My Virtual Reading Room

I know it's a bit late, but I thought you might enjoy anyway...:)

Found via elenbarathi--many thanks!

These two by Gwydion Pendderwen are rather somber but lyrical:

Return of the King:


Dark, dark is the swirling flood
Black, black is the stain of blood
Deep slumbers the apple's bud
While low fires burn
[Chorus:]
Winds blow where the night is chill
Owls shriek from the highest hill
She waits 'neath the moon until
Her lover's return

Low now is the star
In its course in the sky
Each day as it passes by
Winter is not far

Leaves fall from the dying trees
Gone there in the autumn breeze
Now locked in deep mystery
He sleeps in the earth
Here lonely the lady roves
Through frosty fields and groves
Earth waits for the king she loves
Waiting to give birth

When summer was high
And the leaves were bright green
Stags in the woods were seen
Birds blackened the sky

Red mantle and silver wing
Flash bright in the early spring
Two lovers are waiting thing
From the lady's bright face
Come, winter is passing now
Buds swell on the apple now
Earth falls and receives the plow
Her lover's embrace

All creatures rejoice
For the king and his queen
Wearing the garlands green
Now speak in one voice

[Repeat chorus]

The Wintery Queen:

THE WINTERY QUEEN
by Gwydion Pendderwen

Blood red skies in the morning,
Pitch-black heavens every night
Take them both as a warning
That the winter fire need be bright.
Fierce the blaze on the mountain
Sheds its light for miles around
While the stream and the fountain
Lie frozen and locked in the ground.

(Refrain):
Now the leprous white Lady
Leads Her train of the lost
Leads the spirits through glade and wood
And goodly fields of frost.

Summer's consort waxed brightly
The tall and golden-haired prince
And She came to him nightly
With pomegranate and quince.
Dead and gone is Her lover
The most fair and radiant of all
Now she'll never recover
The king cut down in the fall.

While the climbing sun tarried
As if his marches were stayed
At midsummer they married
Mortal man and immortal Maid
But the king never reckoned
What he gives for the boreal crown --
To be god but a second
Ere the sun starts his course ever down.

Through the summer and after
In the sere and brown of the fall
Days were filled with their laughter
And nights with their echoing call
But as autumn leaves smolder
And the smoke slowly drifts through the air
So the young king grew older
And withered and died in despair

Nine white maidens attend Her
Where she treads without leaving spoor
As she seeks her defender
Who shall wear the crown once more.
By the light of the beacon
You can see Her pass through the ring
She'll not weary nor weaken
Till she finds Her wintertide king.


And this one is funny:
(Santa Claus is Pagan Too, by Emerald Rose)