The Ellish March

The Ellish March [1], also known from its opening line as Arise, Ellish Men, is the state anthem of Elland. The song dates from 1803, when the lyrics were written by the poet and author Walter Marvell, then a 20-year-old student at the University of Leadhill, and set to music soon afterwards by Lucian Guisewhite, who was then 38 years of age and a tutor and lecturer in music at the same institution. The creation saw daylight in the midst of a burst of patriotic fervour as Elland roused itself to a war against Savam, ostensibly for reasons of faith – as a continuation of the arguments of the Reform Wars – but more realistically as an attempt by Elland under its ambitious young king Richard II to assert Ellish dominance over a recently-united Savamese polity and revive the claims to a “Cairan Empire” first made by Henry III in the previous century.

Origins

The accession of Richard II to the Ellish throne in Animare 1803 prompted a dramatic shift in attitudes at the highest levels towards the country’s neighbours, and towards the Savamese in particular. Richard had been hesitant in taking the crown – he had been unwilling to set what seemed to him a dangerous precedent in ousting his increasingly deranged father Charles II on grounds of insanity – but he shared the concerns of most people in positions of authority that the new Savamese Empire held the potential to dominate northern Messenia in ways which had been impossible for the separate Savamese states. It was therefore essential, Richard reasoned, to strike quickly and decisively so as to, ideally, capture further territory from the Savamese, but at a minimum to convince the new government in Quesailles that Elland was too difficult a prospect to be itself conquered and that they should direct their ambitions elsewhere.

The later part of 1803 was marked by widespread public rallies in support of action against the Savamese and Richard’s own claims to the laurels of empire; and the University of Leadhill – located almost in the shadow of Leadhill Castle, the home of the Ellish royal family – was a centre of pro-Ricardian activity, in which both Marvell and Guisewhite had been prominent. Indeed, Guisewhite was censured by the university council for neglecting his pedagogical responsibilities through his support for the cause.

Marvell probably composed the poem at some time between Estion and Ediface 1803; at least eight drafts of the piece are known to have survived, two of them in his personal notebooks, and even the version which was given to Guisewhite to be set to music, dated 10 Ediface, is not final. A definitive version does not appear to emerge until as late as 28 Ediface, the date given on leaflets carrying the lyrics as printed by the Etherley firm of Folliott & Nephew. The anthem is generally thought to have been sung in public for the first time on 6 Conservene 1803, at a public review of troops presided over by the king, and quickly gained in popularity.

Later matters

Despite Elland’s defeat in the war, which ended in 1807, The Ellish March did not seem to suffer unduly from being associated with a losing cause; and it retained an ongoing popularity – to the extent that it had substantially ousted competing compositions, including the then most widely-used alternative O, Plains and Hills Rejoice, by perhaps as early as 1815. Lucian Guisewhite, who died in 1856, was awarded a pension by Richard II in 1809, as was the family of Walter Marvell, who had been killed at the Battle of Boghinton, the last major engagement of the war.

Although the anthem had been used regularly over more than two centuries and has been accepted by custom and consent as the state anthem, it was found in 2011 that The Ellish March had never been officially granted that status. This was rectified by the passing of formal legislation in the Parliament of Elland on 23 Animare 2012; whereas the full anthem runs to five stanzas and a chorus, the law also confirmed the use of the short form for most ceremonial occasions, as shown below.

Abbreviated lyrics

Arise, Ellish men, the great day is here;
Your country requires that you show no fear.
The fair verdant land that gave you your birth
Depends on you now to fight for its earth.
Where shall we find victory?
Where shall we find honour?
Look in your hearts, there they will be
That all may see, and call upon.

The plains and the hillsides that yield us their bounties,
The people who toileth in cities, towns and counties;
They all stand behind you; they rise to remind you
That justice and duty are e’er by your side.
(Chorus)
Now stand all together, whatever the weather –
’Tis on now or never, when fair Elland cries:
A song famed in story, though it be death or glory,
For if it comes to war, then bold Elland will rise! (Yes!)