The Lady and The Knight
- Geoffrey Clarfield
- Mar 3
- 2 min read
Here is a ballad about a Crusader and a Jewish woman of the land of Israel who will not leave faith or family.
The Galilee has a number of marvelous Crusader Castles. We were living on a Moshav at the time I wrote this, and I would walk off the beaten track weekly.
There is much marvelous Israeli scholarship on archaeology and the crusades but it does not trigger the national imagination because the first part of the first crusade were massacres of the Jews of Europe. After a generation, the native born Crusaders let the Jews return.
Words and Music © 2025 by Geoffrey Clarfield.
The Lady and the Knight
A maid was on a journey once
To a merchant far away
And on that road she met a knight
Come hear the words he did say
(The knight)
I’ll take you to a Pagan land
Where ice is all that is seen
The sun at night lights up the land
Where dragon’s bones have been
(The Lady)
I won’t forsake my father’s law
Solomon’s secret seal
No I won’t give up my parasol
For your sword of Damascus steel
(The Knight)
Rise up, rise up and go with me
And leave your father’s law
My sword be true
My love for you
Is all I can recall
For I loathe the towers of Bellevoir
I’ll wander in the glade
The stag shall die
To be my food
The forest be my shade
(The Lady)
And if I leave my father’s law
And both drink from one stream
On horses fair
In the morning air
Will I become your queen
(The Knight)
A Queen alas you can’t become
Of frozen's waste unseen
My jar of flour
Will not give out
Nor violence will you see
(The Lady)
Then come my noble man at arms
This is what I say
The law outlasts
A love like yours
That passes in numbered days
(The Knight)
Tis true oh one with raven’s hair
In Byzantine brocade
But I’ll still be your champion
And protect you with my blade
So Goodbye fair maid
Above reproach
Who shall not live in shame
O daughter of Jerusalem
I’ll return one day