The Book Of Secrets

 
 1. Prologue
 2. The mummer's dance
 3. Skellig
 4. Marco polo
 5. The Highwayman
 6.La Serenissima
 7. Night ride across the Caucasus
 8. Dante's prayer
 
 
 

Prologue - 4:22

Instrumental - Music Loreena McKennitt

The Mummer's Dance - 6:07

Music and Lyrics Loreena McKennitt

When in the springtime of the year
When the trees are crowned with leaves
When the ash and oak, and the birch and yew
Are dressed in ribbons fair
 

When owls call the breathless moon
In the blue veil of the night
The shadows of the trees appear
Amidst the lantern light
 

We?ve been rambling all the night
And some time of this day
Now returning back again
We bring a garland gay
 

Who will go down to those shady groves
And summon the shadows there
And tie a ribbon on those sheltering arms
In the springtime of the year
 

The songs of birds seem to fill the wood
That when the fiddler plays
All their voices can be heard
Long past their woodland days
 

And so they linked their hands and danced
Round in circles and in rows
And so the journey of the night descends
When all the shades are gone
 
 

"A garland gay we bring you here
And at your door we stand
It is a sprout well budded out
The work of Our Lord?s hand"

Skellig - 6:07
Music and Lyrics Loreena McKennitt
 
 

O light the candle, John
The daylight has almost gone
The birds have sung their last
The bells call all to mass
 

Sit here by my side
For the night is very long
There's something I must tell
Before I pass along
 

I joined the brotherhood
My books were all to me
I scribed the words of God
And much of history
 

Many a year was I
Perched out upon the sea
The waves would wash my tears,
The wind, my memory
 

I'd hear the ocean breathe
Exhale upon the shore
I knew the tempest's blood
Its wrath I would endure
 

And so the years went by
Within my rocky cell
With only a mouse or bird
My friend; I loved them well
 

And so it came to pass
I'd come here to Romani
And many a year it took
Till I arrived here with thee
 

On dusty roads I walked
And over mountains high
Through rivers running deep
Beneath the endless sky
 

Beneath these jasmine flowers
Amidst these cypress trees
I give you now my books
And all their mysteries
 

Now take the hourglass
And turn it on its head
For when the sands are still
'Tis then you'll find me dead
 

O light the candle, John
The daylight is almost gone
The birds have sung their last
The bells call all to mass

Marco Polo - 5:15

Instrumental - Music Loreena McKennitt

The Highwayman - 10:19

Music Loreena McKennitt; Lyrics Alfred Noyes, adapted by Loreena McKennitt

La Serenissima - 5:09

Instrumental - Music Loreena McKennitt

Night Ride Across The Caucasus - 8:30

Music and Lyrics Loreena McKennitt
 
 

Ride on Through the night Ride on
Ride on Through the night Ride on
 

There are visions, there are memories
There are echoes of thundering hooves
There are fires, there is laughter
There's the sound of a thousand doves
 

In the velvet of the darkness
By the silhouette of silent trees
They are witnessing life's mysteries
 

Cascading stars on the slumbering hills
They are dancing as far as the sea
Riding o'er the land, you can feel its gentle hand
Leading on to its destiny
 

Take me with you on this journey
Where the boundaries of time are now tossed
In cathedrals of the forest
In the words of the tongues now lost
 

Find the answers, ask the questions
Find the roots of an ancient tree
Take me dancing, take me singing
I'll ride on till the moon meets the sea

Dante's Prayer - 7:11

Music and Lyrics Loreena McKennitt
 
 

When the dark wood fell before me
And all the paths were overgrown
When the priests of pride say there is no other way
I tilled the sorrows of stone
 

I did not believe because I could not see
Though you came to me in the night
When the dawn seemed forever lost
You showed me your love in the light of the stars
 

Cast your eyes on the ocean
Cast your soul to the sea
When the dark night seems endless
Please remember me
 

Then the mountain rose before me
By the deep well of desire
From the fountain of forgiveness
Beyond the ice and fire
 

Cast your eyes on the ocean
Cast your soul to the sea
When the dark night seems endless
Please remember me
 

Though we share this humble path, alone
How fragile is the heart
Oh give these clay feet wings to fly
To touch the face of the stars
 

Breathe life into this feeble heart
Lift this mortal veil of fear
Take these crumbled hopes, etched with tears
We'll rise above these earthly cares
 

Cast your eyes on the ocean
Cast your soul to the sea
When the dark night seems endless
Please remember me
Please remember me


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