Not a traditional folk song at all: I took the original "The Marching song of the Urpneys"
from Mike Batt's "The Dreamstone". (50Mb RAM file here). The marching song of the Household of Death: at times
when I'm trying to wind up players who run Humakti as violence-obsessed bullying morons
whose solution to every problem is to kill it.
(Which is, of course, what the Urpneys are like).
Written in 1600. Popular until 1602,
when the Household was destroyed and parts of the song became obviously untrue.
Many satirical versions appeared thereafter.
Born to the sound of marching feet,
Trained as a military elite
Each of us drilled and singled out to be
Humakti!
Cream of the Sartar single males
Fit for the fight and hard as nails,
Never afraid and each one proud to be
Humakti!
Nobody goes where we all dare
Ruthless and deadly, firm but fair
Out in the night we spoil for a fight
No wimps are we
And we're brighter than the average fighter
That's why we are
Humakti!
We are the Prince of Sartar's troops
Feared and revered by hairy Lupes
Enemy armies always turn and flee
Humakti!
"Lupes": abbrev. of "lupines": a reference to the Telmori who
formed the royal bodyguard before the formation of the Household of Death