[Bards] The Old Green Dragon*

[Peter Schorn]

When I first came to the Shire
  In the springtime of my year,
I saw the old Green Dragon
  Aglow with warmth and cheer.
Where the Nine Companions waited
  And the old Ringbearer too,
At the merry old Green Dragon
     The hearty old Green Dragon
     The hopeful old Green Dragon
When all the world was new.

When I went down to Fleet Street
  In the summer of my year,
There stood the old Green Dragon
  Where the rake-hells took their beer.
Where the Herald and the Tatler drank-
  (And His Lordship paid the score!)
At the cunning old Green Dragon
     The smoky old Green Dragon
     The fiery old Green Dragon
That made a mighty roar!

When I went to Gleann Abhann
  In the autumn of my year,
There in the old Green Dragon
  Once more they did appear:
The Bards and the Adventurers
  The Heroes in disguise,
At the dreaming old Green Dragon
     The storied old Green Dragon
     The resounding old Green Dragon
Before my tear-filled eyes.

When I go by the Low Road
  In the winter of my year
I'll seek the old Green Dragon
  And the faces that were dear.
For when I hear their laughter
  And see their eyes alight
At the kindly old Green Dragon
     The welcoming Green Dragon
     The decent old Green Dragon
I'll know my path was right.


*Everyone here knows the Green Dragon Tavern of Tolkien's Middle Earth.  But
there is another: in Fleet Street, where all the British tabloids (like the
Tatler and the Herald) were and are published.  It's a newspaperman's bar,
where all the muckrakers gather to drink and smoke and plot to afflict the
comfortable.  G. K. Chesterton wrote a poem about it, and that inspired me
to write this poem about the Green Dragon tavern at the Gulf Wars site.

This poem is of course not period, however poems like it very nearly are.
In the 1600's it was not uncommon for publicans and tavern-keepers to
commission street ballads advertising their establishments (c.f. "The Man in
the Moon Drinks Claret," about the Man in the Moon tavern, a song which
first appeared in a collection entitled-hm-The Bagford Ballads.)

--Cadfan ap Morgan Godrudd, March, AS XXXXI