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Title: The Banning Of The Pest
Author: George Borrow [
More Titles by Borrow]
From the Finnish.
The plague is solemnly conjured to leave the country, and the speaker offers to find a suitable conveyance, namely a demon-horse summoned from one of those mountains in Norway supposed to be inhabited by evil spirits and goblins.
Hie away, thou horrid monster!
Hie away, our country's ruin!
Hie thee from our plains and valleys!
I will find thee fit conveyance,
Find a horse for thee to ride on,
One whose feet nor slip nor stumble
On the ice or on the mountain;
Get thee gone, I do conjure thee;
Take thee from the hill a courser,
From the Goblin's Burg a stallion
For thy dreary homeward journey;
If thou ask me for conveyance,
If thou ask me for a courser,
I will raise thee one full quickly,
On whose back though mayest gallop
To thy home accurst in Norway,
To the flint-hard hill in Norway.
When the Goblin's Burg thou reachest
Burst with might its breast asunder;
Plunge thee past its sand-born witches
Down into the gulf eternal;
Never be thou seen or heard of
From that dismal gulf eternal.
Get thee gone, I do conjure thee,
Into Lapland's thickest forest,
To the North's extremest region;
Get thee gone, I do command thee,
To the North's most dusky region.
[The end]
George Borrow's poem: Banning Of The Pest
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