Mathew Horton

The Woe of Roanoke Mathew Horton

It is the greatest poem ever written on the lost colony of Roanoke and the very birth of America. The tale of the notorious Scottish cannibal Sawney Bean and his hellish brood is told by his daughter, Agnes Bean, the last remaining child, on the eve of her execution. Before being hung as a witch upon the branches of the Hairy Tree 'Black' Agnes tells of her savage family life, of base incest and of the extreme clan violence. She tells of her beatings, degradation and humiliation by her hideous mother. She tells of the tens of hundreds of travellers and merchants who were kidnapped, raped, butchered and eaten over the twenty five years of Sawney's tyrannical reign. To a scribe she spills her heart - himself a victim of the fiends. The scribe and his chronicle takes us to King James who leads his army to the cave to put an end to the barbarians. But it did not end with the carnage there. An incest begot son of Sawney escaped the capture. A huge brutish child, six year old blue Bill Brown secures a place on 'The Lion', the ship that was bound for Virginia with Walter Raleighs dream of establishing a colony there in 1587. The Devils scion was set to contaminate the new world. Blue Bill Brown was raised by native Algonquin Indians who praised the flame haired, green eyed, strange blue skinned boy who had mastery over crows as a prophet and Sun God. He rose to tribal shaman and after replacing Wanchese later chieftain. With a band of fanatical devotees blue Bill Brown spread a whirlwind of terror, chaos and devastation throughout the new world. A rich and dark humorous gothic horror saga told in rhyme by Mathew Horton. A masterpiece.
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