[Verse I]
They drove the worm through bedrock jaws,
Through smoke and broken shale,
And Richard dropped the mountain down
Across the dragon’s trail.
But still he clawed through stone and fire,
Still shook the wounded land—
Till Andrew leapt from Stormbreaker
With Drakes Bane in his hand.
[Verse II]
The sword was made for elder wars,
Too fierce for mortal bone,
His blood ran black across the hilt,
He held that beast alone.
He screamed as if the world would split,
Yet deeper drove the star—
And pinned beneath a mountain’s weight
The wrath called Nidhagar.
[Chorus]
Oh toll the guns and raise the dead,
For those who would not flee—
Some men are born to hold the line,
Some die to make men free.
[Verse III]
Then Fitzgerald brought his ship so near
Men begged him sheer away,
But through the fire he answered them,
“No dragon lives today.”
The monster turned—its furnace breath
Lit sail and mast in flame,
Yet closer through the burning storm
That iron warship came.
[Verse IV]
The decks were fire. The gunners burned.
Still powder boys ran true.
With blistered hands they hauled the guns
As dying sailors do.
And Fitzgerald, smoke about his face,
Stood where the splinters flew—
“Run out the guns… hold steady lads…
One final broadside. Through.”
[Chorus]
Oh toll the guns and raise the dead…
Verse V
At pistol range the broadside roared,
It tore the dragon wide—
Then flame consumed the gallant ship
Before the echoes died.
She broke in fire, she fell in ruin,
Men burning as they sang—
And as she dropped from heaven’s height
Her victory guns still rang.
[Bridge (slow, mournful)]
Some say Fitzgerald laughed at death
And faced it like a friend…
Some say his final whispered words
Were only, “Fire again.”
[Final Verse]
Then wounded, reeling, broken-backed,
The great wyrm tried to rise—
The fleet closed in like judgment storms
And blackened all the skies.
But when they sing of Nidhagar,
His slayer’s not the star—
They sing the captain who sailed through hell
And fired the fatal spar.
[Final Chorus]
Oh toll the guns for Fitzgerald’s crew,
Whose burning ship still flies—
For some men fall beneath the flames
And still their courage survives.
The dragon died by many hands…
But all men know by far—
Death took a fleetman’s wooden deck
To finish Nidhagar.
[Outro (soft, mournful)]
Now when the evening bugles sound
And fleet lamps cross the foam,
They speak of those who did not come
Yet somehow brought us home.
And Andrew bled, and Richard stood,
And brave Germans held the scar—
But sailors lift a silent glass
For lost Fitzgerald’s star.
For dragons die by shot and steel,
By courage pushed too far—
But kingdoms live because one ship
Sailed burning into war.
[Final line (almost spoken)]
…and fired one last broadside for the world.
ElCeviche
