1. |
Heldengrab
02:29
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2. |
I, Triumphant
05:18
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"We are the warriors! We defend the realm of the gods.
Let's prepare for war, for the defeat of the weak.
We are ment to fulfill, the duty of our horde.
So sharpen your blades and build up our defence.
Tomorrow we will water our fields with their blood.
Freya and Odin shall feast from this blòt.
At daybreak they will come to be swallowed by our soil!
For all eternity, our folk shall sing our songs!"
After his rageful speach, Gísli held up his jug
and hailed to the god's, with high spirits in the eyes.
The village elders viewed him with some mistrust
and huddled together, as if we've already lost.
While the lofty men roared back to our hall,
the vǫlva went away and vanished for good...
Gísli's megalomania heralded our doom.
I rushed to my family, as their banners loomed afar.
I cried for Thor, as our hut was empty.
"Where did you leave my family?!"
I grabbed my saex and the axe
and ran back to alert the others.
The squalls were absorbed by enemy horns,
while I reached the gruesome slaughter.
I tried to hide, but soon got cornered
by two men, who tried cut my head off.
I fell down, while evading their swings.
On the ground, I chopped ones leg off
and threw the axe, into the other's face.
Then I heard the screams of my daughter,
that came directly from the north wall.
I followed her shrieks, passing by rape and torture.
At the hall, I saw Gísli captured.
The enemy jarl, just granted his last words.
I heard him yell: "I Triumphant!"
The man replied: "and yet you die like an infant,
as you were blind, to see the path to glory."
I left him die, to save my daughter.
At the wall, our soil was soaked with our blood
and left no drop for the living...
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3. |
Five Arrows
04:09
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I unleash the hordes. Now we attack!
Let them hide behind walls, like cornered rats.
In the end we'll smoke them out or burn them to the ground.
If they don't surrender, deathcries shall be the echoed sound.
After months of torment, we gathered to fight this war.
They burnt down the settlement and destroyed all our farms.
They should not have evoken the force of Odin's wrath.
As we have breached their gates, their blood will blaze our trail.
I've reached the bailey
to face the last garrison.
Without flinching
we fight the batallion.
...until my bloodlust clots.
While I slash through the dozens
a sweat bead drops on my lips.
As it tastes so bloody familiar
I search its's spring in the skies.
I spotted my family, hanging in front of the church.
My wife and my children were pierced by an arrow, each.
They must have died an hour ago,
Now doomed to admonish in a row.
The shock drives me to my knees.
I gaze into space with sorrow.
Shaken up by the battlecries,
Fury erupts like volcanos.
I crush the remaining men.
The last slit sounds the deathknell of solitude.
All of a sudden the pain incarnates.
As five arrows perforate my hauberk.
I look asquint at the archers,
That reunite us in Valhallah.
I unleahed the hordes, to get my family back.
Was it it greed or revenge, that led to our death?
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4. |
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"The nightfall lights up by the funeral of our chieftain.
Our Father now is with the gods.
Dear Brother, we have to choose, who drinks the sjaund.
Yet I'm a warrior, handier with swords than with words.
You shall become the heir and drink the ale!
But gather all our men tonight,
As we have to avenge
our father's death!“
Ríkviðr left our halls, there was no Time to feast.
I summoned the fierce Stylt, to fight under his lead.
We then rode through the night, to attack under moonlight.
The berserks were ready to die, as we've lost so many lives.
At the Fjord we spotted their camp and descended from our steeds.
During our silent approach, we could hear them sing strange songs:
"...do stoptun to samane staim bort chludun,
heuwun harmlicco huitte scilti,
unti imo iro lintun luttilo wurtun,
giwigan miti wabnum..."
Ríkviðr and the berserks slashed the singing throats
and ran to those paralysed with fear, to continue the shedding of blood.
Meanwhile I burned down the tents and sleepers, evading the scared up horde.
Then I saw ours, encircled by dozens,
hacking and slashing to the bitter end.
From the distance I watched the fires vast expand
and came to the obliterating thought,
that today only the fires marched victorious
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5. |
Beneath the howling gate
05:02
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The flickering light of my torch relumines
The silhouettes of the menace, lurking in the deeps.
Our elders seiðr still lingers in my ears,
While approaching the end of time, the fleshmade fear.
The winds still shape the rugged arcs and clang them like a throat.
I hold my axe tight, whilst passing through the howling gate.
I enter our great halls, made of Ymirs bones.
Facing my brother's call, to settle the heir to the crown.
This sickening fight for glory never ends.
My younger brother never learned to understand,
That honor thrives through noble deeds and not through the thirst for thrones.
I forgave him and all his intrigues, to protect our very home.
But he claims ever since, to remain as heir, all alone.
And rule everyone against our father's writ;
With iron handle and terror.
Now as I stand in front of him, I remember one last time
How we, as brothers, shared one path until tonight,
As one will die.
His eyes are filled with hate and greed, as he swings our father's sword.
