Leaves’ Eyes – “Meredead” sample and own words by Liv Kristine
Dear LEAVES’ EYES fans,
you can have a pre-listen to the titletrack “Meredead” from the upcoming Leaves Eyes album, which will be out 22 April!
Please, choose your Link:
MySpace
Own words – Meredead
Here comes the title track of our fourth full-length album! Firstly, let me explain the title, which is my own word-creation: To my grammatical knowledge, “Meredead” could mean ‘dead by the sea’, ‘or the deadly sea’. Poetically, we could add some imagination and lyrical sound and say “Sea of Death”. Secondly, the word “Meredead” sums up some of the themes rooted in my lyrics on the album.
Now you may ask, why sing in Old-English? Since my Old-English studies I’ve taken great interest in both Old-English poetry and grammar. I just felt that this song required Old-English lyrics, and an Old-English “sound”, moreover, it needed this historical feel! Old-English or Anglo-Saxon is an early form of the English language that was spoken and written by Angeln, Sachsen and Jüten (Germanic tribes, called Anglo-Saxons) and their descendants in parts of what are now England and southeastern Scotland between at least the mid-5th century and the mid-12th century. Although, for me, it meant digging my nose into my Old-English books for weeks (and buying even more at Amazon), I feel that it was really worth it, moreover, it made so much fun! For me, having Norwegian and Danish parents and grand-parents, it’s even more interesting that from the 9th century, Old-English experienced heavy influence from Old Norse, a member of the related North Germanic group of languages.
I highly recommend having a look at the book “The Cambridge Old English Reader” by R. Marsden.
Good luck with learning more about Old-English! Here’s my translation of my poem “Meredead”.
PS: I was amazed that my dear friend and great inspiration in classical singing, Maite Itoiz (Elfenthal), managed to sing her Old-English parts straight away, without any phonetic explanations from me! Well done! Thank you, Maite!
Liv
Meredead (original)
Be sam tweonum
Awa to aldre
Eow frithes healdan
Hire feollon tearas
of tham eagum
Eall heo
Waes mid sorgum
Gedrefed
Be saem tweonum
He waes forwundod
Be saem tweonum
Thaer reste he
Meredead
Awa to aldre
Always forever rest in peace
Stormedead
Awa to aldre
Sleeping on ocean’s ground
Be saem tweonum
He waes forwundod oooh
Be saem tweonum
Thaer slaepst thu
Thaet was egeslic wyrd
Swa byth tham men
Friora monna gangeth
On flodwegas
Meredead (translation)
Between the seas
Always forever
Peace be with you
Tears fell
From her eyes
She was all drenched with sorrow
Between the seas
He was hurt
Between the seas
He will rest
The deadly sea
Always forever rest in peace
The deadly storm
Always forever
Sleeping on ocean’s ground
Between the seas
He was hurt
Between the waves
You will rest
That was a terrible fate
So is it with the man
Free men travel
Their way across the seas
