Björn Ironside

Intro

(Ironside! Ironside!)

Sixty-two ships at the edge of the known world...

(Hu-ha!) South past the pillars — the grey water swirled —

Every sea-chart ended — new maps unfurled —

(Ironside!) Björn took the fleet where the cold world uncurled...

Verse 1 — Björn

Ivar got the cold — I got the iron and the motion —

Two different sons — same mother — same devotion.

He took England with a mind — I took the ocean

With sixty-two hulls and a Ragnar-sized notion.

Frankish coast first — warm up — standard raiding —

Then the Strait ahead — the water's edge degrading

Every map the southern kings had been parading —

We went through anyway — the horizon invading.

Gibraltar narrow — current fighting the keel-work —

Roman pillars either side — the old world's seal-work —

We pushed through in formation — forty oars — the real work

Of entering a sea no Norse ship made a deal work.

Morocco south — the heat like Múspellsheim's border —

Balearic Islands east — we took the order

Of the whole basin as our own — no quarter —

The Mediterranean learned a new word for slaughter.

Pre-Chorus — both

Áslaug: I watched from Spangereid — the sight went further south (further south)

Björn: we wintered in the Rhône delta — spray in the mouth —

(Camargue reeds and flamingos — wrong latitude...)

Both: the Völsung blood that froze in Norway burned at the mouth

Of a sea the gods forgot to put on the route. (uh!)

Chorus — both

Sixty-two ships through the Pillars of the world (of the world!)

Iron on the hull — southern sails unfurled (sails unfurled!)

Luna gates opened — the coffin trick swirled (coffin swirled!)

Björn Ironside sailed where the map uncurled! (Hu-ha!)

Verse 2 — Áslaug

I felt the fleet leave the northern water's keeping —

Felt the warmth hit the hull while the north was sleeping —

Sigurðr's blood in Björn was always leaping

Toward the horizon past the chart's last reading.

I bore five sons for different kinds of burning —

Ivar's cold, Björn's iron, Hvítserkr's yearning,

Ubba's fury, Sigurðr's eye still turning

Fáfnir's mark on every kingdom's morning.

Björn sent Hastein into Luna's hall-gates —

The dying trick — the coffin — the small-waits

Of a man pretending death inside the tall-gates

Of a city ripe for taking at the nightfall-straits.

They baptized Hastein — gave him Christian burial —

The doors swung wide — he rose — the sword aerial —

I laughed at Spangereid — the material

Of Ragnar's sons was always immaterial

To every wall that thought a gate could hold them —

The old boar's laugh in Björn — I always told them:

The Völsung blood finds every door — I moulded

Five sons to break five different kinds of bolted.

Pre-Chorus — both

Áslaug: I watched from Spangereid — the sight went further south (further south)

Björn: we wintered in the Rhône delta — spray in the mouth —

(Camargue reeds and flamingos — wrong latitude...)

Both: the Völsung blood that froze in Norway burned at the mouth

Of a sea the gods forgot to put on the route. (uh!)

Chorus — both

Sixty-two ships through the Pillars of the world (of the world!)

Iron on the hull — southern sails unfurled (sails unfurled!)

Luna gates opened — the coffin trick swirled (coffin swirled!)

Björn Ironside sailed where the map uncurled! (Hu-ha!)

Bridge — trading

Björn: we found out Luna wasn't Rome before the morning —

(not Rome...)

Hastein's face — the disappointment — no adorning —

(not Rome...)

We took it anyway — fury without mourning —

(took it whole...)

Wrong city — right lesson — keep exploring.

Áslaug: the storm hit in the Strait on the returning —

(the storm came...)

Half the fleet on the rocks — the water churning —

(half the fleet...)

Twenty hulls came home — the rest still burning —

(twenty left...)

Twenty ships of silk and slaves still worth the earning.

Both: Ragnar sang the Krákumál in adder-venom —

(in the pit...)

Björn came home with twenty ships — the emblem

(came home...)

Of a son who sailed the sea the gods forgot — the problem

(Skál to Ironside! Skál — the furthest helm!)

(Sixty-two ships south — twenty back — still overwhelm!)

Drop — Instrumental

Chorus — both

Sixty-two ships through the Pillars of the world (of the world!)

Iron on the hull — southern sails unfurled (sails unfurled!)

Luna gates opened — the coffin trick swirled (coffin swirled!)

Björn Ironside sailed where the map uncurled! (Hu-ha!)

Outro

(Ironside! Ironside!)

Twenty ships came back through the Strait...

(Hu-ha!)

Silk and slaves and stories.

Every king in Europe

checked the water

after that.

The iron arm

sailed where the map ended.

(And came back

to tell it.)