Vaettir: The Last Nature Spirit

http://www.ihsan.co.uk/traditional/vaettir_the-last-nature-spirit.htm

* Vættir (Old Norse; singular Vættr) or wights, are nature spirits in the Norse religion

perborisetal