Sigurd

Before the sword, there was the tree
Before the son, there was the debt

A grey-cloaked stranger walked the hall
One eye burning, one eye blind
He drove the steel through Barnstokkr's heart
And left the taking to mankind

Ten men pulled and ten men failed
The wood held fast, the iron stayed
Then Sigmund laid his hand on it
And the tree gave up the blade

Not by strength - by name
Not by will - by blood

This is the blood of kings
Older than the crown, older than the throne
Carried in the marrow, carried in the bone
This is the blood of kings
You do not choose the weight you're born to hold
The debt is paid in iron, never gold

The same grey cloak came back again
Where the shield-walls met and broke
He raised a spear against the blade
And Gram shattered at the stroke

He would not let them heal his wounds
He would not beg the Norns for more
Hjördis - take the broken steel
The son will finish what I bore

Not by choice - by name
Not by war - by blood

This is the blood of kings
Older than the crown, older than the throne
Carried in the marrow, carried in the bone
This is the blood of kings
You do not choose the weight you're born to hold
The debt is paid in iron, never gold

Völsung - Sigmund - Sigurd
Three names, one wound
Völsung - Sigmund - Sigurd
The tree, the blade, the son

A woman knelt in bloodied grass
And gathered up the ruined thing
And in her belly, still unborn
Slept the last of Odin's kin

This is the blood of kings
Older than the crown, older than the throne
Carried in the marrow, carried in the bone
This is the blood of kings
He never asked to bear the weight alone
The debt is paid in iron, never gold

The pieces waited twenty years
So did he

Two swords broke
The third was already made

Regin, smith of the crooked back
Old blood, older greed
He put a hammer in my hand
And told me what I need

The first blade broke across the horn
The second split in two
Boy, he said, the fault is steel -
No. The fault was you

Give me the pieces
Give me the pieces of my father's name
There is nothing you can forge
That the dead did not forge first

Strike! - the iron remembers
Strike! - the iron knows my blood
Broken by a god's own spear
Broken, and returned to us
Gram! - the wolf-tooth rising
Gram! - the anvil split in two
Two swords broke because they were his
This one breaks because it's true

He fed the fragments to the coal
He fed them all night long
And every fold he beat in it
He beat another wrong

He talks of gold beneath the moor
He talks of scales and hoard
He does not say the serpent's name
He does not say: my brother

Give me the fire
Give me the fire that ate my father's blade
There is nothing you can hide
That the steel will not confess

Strike! - the iron remembers
Strike! - the iron knows my blood
Broken by a god's own spear
Broken, and returned to us
Gram! - the wolf-tooth rising
Gram! - the anvil split in two
Two swords broke because they were his
This one breaks because it's true

He forged the sword
He forged the hand
He forged the boy who holds it
And when it's done he'll say
He only made the steel

One - the anvil
Two - the wool on the water
Three - the river cut in half
Three

Strike! - the iron remembers
Strike! - the iron knows my blood
Broken by a god's own spear
Broken, and returned to us
Gram! - the wolf-tooth rising
Gram! - the anvil split in two
Two swords broke because they were weak
This one breaks the world in two

It went through the anvil
It went through the block
It went through the floor

He told me: dig one pit
He did not tell me why

The heath is dead for half a mile
Nothing grows and nothing sings
The stones are white and split with heat
Where the poison-thing has been

There is a track worn in the ground
Wide as a longship's keel
It goes down to the water's edge
And it comes back up again

So I take the spade
And I take the dark
And I make my grave
And I climb inside

Down! - under the weight of it
Down! - under the coming ground
There is no glory in a hole
There is no witness, there is no sound
Let it pass above my face
Let it fill the sky with lead
The only way to kill this thing
Is to lie down like the dead

An old man came with one grey eye
And laughed at what I'd made
One pit will drown you in his blood
Dig three, and dig them deep

So there are channels in the earth
Cut to carry what will spill
And I lie under all of it
And the heath goes very still

Something is walking
Something the size of a hall is walking
The dirt is falling on my mouth
The venom comes before him on the path
And where it lands the ground goes white
He does not hurry
He has never had to hurry

Closer
Closer
The light goes out above me
Closer
He is over me
He is over me now

Up! - under the left shoulder
Up! - to the hilt and past
Every scale that gold has grown
Opens like a door at last
He did not see a warrior
He did not see a man
He saw nothing at all
And that is how it ends

The blood came down in the channels
Just like the old man said

Who are you?
Who is your father?
No man goes unnamed to the one who kills him

He asked my name with his last blood
And I would not give it him
A beast without a mother's name -
I lied to a dying thing

The gold is cursed, the serpent said
The ring will take you too
And the one who sent you here tonight
Will put a blade in you

And I said: every man dies
And I said: I will take it anyway
And the heath went quiet
And the smith came out of the stones

Cut the heart out of your brother
Drink the blood and call it grief
Give me the fire, give me the iron
Give me the thing I don't believe
Heart of Fafnir on the coals
Turning slow above the flame
He told me: cook it, do not taste it
He never should have said my name

