Once upon a time at the
foot of a great mountain
There was a town where
the people known as Wookeyfolk lived,
Their very existence a
mystery to the rest of the world,
Obscured as it was by
great clouds.
Here, they played out
their peaceful lives,
Innocent of the litany
of excess and violence
That was growing in the
world below,
To live in harmony with
the spirit of the mountain called Mendip was enough.
Then, one day,
Strangefolk arrived in the town;
They came in ragged
caving clothes, hidden under hats,
But, no one noticed them,
they only saw shadows.
You see, without the
Truth of the eyes, the Wookeyfolk were blind.
In time, the Strangefolk
found their way into the high reaches of the mountain
And it was there that
they found caves of unimaginable sincerity and beauty.
By chance, they stumbled
upon the place where all the good souls come to rest.
The Strangefolk, they
coveted the jewels in these caves above all things
And soon they began to
dig into the mountain,
Its rich seam fuelling
the chaos of their own world.
Meanwhile, down in the
town, the Wookeyfolk slept restlessly
Their dreams invaded by
the shadowy figures digging away in the holes.
Every day, people would
wake and stare at the mountain,
Why was it bringing
curiosity into their lives?
And, as the Strangefolk
dug deeper and deeper into the mountain
Following a cold and
cheering draught that touched their very souls,
For the first time
The Wookeyfolk felt
cheerful.
For they knew that soon
that the mountain called Mendip would reveal its hidden secret.
And then came a sound,
distant at first
It grew into a cacophony
So immense it could be
heard far away in space
There were no screams,
there was no time,
The mountain called
Mendip had spoken; there was only wide open space,
And then, joy!
Adapted from ‘Fire
coming out of the Monkey’s Head’ on Demon Days by Gorillaz, written by Damon
Albarn and Jamie Hewlett. Released May 2005
