The Bard's Halloween Tale pt 2

Back when blood was milk and bone
Was meal for monsters, when kings were mighty,
And furious their fists, but fair to honest
Thanes, and bane to enemies, their campaigns
Destroyed as dreams, and those who dared
To rush the shore, like shire sheep
Were slaughtered, their rotting bodies
Swept out upon the swan roads, or sunk
Into bog, while the brave took beer and song
In the great hall, hailing their health, especially
The gold givers', the good kings',
Before the weal of man waned, and Winter's
Hoar covered hall and hillfort,
Ere cowards carried treasures from cave
And barrow, bragging with their foul breath
Of their kin slaying, slithering and slime-coated
Tongues running in streams of brother-blood,
Before the descendants of Cain drew with the dark
Into man's way, walking and wearing his skin,
The Hall of Helmut, Haere Baden,
Stood Strong over the South Watches,
Turning back terrible tides of warmen,
Enlightening the land with the lord's speech,
For as with gold, as God, generous Helmut
Withheld no needed word, his wealth
Flowing to the best and bravest in battle.
No tribe would dare ride the high waves
To his shores and war, no score of men,
No hundreds beheld Haere Baden
But turned back, trembling, terrorized.