All the Songs of Pern


Maybe not ALL the songs, but at least most of the ones over two lines long. Where you see italics we didn't know the title of a piece and made one up, and there's been some splicing of presumed song fragments. Otherwise, everything should be in good order. Songs are in alphabetial order, left to right, top to bottom; disregarding The's.



"Cromcoal, Cromcoal"

Cromcoal, Cromcoal, burning bright
Warm the cold of winter's night.
Cromcoal, Cromcoal, underground
Where the best of all coal's found.

(By Anne "William Blake" McCaffrey...)
"Distant Dragon"

In early morning light I see,
A distant dragon come to me.
Its skin is bronze, its eyes are green;
It's the loveliest dragon I've ever seen.
"The Duty Song"

Oh, we must give honor to those dragons heed
In thought and in favor, in word and in deed
For our world will be lost or our world will be saved
From those dangers that are by the dragons braved.

Weaver and farmer and miner and smith
Tanner and herdsman, all lord holders with
Our harpers attuned to the lessons we learn-
Remember our duty to those who save Pern.

We'll nurture our dragons, the queens rule their bands;
Their clutches will shell on the Hatching Ground sands.
We'll Search out the riders who will love and endure
With their dragonmates keeping our planet secure.

We rise from the Weyr on our dragonmates bold,
Aloft in the sky, Bronze, Brown, Blue, Green and Gold.
Wheeling and turning, the hungry Threads burning
A dragon must fly when there are Threads in the sky.

Oh, Lord of the Hold, you must keep your charge sure
Behind metal doors, with your people secure.
See well to the herdbeast, keep cellars well stored
Lest Fall leave you hungry and Holdless and scored.

Oh, we must give honor to those dragons heed
In thought and in favor, in word and in deed,
For our world will be lost or our world will be saved
From those dangers that are by the dragons braved.
"Eastern Sea Hold Song"

The fickle wind's my foe,
With the tide his keen ally.
They're jealous of my sea's love
And rouse her with their lie.

Oh sweet sea, oh dear sea,
Heed not their stormy wile
But bear me safely to my hold
And from their watery trial.

Oh wide sea, oh sweet sea,
Forever be my lover.
Fare me on your gentle wave
Your wide bed over.
"Fighting Thread"

Wheel and turn or bleed and burn.
Fly between, Blue and Green.
Soar, dive down, Bronze and Brown.
Dragonmen must fly when Threads are in the sky.
"Fire Lizard Song"

The little queen all golden
Flew hissing at the sea.
To stop each wave
Her clutch to save
She ventured bravely.

As she attacked the sea in rage
A holderman came nigh
Along the sand
Fishnet in hand
And saw the queen midsky.

He stared at her in wonder
For often he'd been told
That such as she
Could never be
Who hovered there, bright gold.

He saw her plight and quickly
He looked up the cliff he faced
And saw a cave
Above the wave
In which her eggs he placed.

The little queen all golden
Upon his shoulder stood
Her eyes all blue
Glowed of her true
Undying gratitude.
"Gather Song"

Gather! Gather! It's a gather day!
No work for us, and Thread's away.
Stalls are building, square's swept clear,
Gather all from far and near.
Bring your marks and bring your wares,
Bring your family, for there's
Food and drink and fun and song.
The Hold flag flies: So gather along!
"The Golden Egg of Faranth"

By the Golden Egg of Faranth,
By the Weyrwoman, wise and true,
Breed a flight of Bronze and Brown wings,
Breed a flight of Green and Blue,
Breed riders, strong and daring,
Dragon-loving, born as hatched,
Flight of hundreds soaring skyward,
Man and dragon fully matched.

By the teaching of the Harpers,
Healer, fisherman and smith,
From the chambers of the craft-halls,
Forge our destiny in myth.
Raise a glass in praise of weavers,
Give the Lord Holders their due,
And in all things trust the weyrfolk
For their cause is just and true.

From the distant, burning Red Star,
Shining strands of silver Thread-
Heed the warning of the Star Stones;
Hear the whispers of the dead.
Hail the dragons and their riders,
Perched on high in lofty weyrs.
Watch the skies while Pern lies sleeping;
Learn the lessons of the years.*

*Yes, we know it would be "Turns". But it is a very old Ballad after all, and this already obsolescent word was used to give a sense of antiquity when it was written. That's our story and we're sticking to it!
"Lessa's Ride"

Black, blacker, blackest,
And cold beyond all frozen things.
Where is between when there is naught
To life but fragile dragon wings?

Chorus:
Cold as death, death-bearing
Stay and die, unguided.
Brave and braving, linger-
This way was twice decided.

A fleck of red in a cold night sky.
A drop of blood to guide them by.
Turn away, Turn away, Turn, be gone.
A Red Star leads the riders on.

