Clear light on a slick palm
As I mis-deal the day
Slip the night from a shaved pack
Make a marked card play
Call twilight hours down
From a heaven home
High above the highest bidder
For the good Lord's throne
In the wee hours I'll meet you
Down by Dun Ringill ---
Oh, and we'll watch the old gods play
By Dun Ringill
We'll wait in stone circles
`til the force comes through ---
Lines joint in faint discord
And the stormwatch brews
A concert of kings
As the white sea snaps
At the heels of a soft prayer
Whispered
In the wee hours I'll meet you
Down by Dun Ringill ---
Oh, and I'll take you quickly
By Dun Ringill
Bit of a love song.
At first we find the singer talking about his day, as if it were a card game.
he is trying to "deal" his day, ie: make his day happen in a certain way.
BUT he misdeals ie: screwed up, OR wait , perhaps he intended to!
Somethign tells me he going to make the day what he wants!
But he is either nervous as his slick palms indicate OR the "slickness" implies he is slippery ie :coniving
Maybe both.
He then redeals (this is implied) as now a few things happen.
The singer does some cheating!
A marked card is used to the singers advantage. And one is slipped out so it does not come up, and from a "shaved pack" hey he really lining his day up!
The knight is slipped out . Why the knight? ( i dont think it night for nighfall but it could be ) does it represent a male person? eiter way the knights NOT used , he doesnt want this "male" card to come up ie: to be dealt why?
wait..
we are not sure of the context of any of this YET...
Then late ( wee hours) someone is met at the old runes of dun ringill, the marked card ?
When they are at dun ringill we get a bit off track, they find its a magical place, sensing things around them both ethereal ( spirits unseen things sensed )and elemental ( wind waves stormy weather).
but ...the stormwatch brews ( trouble brewing, are these tow supposed to be there at all? )
a prayer is whispered why?who is doing the whispering these two at dun ringill not tog et caught naughty naughty!!
then finally someone is "taken quickly" ie: in a sexual sense.
thus the tryst is complete.
So in the end, the beginning makes sense.
Is the knight another man? left out of the deal , is the marked card a woman ?
"Jethro" LOL , lived up the road from dun ringill and farmed some damn good salmon . Thats a few clues you figure it out . "Jethro" aka Ian also wrote more then a few "randy" songs: check out hunting girl and velvet green and kissing willie.
But in this case, Did the person in song, meet a woman there for a lovers tryst , walking down the road with a belly full of salmon.
Ian were your employees a wee bit tried int the mor'nun?Was it a cheating proposition, or just a propostion that the singer definalty wanted to see happen no matter how the cards were dealt?
Either way they were "taken quickly" this "Straithairdian" cardplayer was eager , no foreplay involved... poor girl!!
Only Ian Anderson knows!