Here Be Dragons

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Here be dragons 

And so softly tread

Best not to wake them

Or you could wind up dead

Deep in her cave

Hoarding mountains of gold 

a treasure beyond measure

so the legends have told

brave men or foolish

have all tried their hand 

at gaining that fortune

to be king of the land

but all so far failed

burnt to a cinder

the fire of the dragon

did thus so render

so softly tread

let the dragons sleep

return to your fields 

and tend to your sheep

You have been warned…

Here be dragons!

© 2020 Lance Harrison

When I was first involved with my Dodecahedron Experiment, where I was rolling a twelve-sided die to determine a random order of notes, I was amazed at how out of the chaos came such a melodic structure could appear. I began sharing my results with my friend Niall who exclaimed, “Here be dragons!” I looked up the phrase and found it to mean, “dangerous or unexplored territories, in imitation of a medieval practice of putting illustrations of dragons, sea monsters, and other mythological creatures on uncharted areas of maps where potential dangers were thought to exist.” This experiment was, at least for me, unexplored territory.

This triggered my imagination to create a scene where someone was guiding another through a mountain pass and warning them about the legendary dragon that lived nearby, recounting its history. The words just rolled out as the nearly complete lyrics within minutes, perfectly fitting the music I had constructed through the third set of experimental rolls.