He drank the blood and lay him down
And smiled and closed his eyes
He told me: wake me when it's done
He told me one more lie

I put my finger to the meat
To know if it was through
And the fat came up and took the skin
And I put it in my mouth

And the world came open like a book
And the birds above the fire
Were not birds
They were talking
They were talking about me

He does not know
He does not know what the smith intends
The smith will take his head tonight
Kill him first
Kill him first
Eat the heart and be wiser than both of them

So I turned around
So I took the head off the man who raised me
And the fire did not even move

Cut the heart out of your brother
I have cut the heart from mine
Give me the fire, give me the iron
Give me the taste that is not wine
Heart of Fafnir in my hands
Eaten kneeling at the flame
Two of them are on this heath
And only one still has a name

It tasted like the smell of blood in cold air
I understood everything after that
I understood too much

The birds did not stop singing when he died
They only changed the subject

There is no one left upon this heath
No smith, no worm, no name
Just a boy with blood upon his mouth
And a language he can't unlearn

They said: the gold is in the earth
Beneath the poison stone
They said: a fool would leave it there
So I took it for my own

And Grani would not carry it
Till I climbed up on his back
Then he stood beneath the weight of it
Like it weighed nothing at all

I have the tongue of the birds!
I hear the world behind my back
Every warning, every plan
Every knife before the fact
I have the tongue of the birds
And they are singing me a road
South and south and south again
To a mountain that's on fire

They spoke of Gjúki and his sons
They spoke of what they'd do
They sang it lightly in the leaves
Like it was nothing new

They spoke of a hall on Hindarfjall
Ringed in standing flame
And a woman sleeping in her mail
Who Odin put to sleep

And they said: she is worth more
Than everything you carry
And I looked down at the hoard
And I believed them

I have the tongue of the birds!
I hear the world behind my back
Every warning, every plan
Every knife before the fact
I have the tongue of the birds
And they are singing me a road
South and south and south again
To a mountain that's on fire

But a gift like this has teeth
I hear the good and the ill alike
I hear what waits for me in the south
I hear my own name in a song
I have not lived yet
And I ride toward it anyway
Because a man who hears the ending
Still has to ride the road

So let the heath keep what it wants
Let the ashes hold the rest
There is a light above the trees
And it is not the sun

I have the tongue of the birds!
I hear the world behind my back
Every warning, every plan
Every knife before the fact
I have the tongue of the birds
And they will sing me to the end
South and south and south again
Into the fire - and in

They never told me to turn around
Not once
They only told me where to go

There was a light over the mountain
I thought at first it was the sun going down
It was not going down

I rode three days toward a glow
That never touched the ground
And the higher up the road I went
The quieter it got

No heat came off it. That's the thing
No smoke, no crack, no roar
It stood there like a standing stone
That someone made of fire

And I did not draw the sword
And I did not say a word
And Grani walked into it
Like he had done it before

Ring of fire on the mountain
Ring of fire and no sound
Everything I've killed to get here
Everything I've put in the ground
And it lets me through like water
Like it knew that I would come
Ring of fire on the mountain
And a light behind it

A wall of shields inside the flame
A banner overhead
And a warrior asleep in mail
Laid out like the dead

I took the helm up from the face
And I stood there a long time
The iron had grown into the skin
And the face was not a man's

I have killed a serpent
I have eaten a heart
I have taken a head off a man who fed me
And I stood in front of this
With my hands open
Not knowing where to put them

So I did the only thing I know
I used the sword

Down from the collar
Down through the sleeves
Careful - careful -
Not the skin, not the skin
And the iron came away
Like a winter coming off a field

Ring of fire on the mountain

Ring of fire and no sound

Hail to the Day -

Hail to the sons of Night -

And the light comes up

And the light comes up

Ring of fire on the mountain

And I have been asleep so long

Who cut the mail from me?
Who came through the flame?
Say your name
Say it slowly
I have waited a very long time to hear it

Sigrdrífa
That was my name when I could still choose

Odin said: give the victory
To the old king, to the crown
And I looked at the two of them
And I put the old man down

So he took my wings and took my sky
And a thorn went in my arm
You will never win a war again
And you will take a husband

So I swore an oath inside the sleep
On the day the fire was set
I will not marry any man
Who has ever known fear

Sit down. There is time now

There is no time. There is a road

Sit down. The road has waited
A hundred years already

And I have things to give you
That are worth more than the gold

Not a blade - a knowing
Not a war - a word

Cut the victory runes in the hilt
And name the god twice
Cut the wave runes in the prow
And the sea will let you pass

Cut the speech runes where you stand
So no man twists your words
Cut the healing runes in bark
And know which way they face

Do not quarrel with a fool in a crowd

I won't

Do not trust the brother of a man you killed

I won't

Do not swear a false oath. The oath outlives you

...I won't

Say it again

I won't

Good

I have not been afraid of anything
Since the heath went white
Not the worm, not the smith
Not the old man with one eye