I elude the deadly strike and retaliate with all my force.
Time stands still as he falls and I witness his fear.
As I swing at his head, he cries for mercy.
But now I seal the thread of fate, that the norns have twined
And hear his cries die away, within the howls of our gate.
As he ignored, what our father said,
He had to face this fate.
But why was I
Fated to this hate?
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6. |
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Burning wrath inflames numb limbs!
Bloodlust drowns out the despair.
In the midst of frozen depths and hights,
we harken the snowfall, ready to fight.
As wardrums echo through the baleful night,
we start to march towards the forest of hungry blades.
Shadows grow flashing eyes.
First Blood. Reflected Moonlight.
Slaughter! For the sake of pride.
Inhuman strength unchained.
The Beast is free. Run or hide!
In the mountains, where fate decides.
Blood melts the snow.
We slash ourselves a way through the flesh of foes.
The victory is within our grasp.
But what blizzard conjoures this sudden dark?
Unknown battlecries appear behind our lines.
Trapped at the mercy of hungry blades,
we start to fall.
Exposed to the mights,
I battle for my existence,
until caustic pain freezes time
and unseen horrors stun my mind.
For the trust in auguries, I gave my flesh.
Now I die in agony. No legacy left.
Swords of the enemy devided my chest.
One side craves for family, the other sees death.
Whilst I rue my trust and deeds, I'm haunted by awful sights,
of the hundreds I crushed in war, to serve a better life.
Slaughter! For the sake of pride.
Fleshly transience. My heartbeat dies.
I fade away with echoing wardrums.
In the mountains, where fate decides.
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7. |
In pride and sorrow
05:36
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I led us to victory. When I had nothing, I came to thee.
You tought me how to fight with steele,
The tactics, the strength and diplomacy.
When my parents died, you took care of me.
But now, you are a traitor, indeed.
I know. You loved my father and the family,
But how may I obliviate, what happened in the field?
You have decided to save their breed.
Eventhough, they will become our enemy.
Now leave my legs and stop to beg!
You know how we act and what my father said:
"The sole grace of war is a proper death."
Bar none we fight with no Survivors left!
No women, no children, nor any "chaste" flesh.
Remember the vengeance of our faults!
My parents got killed by those, spared in the raid.
These orphans grew strong and built an army overnight.
...that crushed our peace with killings and rape.
When you look at me you see what they may become.
They should have killed me, before it was too late.
Now I am King and they are almost dead.
I tried to stop this eternal feud,
But your pity still imperils our fjords.
What have you done?
My teacher, I became your son.
Now it is I, who shall seal your end.
Why must love be your only defence?
No I cannot change the order of our Thing.
I'll never forget, but I'm still your King.
So kneel down with pride and say your last words.
The apprentice becomes the teacher,
Through patience and hurt...
His head rolls to my feet
And stares at me, so deep
That this day will haunt all dreams.
I bartered my inner peace
With rectitude and grief.
A mite my guts tell me, that he stood for real peace.
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8. |
Ride for revenge
04:10
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My brothers and I got sattle-sore
during our week-long ride through rain and storm.
We've received a message from our sister.
Spidery letters tell, that she's in great danger.
Ýrr was married to Vígmarr
to end the belligerence between the ætts.
Hergilsungs warriors had defeated us,
but jarl Augnarr chose trade over bloodlust.
At long last it's time for revenge
and we will fight until the very end!
Ýrr invited us to feast with her family,
trying to mask, that she called us for help.
Vígmarr just dethroned his father Hergilsson
and forged out the plan to become our king.
We gathered an army,
that'll wait deep in the woods for our sign.
Arriving at the fortress,
Ýrr welcomed us with open arms,
then ordered her archers
to sorround us in the courtyard.
She focussed us with steely glance
and bade us to kneel down.
“At long last it's time for revenge!
I'll enjoy to see your armys very end.
Father sold me to his most hated fiend!
At least now, the torment made me Queen.
...and you, unlike Vígmarr, didn't stop the father,
that's why you now will have to die.”
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9. |
Hymn for a newborn star
06:30
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þorvaldur Koðránsson seeked for salvation
and tried to get rid of the beast
He was baptised overseas
and returned to espouse Fridrek's mission
Is his heart strong enough for this chasm
or will it break over time?
Is he truly convinced of this magic
or will blood befoul the shine?
The mission provoked the goðlauss,
who want to nip Fridrek's word in the bud.
Héðin of Svalbarð took action
and payed two skàlds to drag the talltale through the mire
One day, Fridrek and þorvaldur preached in public
The skàlds joined the audience and made fun of the orators
The bishop bore all with patience, but his aide burned with anger
He drew his sword and lunged at the surprised skàlds
The blood spouted out of the beheaded ones
While it rained down on the crowd, an old man muttered in his beard:
„The radience of the human spirit
shines brighter than a newborn star.
The dogmas of those who enslave the seekers
can never clench an anxious heart.“
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10. |
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11. |
Lost war
02:29
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