The Stones Archive

Intro · What Is This All About? · Lyrics · Official Versions · Fan Versions And Remixes · Ultima Remake Versions

Introduction

Welcome to the Stones Archive!

It's been a while and a lot of things happened in the past two years since the previous update, one of the most notable being the successful Kickstarter of Richard Garriott's new game, Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues - a spiritual successor to Ultima. During the campaign, he talked to some of the people who contributed to the series over the years - people like Starr Long (who joined him to work on SotA), Warren Spector, and David Watson who is even contributing a song to the new game! For more Ultima or SotA related news, check out WtF Dragons fantastic Ultima Codex.

I'm happy to announce that I've added five new versions of Stones today, and all of them are really awesome! As always, you can find them below, marked as new!. I found two of them on Dwelling of Duels, a community dedicated to video game remixes and remix competitions that has a lot of other great songs, too. Also, Ultima Fan Project Pax Britannia got its own version of Stones. The interesting bit here is that the game is created to run on a ZX Spectrum variant! Travis Richards is contributing for the third time now, and he's getting better and better. This version, called "Stones Fanfare", has been inspired by Skyrim, but I'm feeling a Metal Gear Solid vibe, too. Really well done! The final piece has been created by Pedro Marcondes and is in fact just one of many great Ultima remixes he released in the past weeks. You should really check out his Soundcloud page, cool stuff!

On related news, Gillian Grassie did a great job playing Stones on a harp - Really beautiful, despite the low quality recording. Also, the Descendants of Erdrick did a Stones/U5Theme mashup that really deserves a better recording, too. Last but not least, Holt Ironfell created "Forsaken Stones", a trance take on the song that is available on Bandcamp.

If you are interested in what I do while I'm not updating this website and are familiar with the german language, you should visit my blog. Most of its contents are gaming related with a strong focus on iOS games for the last few years.

You've created your own version of Stones or want to comment on this site? Feel free to drop me an email! Now enjoy your stay at the Stones Archive.

- Sven "Thorwan" Haskel (January, 2014)

What Is This All About?

Stones is a song, composed by David "Iolo" Watson for ORIGIN, inc.'s Ultima computergame series. His wife Kathleen "Gwenno" Jones wrote the lyrics. This song became one of the most famous in computer gaming history. It's no surprise that lots of Ultima fans created their own versions and remixes based upon the original song, and that's exactly what you'll find here, along with some of the official versions. Enjoy!

The Lyrics

Long ago ran the sun on a folk who had a dream
And the heart and the will and the power:
They moved the earth; they carved the stone; moulded hill and channeled stream
That we might stand on the wide plains of Wiltshire

Now men asked who they were, how they built and wonder why
That they wrought standing stones of such size
What was done 'neath our shade? What was pray'ed 'neath our skies
As we stood on the wyrd plains of Wiltshire

Oh what secrets we could tell if you'd listen and be still
Rid the stink and the noise from our skirts
But you haven't got the clue and perhaps you never will
Mute we stand on the cold plains of Wiltshire

Still we loom in the mists as the ages roll away
And we say of our folk, "they are here!"
That they built us and they died and you'll not be knowing why
Save we stand on the bare plains of Wiltshire

Official Versions

Ultima 9 Ascension

This version has been played by an 50-piece orchestra and sounds really cool. It was arranged by George Oldzie and found at the official Ultima 9 website.