Iron Cold

Transcribed from:   Copy of Lost Lore: Ironfold

Iron Cold

'The wealth of Khazad-dûm is known

'Fair gems and mithril deck its throne

'And yet that gold-rich kingdom lacks

'The heart of hauberk, sword, and axe

'And so we went forth seeking Iron

'Iron hard and iron cold

'Farin, Blackmattock, fared afar

'By shining sun and sheen of star

'And found what once was merely myth

'That red-veined peak, the Rusted Lith

'And stayed among the Hills of Iron

'Iron hard and iron cold

'His delvings found a wealth of ore

'Its worth a hundred hoards and more

'A carven keep he wrought to last

'Hewn from hillside: stout Járnfast

'Blackmattock became Lord of Iron

'Iron hard and iron cold

'For years in Járnfast all was well

'But ages end, and times grow fell Black

'Thangorodrim fell in thunder

'And split the world's stone spine asunder

'Shattered was the Hold of Iron

'Iron hard and iron cold

'Still through long years of dauntless toil

'Lord Grár the Grave dug stone and soil

'The Fast was mended, whole once more

'And grander even than before

'And so returned our wealth of Iron

'Iron hard and iron cold

'Alas, the peril had not passed

'Morgoth's moaning host amassed

'In cracks and cleavings under hill

'Nameless beasts, with yearnings ill

'Fell things moved ’neath seams of Iron

'Iron hard and iron cold

'The Fast's foundation stones were rent

'The throng spilled forth without relent

'Till Grár descended, stern and swift

'And broke the roof above the rift

'Grár the Grim-brow died for Iron

'Iron hard and iron cold

'The cleft collapsed; Grár was no more

'His mattock fell upon the floor

'Morgoth's monsters shrieked and spit

'Imprisoned in the Howling Pit

'The horde remains entombed in Iron

'Iron hard and iron cold

'Lord Frár took up his liege's maul

'He called his council, wise dwarves all

'To bid them bar his father's grave

'So no fiend could escape the cave

'The crack was bound with bonds of Iron

'Iron hard and iron cold

'Above the Pit, three gates of steel

'Upon the last, a mithril seal

'Graven rune-spells guard that curtain

'Break them not, or doom is certain

'Thus is writ the Rede of Iron

'Iron hard and iron cold