The Handsome Family - Whitehaven Lyrics

What a hideous forest surrounded Whitehaven
Twisted black mountains, wolves howled in madness
Never I ventured beyond the stone tower
As dusk spread her black wings at the edge of the dark wild wood

But one windy evening, gathering timbers
Under white elm trees in shadows, I saw her
The darkest of beauties with her basket of cherries
The wind at her black skirt like the hands of the wild dark wood

She turned in her terror, a madness possessed her
In shadow she clawed me, we screamed in the brambles
Hunters came running with torches and axes
Treetop to treetop, flames tore through the dark wild wood

Back down they dragged us past the stone towers
The church bells were ringing, the sky screamed in flashes
But we stood in the church yard laughing like jackals
As the stone towers tumbled and bowed to the wild dark wood