The new-wed pairs did not have long
Their joyous unions to fulfil,
Nor happiness to fashion strong,
For Destiny's harsh unswerving will
The grooms soon called into the field,
From loving arms the husbands tore,
To where in armour spears men wield,
And where their legs wade deep in gore.
War's trumpet Burtnieks now let
On every hilltop brassy sound,
On every lofty mound they set
At night the watch-fires burning round.
And every chieftain did the same,
Passed on the sign the rest to show-
A signal that to all soon came,
To gather and to war to go.
In every village homestead then,
Across the Latvian country broad,
The people's sons, the younger men,
Prepared for war, grasped spear and sword,
And saddled up their dashing steeds.
Each sister and each young man's bride
Adorned their helmets, then must, needs,
With tears and singing part-way ride.
Now soon on every road and track
-They slept at night beneath a tree-
A gathering host streamed to attack,
And after two full days or three,
Together came upon their course.
Bearslayer led thence further groups,
And at the meeting-place in force
"All hail! All hail!" rejoiced the troops.
Old Burtnieks rode with them too,
And Lielvardis-both of those
Close by the fighting in full view
Wished to remain until the close.
No longer there Laimdota more
Nor Spidala at home would stay;
The two young brides forth to the war,
Rode with the army on its way.
There, where the River Gauja falls
Through gorges to the valleys' bounds,
With palisades and earthen walls,
Stood many strongholds built on mounds.
Beside the streams in forests dense,
There lived the clans and Latvian Lords.
Led by Bearslayer riding thence,
Here entered now the warlike hordes.
When they, in nests along the way,
A German infestation found,
The vermin pest was cleared that day.-
They further marched and reached the ground
That used to Dabrels to belong.
Here they encountered German knights,
Who there had built a castle strong
And fortified it for their fights.
Bearslayer took it back again,
And many German knights there died,
Who lost their lives against our men.-
The host rolled on then like a tide,
Far, in a surging wave, it flowed
Unstoppable through vale and wood,
Advanced until the soldiers rode
To Turaida where Kaupa stood.
Here in the Livian people's lands,
They plainly saw as they passed by,
Each village lay in German hands.
In fields of barley and of rye
The golden grain swayed full and fat;
The Livians ploughed and sowed the fields,
But Strangers ate their fill of that,
Then sold the straw and other yields.
And closely with the castles merged,
Stood foreign churches, places where
The priests and monks the people urged
The Christian faith with them to share.
But by the Strangers converts here
Were held as servants in their thrall;
And from the Livians every year
They took a tribute from them all.