White Hammer lyrics

Song information

Artist: Van Der Graaf Generator
Album: The Least We Can Do Is Wave To Each Other

Lyrics

(Hammill)

In the year 1486 the malleus first appeared
Designed to kill all witchcraft and end the papal fears:
Prescribing tortures to kill the black arts;
And the hammer struck hard

Malleus maleficarum slaughtered and tortured
All those under suspicion, as the inquisistion ordered -
Burning black hearts and innocents alike, killing the mad;
Such was the power the hammer had

Though hexenhammer was intended to slay only evil
Fear and anger against magic overspilled:
They also killed those of the white

So for two centuries and more they tried to slay
Both the black and the white arts -
But spirits override pain
For every one that the torture took, two were hid secure
And so the craft, yes, it endured

Love and hate lived on in the face of fear
Hexenhammer's force died
And the real power became clear:

White hammer no more is beaten; now it begins to beat
And the grey, once oppressor
Now, at good hands, faces defeat
And the black, too, shall bow down to the power above;
Black hate beats grey
But surpreme is
The white hammer of love