Songtext White hammer Van Der Graaf Generator

White hammer

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 Inquisition 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 magick 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 spirit over-rides pain.
For every one the torture took, two were hid secure,
and so the craft 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.
The Black, too, shall bow down to the power above....
Black hate beats Grey
But supreme is
the White Hammer of Love.
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