How shall they last the long journey
Lured on but by this woven star?
How can they find that which they seek
And make their way home from afar?

What can they say to bring forward
The Weyrfolk from another time?
Is hope merely illusion
That clings to life in desperate minds?

Yet promise lives by those of heart-
Salvation lies within the song,
Revealed by Lessa, Weyrwoman --
There will be five Weyrs strong!
"March of the Wings"

Drummer, beat, and piper, blow,
Harper, strike, and soldier, go.
Free the flame and sear the grasses
Till the dawning Red Star passes.

From the Weyr and from the Bowl
Bronze and Brown and Blue and Green,
Rise the dragonmen of Pern,
Aloft, on wing, seen, then unseen.

Dragonman avoid excess
Greed will bring the Weyr distress;
To the ancient Laws adhere,
Prospers thus the Dragon-weyr.

(other verses that could fit:)
Weyrman, watch; Weyrman, learn
Something new in every Turn.
Oldest may be coldest, too.
Sense the right; find the true!

Weaver, Miner, Harper, Smith,
Tanner, Farmer, Herdsman, Lord,
Gather, wingsped, listen well
To the Weyrman's urgent word.
"The Question Song"

Gone away, gone ahead,
Echoes roll unanswered.
Empty, open, dusty, dead,
Why have all the Weyrfolk fled?

Where have dragons gone together?
Leaving Weyrs to wind and weather?
Setting herdbeasts free of tether?
Gone, our safeguards, gone, but whither?

Have they flown to some new Weyr
When cruel Threads some others fear?
Are they worlds away from here?
Why, oh, why, the empty Weyr?
"Red Star Passes"

Seas boil, mountains move,
Sands heat, dragons prove,
Red Star passes.

Stones pile, fires burn,
Green withers. Arm Pern!
Red Star passes.

Star Stone watch, scan sky.
Ready the weyrs. Riders fly!
Red Star passes.
"Rise High in Glory"

Rise high in glory,
Bronze and gold.
Dive entwined,
Enhance the Hold.

Count three months and more,
And five heated weeks,
A day of glory and
In a month, who seeks?

A strand of silver
In the sky...
With heat, all quickens
And all times fly.
"The Road"

Harper, tell me of the road
That leads beyond this Hold,
That wends its way beyond the hill...
Does it go further on until
It ends in sunset's gold?
"Song for Petiron"

The tears I feel today
I'll wait to shed tomorrow.
Though I'll not sleep this night
Nor find surcease from sorrow.
My eyes must keep their sight:
I dare not be tear-blinded.
I must be free to talk
Not choked with grief, clear-minded.
My mouth cannot betray
The anguish that I know.
Yes, I'll keep my tears till later:
But my grief will never go.
"Too Big to Cry"

I am too big to cry
And my voice is too shy
To sing my sad, sad song
Or say the words I long
To say to you--good-bye, good-bye.
"True Heart"

A heart that's true in harper blue
makes song from heart's own fire,
and though betrayed, is not afraid:
in danger, leaps up higher.

No world is free of minstrelsy,
nor noise, nor rage, nor sorrow.
A harper must discharge his trust
before he asks to borrow.

My Harper Hall is free to all
who serve with song and playing.
But you who'd hide your song inside
are very sadly straying.

Will you withdraw beyond the law,
lie safely in your slumber,
while dangers shake your world awake and Death makes up his number?

Did harper here betray those dear
he'd feel more than my tongue.
If place you'd earn, you'd better learn
more music than you've sung.

For if you die, while safe you lie
halled in your selfish bone,
no chant will come, no harper drum,
and you'll lie long alone.

Get up, take heart--go, make a start,
sing out the truth you came for.
Then when you die, your heart may fly
to halls we have no name for.

(By Elizabeth "Elimona" Moon.)
"Watch-Wher Song"

Watch-wher, watch-wher, do you know
All the places you can go?

Watch-wher, watch-wher, in the egg,
Grant to me the boon I beg.

Watch-wher, watch-wher, in the mine,
Help save life, yours and mine,
Guide us in the darkest night,
With your keen unfailing sight.

Watch-wher, watch-wher, guard us all
With your dragon-summoning call.

Watch-wher, watch-wher, in the night,
Guard our Hold, keep it right.
When the morning sun does come,
Watch-wher, then your job is done.
"White-Winged Craft"

My nightly craft is winged in white;
A dragon of night-dark sea.
Swiftborn, dreambound and rudderless;
Her captian and crew are me.
I sail a hundred sleeping tides
Where no seaman's ever been
And only my white-winged craft and I
Know the marvels we have seen.


All references to worlds and characters based on Anne McCaffrey's fiction are copyright ©
Anne McCaffrey 1967, 2001, all rights reserved, and used by permission of the author.

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