Arngeirr's Song

Arngeirr's Song is a collection of songs and poems by, at the time child Charles Alexander Bennett. While as a youth, Charle was known as 'Arngeirr' before he had anglicized his name. Charles at the age of eleven struggled to understand English, and refused to talk or write in English when he was home with his family.

Arngeirr's Song
While as a child, Charles father, Aron, was a fishermen during the fishing seasons for a local company to try and make keep up with payments. On 1967, a small typhoon struck the northern tip of the Stephen Headland while the men were at sea. Charles mother, whom trying to keep the childrens fears at bay asked for the children to write 'prayers' or songs to their father so that they he may come back safely. While the poem was originally in Icelandic, the poem was translated by the Charleston Academy to English in 2013.

Burn the shores of the Headlands

Burn a beacon for them, show them heavens light

The rumble of the seas counts the names of the dead The moonlight is blackened by the skies

Burn the shores of the Headlands

Do you not hear the wails of the sailors?

Burn a beacon for our fathers and brothers

The tumbling of the sea counts the names of dead men

As dawn breaks, the skies still rejects the blazing sun

Burn the shores of the Headlands

Burn a beacon to replace the sun, burn your homes to send your children home

The rumble of the seas counts the names of dead

Skies still blackened by the roar of God

Burn these shores of the Headlands for our countrymen.