The Last Fell King
A tale of Dunmail, the Last Fell King – as set down by Wyndrake Winterheart, of the Noble House of Winterheart, Duke of Keswick and Lord of the FellsKing Dunmail, the Last Fell King
It is not certain, the exact way in which Dunmail Winterheart, the last of the Fell Kings, died, but through poems and old transcriptions we have some indication.
Dunmail, or, The Last King Fell
They buried on the mountain’s side
King Dunmail, where he fought and died.
But mount, and mere, and moor again
Shall see King Dunmail come to reign.
Mantled and mailed repose his bones
Twelve cubits deep beneath the stones ;
But many a fathom deeper down
In Grisedale Mere lies Dunmail’s crown.
Climb thou the rugged pass, and see
High midst those mighty mountains three,
How in their joint embrace they hold
The Mere that hides his crown of gold.
There in that lone and lofty dell
Keeps silent watch the sentinel.
A thousand years his lonely rounds
Have traced unseen that water’s bounds
His challenge shocks the startled waste,
Still answered from the hills with haste,
As passing pilgrims come and go
From heights above or vales below.