At the Point of a Pagan Sword:
Lyrics: Atkin
A warrior, pious
And scholar was he
Serving more than one master
Tempestuously
Short was his temper
Long was his reach
Woe betide those
To whom he might preach
Spread word of Christianity
The gospel of the Lord
It seemed the price of mercy
Was one he could not afford
Told them all of Christianity
The all-forgiving Lord
Before he put their eyes out by
The point of his pagan sword
Thangbrand they named him
Prophet and lost
A message of peace
On the point of his cross
I cannot tame you
The monarch declared
So get you to Iceland
So their souls may be spared
He took up his bible
And born on the wind
Unleashed his mercy
On those who had sinned
A dark day for the pagans
When he came to town
For many would bleed
On the thorns of his crown
Thangbrand – Show them the light
Soon did he land
On Icelandic shores
And found all the men folk
With beer and whores
This shall not do
There’s work to be done
They’ll remember the day
Their salvation has come
He kicked the tavern door down
And he marched up to the bar
Like a man possessed of heaven
Following his guiding star
“All here shall find enlightenment
In the message of my Lord”
Or so help them shall they fall upon
The point of his pagan sword
And the scalds who sat their watching
Were amused by what they saw
Piped a tune about an angry monk
With no hair upon his jaw
And Thangbrand vowed to make example
To the baying horde
As their heads were soon impaled
On the point of his pagan sword
They built, two fires, so huge and so high
That the gods, could witness this test from the sky
Then Thangbrand selected, the bravest of men
The strongest berserker the island could send
You must run through the flames, fast as you can
If this is not an impossible thing I demand
One fire shall be blessed by myself and my Lord
And the other by Odin, and Freya and Thor
Through mine, shall you pass without even a mark
Proving my God, shall guide you from the dark
Though your own, can you burn, as if you were straw
Proving Asgaard can’t help you, not anymore
The man charged through the flames of the Norse gods of old
But was stopped by the heat of whom Jesus had told
Thangbrand, confounded, his passions enflamed
Did then slay the berserker and burned his remains
