First we watched a league of longships swarm along the river Deben heard the beat of oar in rhythm heard the slapping of the water roar of Saxon froze the marrow saw the white winged sails enfolded like our homing birds at sunset So began the raids and plunder fights with iron fist and metal slaughter for each other's kingdoms in the evening then these Norse men drank sweet mead that summons dreaming gods of love and war and thunder seas that lure and cast asunder drifting to the realms of Wōden sea wolves sailing up the Deben
©Laura Granby
Taking to the waters in Longfellow rhythm with the Real Toads 100 word prompt: Sailing.
PoetryPix 
Well done Laura…I felt like I was reading Hiawatha but with Norse longships….
love the meter of that saga and so tried it here
I caught that, too. Wonderful work – I really love this.
many thanks for your encouraging words
Thanks for your response Laura. I luv the history, rthym and rhyme
Much love…
a thought-provoking prompt Gillena
It always gladdens me to see how one poem may give rise to another. You tell the tale very stirringly. History is so bound to the mastery of rivers and seas.
know what you mean Kerry – its the lineage – akin to this one of our forefathers!
Maybe it’s time to apologize for what my Norse forefathers might have done… I love how you saw that scene of those iron-fisted men coming up the river… terrible yet with a romantic flare.
the Anglo Saxons made us what we are! always imagine them coming up this river when I visit a favourite spot in Suffolk where the renowned AS burial site was discovered here at Sutton Hoo
What a great idea to write this in that rhythm – and it is actually quite reminiscent of old Anglo-Saxon verse.
was prompted by the prompt Rosemary and fun to attempt that trochaic tetrameter 😛
It’s like you’re channeling the buried king at Sutton Hoo … A dream of earth and gold and death. The circular narrative gives it the round of an old song on an old record player, buried deep in a cultural earth & still playing. Does our ache for wilderness include the braying of these sea wolves?
yes we have become rather mundane methinks and yearn for a bit of wilderness too- I like your record playing history motif and clever critique
I adore this!
Love this musicality and the specific images in history that this conjured up…save me a drop of that sweet mead so that I may dream, too, on the sea. Thanks for sharing!
you merely need to drink the Norse mythological ‘mead of poetry’
Oh my goodness, the rhythm and rhyme in this placed me on those very seas. A wonder to read!!!!!!!
very many thanks Sherry ❤