But I am something now
Sitting here with you
And I do not have a name for it
And I do not want it to stop

Sit down. There is time now

There is time enough for this

I choose again what I chose before

And I will not be the last one you choose

So swear it on the iron

Swear it on the flame

Not a blade - a knowing

Not a war - a name

It will not hold

I know

Swear it anyway

I swear it

...Good

There is a woman at Gjúki's hall
Who knows what herbs do
She looked at me the way you look at a field
Before you decide what to plant in it

She smiled and poured and passed it down
And the hall said: drink, drink
And I had blood of serpents in me
And it did not save me from this

There was a mountain in my head
There was a fire and a name
And it went out like a candle
And I did not feel it go

That's the thing about forgetting
That's the thing they never say
You do not know that it is gone
You just walk on

Drink! - and lose the mountain
Drink! - and lose the flame
Drink! - and marry a stranger
And never know you did
I did not break my oath!
I was emptied of my oath!
Give me back the thing you took
Or give me back the man

I swore blood-brotherhood with them
I mixed my blood with theirs
And they were kind to me - that's worse -
They were kind the whole time

And when the fire would not let him through
They put his face on mine
And I rode into my own flame
Wearing another man

I passed through my own fire
I lay three nights beside her
With a naked sword between us
And I called her by my brother's name

She looked at me with the eyes
Of someone who had waited
And I looked back
With nothing behind my face at all

I took the ring off her hand
The ring I gave her
I put it in my pocket
Like it was a coin

Whose hand was it?
Whose voice was it?
Whose oath was it?
Mine - and I did not know it
Mine - and I did it anyway

Drink! - and lose the mountain
Drink! - and lose the flame
Drink! - and take her ring off her
With your brother's borrowed face
I did not break my oath
The oath was taken out of me
And the woman on the mountain
Will not know the difference

It came back to me later
All of it. All at once
That is the cruelty of it -
They did not take it forever
They only took it long enough

I was a chooser of the slain
Before I was a wife

He came through fire and spoke my name
He swore on iron, swore on flame
And I gave up the sky for him
And I gave up the wing

Then a stranger crossed the burning ring
Wearing another's face
And I lay down beside a lie
In a stolen marriage bed

The river told me
The river told me what he'd done
Not an enemy - not a stranger -
Him

I do not weep! I do not beg!
I am the wrath that wears a crown
Let the halls of Gjúki burn
Let every oath he broke come down
You made a valkyrie a wife
You made a promise into ash
I gave my sky away for you
And I will take it back in blood

Gunnar, brother - hear me now
You will not sleep beside my scorn
Take the blade or take my curse
Take the weight you should have borne

He rode through fire that was not his
He won a woman not his own
And every hour that he still breathes
Is an hour I am not my own

The river told me
The river told me what he'd done
Not an enemy - not a stranger -
Him

I do not weep! I do not beg!
I am the wrath that wears a crown
Let the halls of Gjúki burn
Let every oath he broke come down
You made a valkyrie a wife
You made a promise into ash
I gave my sky away for you
And I will take it back in blood

They think this is jealousy
It is not
A sworn thing was broken
A sworn thing is paid
And I will pay it too

Build the pyre and build it high
Lay him down and lay me near
I will not follow him in shame
I will follow him as peer

I do not weep! I do not beg!
I am the wrath that wears a crown
Let the halls of Gjúki burn
Let every oath he broke come down
You made a valkyrie a wife
You made a promise into ash
I gave my sky away for you
And I take it back - in blood

I was a chooser of the slain
I chose him
I chose him twice

There was a ring of fire
And a woman sleeping in it

I cut the iron from your breast
I did not know your name
You opened eyes like winter sky
And called me through the flame

I slept a hundred silent years
Beneath a burning crown
And you were not the first to come
But you were the first to walk it down

Say it once and say it true
Say it where the fire can hear

Beyond the flame there is no oath to break
Beyond the flame there is no cup to drink
No brother's face, no stolen ring
No river and no lie
Beyond the flame I knew your name
And I will know it when I die

They laid me down beside you here
With a naked blade between
The same cold iron, the same still hands
The same as it has always been

I forgot you for a while
The world made sure I would
But every rune you taught me stayed
Even when the memory could not

Say it once and say it true
Say it where the fire can hear

Beyond the flame there is no oath to break
Beyond the flame there is no cup to drink
No brother's face, no stolen ring
No river and no lie
Beyond the flame I knew your name
And I will know it when I die

Are you waking?

I am burning

Are you far?

I am here

The fire never ended

It only changed its shape

So light it high and let it take
The armour and the years
There is a place the flame cannot reach
And we were always there

Beyond the flame there is no oath to break
Beyond the flame there is no cup to drink
No brother's face, no stolen ring
No river and no lie
Beyond the flame I knew your name
And I know it - even now

Sleep
The ring is closed