5 - The Hunter, The Prey

This song is the next chapter in the story of “Mother Willow Tree”. In that story a hunter was turned into a hare by a magical willow tree. This chapter tells the story of that hare, and the tragedy of being hunted – and ultimately killed - by his own son.

This is about the passing down of tradition, and a reminder that our children are moulded by our own actions.

I am the hunter that hunted the prey
Run away, run away
I am the hunter that hunted the prey
Now her spell does bind me

For many a year I have waited in fear
By the tree of my mother who changed me
From fighting and fears with gun and with spears
To the shape of the young hare that claimed me

Now I must run and hide from the guns
In the hope that the hunter won’t find me
But when I’d begun I was mighty and young
I’d none but the strong wind behind me

I am the hunter that hunted the prey
Run away, run away
I am the hunter that hunted the prey
Now her spell does bind me

My blood it is thick and my heart it is quick
And the life of a hunter defines me
For now I must sit with the wood and the stick
And the hoping the forest will hid me

I trod the land and chased the hare down
It was here that my mother did take me
My head to the ground for to hide from the hound
My mother a hare she did make me

I am the hunter that hunted the prey
Run away, run away
I am the hunter that hunted the prey
Now her spell does bind me

So what had become of the man and his gun
Who had sworn in a shot he would slay
What of my son who aims as I run
How the tables have turned to betray me

And then comes the shot, I fall to my lot
And the spell of my mother it leaves me
I was the hunter that hunted the prey
Now how my boy is to grieve me

Oh I am the hunter that hunted the prey
Run away, run away
I am the hunter that hunted the prey
Now her spell does bind me

Oh I am the hunter that hunted the prey
Run away, run away
I am the hunter that hunted the prey
Now her spell does bind me