Lore:The Great Siege of Orsinium

The UESPWiki – Your source for The Elder Scrolls since 1995
Jump to: navigation, search
Book Information
Seen In:
The Great Siege of Orsinium
On the famous First Era conflict between Orcs and their neighbors in the Iliac Bay

Ra Gada fought the tusky folk
From Hammerfell they drove them
In wrath withdrew they northward to
Orsinium, Orc city
Where found they welcome at the hands
Of King Atop the Scarpment,
Golkarr, mighty, Orc of wiles
Who thought to take advantage
To use infusion of new blood
To broaden Orcish holdings
Demands he made of Bretons south
Along the Bjoulsae River
For tariffs, tolls, ransoms, fees,
Or down would come Orc hammer
But Joile, the king in Daggerfall
Rejected Golkarr's dictum
Sent to Gaiden Shinji of
The Order of Diagna
Urged him with the Bretons join
To siege and sack Orc city
Marched they then to Wrothgar Scarp
Orsinium invested
They thought that Orcish walls could not
Withstand their worthy weapons
But city high upon the scarp
Was triple-gate defended
Obdurate Gates: each one greater
Than the one before it
Smelter, Hammer, Temper, they
Were called, by Orcish stonewrights
The folk of Mauloch stood atop
And hurled down baneful missiles
And Breton, Redguard, smitten sore
Drew back to lower regions
Laughed then the Orcs, and bared their tusks
At warrior Men confounded
While Golkarr smiled in high Scarp Keep
And praised the Wrothgar clan-kin
But Gaiden Shinji and King Joile
Were not abashed or shaken
They summoned grandees, knights, and counts
To bring their armsmen thither
Orsinium surrounded they
And settled in to siege it
While plots and plans were schemed and made
The walls and gates, to breach them
The Orcs were quite content to wait
From Jugular well-watered
And fed by fertile fungus fields
In Caves of Dark Abundance
The Men, they thought, would tire and leave
To go back to their families
They reckoned not the fire that burned
In Joile and Gaiden Shinji
Ten years their men sieged outer gate
And finally Smelter faltered
A decade more at second gate
Till Hammer then was broken
Ten years again were spent in toil
Till Temper fell asunder
Then wrathful Men at last went in
Orsinium to plunder
Golkarr prayed in Grudgement Hall
For Mauloch to defend him
But King Joile took him by the hair
And Gaiden Shinji slew him