Ben's Songs

The story continues...  Years have passed.  The Fool and the Dragon have become fast friends.  But the world is changing.  Mortally wounded and no longer able to protect her last clutch of eggs, the Dragon makes a perilous choice.

lyrics and music by Benjamin Newman

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The song that introduces the story of the Here Be Cartographers cycle.  The Fool, son of a map-maker, sets out into the world to seek his fortune.

lyrics and music by Benjamin Newman

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The "Here Be Cartographers" cycle began as a single song, playfully reversing the roles of map-makers and the dragons they so carelessly scattered at the edges of their maps.  It grew into the story of generations of a family of map-makers, as the craft of cartography hardened what had once been a fairy-tale world into a more definite and less wondrous shape.  I eventually realized that this story is about colonialism, and that I'm not sure that a happy-ending redemption arc for the map-makers is mine to write.  The end of the story remains unwritten... for now.

• Here Be Dragons
• Dragon Tales
• Maps Without Gaps
• All In One Basket
• Here Be Cartographers