Crazy Man Michael

Within the fire and out on the shore

Crazy man Michael was walking

He met with a raven with eyes black as coals

And shortly they were a-talking

"Your future, your future I will tell to you

Your future you often have asked me

Your true love will die by your own right hand

And crazy man Michael would cursed be"

Michael he went dead and Michael he left

And he beat the four winds with his fists-o

He laughed and he cried, he shouted and swore

For his mad mind had trapped him with a kiss-o

"You speak with an evil, you speak with a hate

You speak for the devil that haunts me

For is she not the fairest in all the broad land?

Your sorcerer's words are to taunt me"

He took out his dagger of fire and of steel

And he struck down the raven through the heart-o

The bird fled at long and the sky it did spin

And the cold earth did run and startle

"Oh where is the raven that I struck down dead

And he should lay on the ground-o?

For I see that my true love with a wound so bad

But her lover's heart it did hound-o"

Crazy man Michael he wanders and walks

And he talks to the night and the day-o

But his eyes they are sane and his speech it is clear

And he longs to be far away-o

Michael he whistles the simplest of tunes

And asks the wild woods their pardon

For his true love has flown into every flower grown

And he must be keeper of the garden