The Fae I Left Behind me — A Folk Tavern Song

The lyrics of this song are derived from an old folk ballad, "The Girl I Left Behind". It is an 18th-century European tune that became the anthem of the American frontier.

This is our "translation" of that classic 18th-century folk ballad. We've reimagined the story in a world of fantasy, turning the cavalryman's anthem into a traveler's lament for the fay lover he can never forget. With a lively, tavern-song feel, it tells a lifelong story of mortality and a love that defies it.

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Lyrics:

I left the wood at summer's wane,
The mortal road before me;
But every step, a sweet, sharp pain
For the fay I left behind me.
That silver-voiced, that starlit lass,
The fay I left behind me!

Should goblin-kin not steal my breath,
And lonely roads not claim me,
I'll cheat the grasp of mortal death
For the fay who waits behind me.
That silver-voiced, that starlit lass,
The fay I left behind me!

The sun grew dim, the world grew old,
The dust of years did blind me;
I dreamt of a love that can't grow cold,
The fay I'd left behind me.
That silver-voiced, that starlit lass,
The fay I left behind me!

She sent a dream on a moonbeam's thread,
A whisper meant to find me.
It said, "My love, when your road is sped,
By the silent pool you'll find me."
That silver-voiced, that starlit lass,
The fay I left behind me!

The world of men has maps and crowns,
And promises to keep...
But in the quiet, when the sun goes down,
Her name is all I weep.

My quest was done, my hair was grey,
I knew where I would find her;
She had not changed by a single day
A truth both cruel and kinder.
That silver-voiced, that starlit lass,
The fay I found behind me!

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