Krákumál (The Death Song)

Intro

(Krákumál! Krákumál!)

He sailed with two ships — she knew before he left...

(Hu-ha!) Snake-pit deep — the venom and the cleft —

Áslaug felt it in her bones — the bereft —

(Krákumál!) The death-song of the old boar — nothing left...

Verse 1 — Ragnar

Álli thought the pit would break the old boar's singing —

Adder-venom in the marrow — still I'm bringing

Every line of the Krákumál — still ringing

Named for her — the crow — the bell still swinging.

I've stood in shield-walls since the heath-worm's slaughter —

Þóra won, then lost — then north across the water —

Found the crow who held the Völsung bloodline's daughter —

Married fire — fathered armies — crossed every border.

Two ships to Northumbria — call it what you're needing:

Arrogance, or fate, or the old boar conceding

That the death worth dying needs the blood to be bleeding

In the right place — for the right sons — worth their heeding.

Ælla threw me in the dark where the adders waited —

I felt the first bite and I laughed — understated —

The wound-dew spreading slow — the Norns long-calculated

This pit as the anvil where the army's forged and weighted.

The little pigs will grunt —

Pre-Chorus — both

Ragnar: — when they hear the old boar suffered in the cold —

Áslaug: I felt it at Spangereid — the sight took hold —

(I knew before the ship had cleared the fjord...)

Both: the death-song of the Krákumál was always being told —

Andvari's last thread spun from the Völsung gold. (uh!)

Chorus — both

How the little pigs would grunt if they knew (if they knew!)

The old boar dies laughing in the venom-dew (venom-dew!)

Five sons crossing the grey water — nothing to undo (nothing to undo!)

Krákumál — the death-song carries through! (Hu-ha!)

Verse 2 — Áslaug

I had the sight before the harp-wood gave me breathing —

Brynhildr's fire in the bloodline — never leaving —

I felt the snake-pit three nights before the grieving

Messenger arrived — already weaving

The answer in the loom-room at the hall's foundation:

Send word to the sons — that's the only summation —

Ivar first — then Björn — the whole formation —

Hvítserkr, Ubba, Sigurðr — full mobilization.

Sigurðr Snake-in-the-Eye carries Fáfnir's mark —

Ivar carries the cold that plans inside the dark —

Björn carries the iron — leaves no battlefield stark —

Between them Ælla will provide the final spark.

I raised them on the sagas of the cursed gold's turning —

On Sigurðr my father and the fire's returning —

On Guðrún my grandmother — the hall still burning —

On every Völsung cost — the price — the learning.

Ragnar sang the Krákumál with adder-fang in sinew —

I sang it back from Spangereid — the venue

Doesn't matter when the bloodline's the continuum —

The crow became the queen — the sons the revenue.

Pre-Chorus — both

Ragnar: — when they hear the old boar suffered in the cold —

Áslaug: I felt it at Spangereid — the sight took hold —

(I knew before the ship had cleared the fjord...)

Both: the death-song of the Krákumál was always being told —

Andvari's last thread spun from the Völsung gold. (uh!)

Chorus — both

How the little pigs would grunt if they knew (if they knew!)

The old boar dies laughing in the venom-dew (venom-dew!)

Five sons crossing the grey water — nothing to undo (nothing to undo!)

Krákumál — the death-song carries through! (Hu-ha!)

Bridge — trading

Ragnar: the Dísir call me — I hear them in the venom —

(the Dísir call...)

Óðinn's table laid — the einherjar — the welcome —

(the table laid...)

I go laughing — that's the old boar's emblem —

(laughing...)

The death I chose was always the right problem.

Áslaug: I told Ivar: plan cold — don't burn the crossing —

(plan cold...)

The blood eagle waits for Ælla — no double-crossing —

(it waits...)

Carve the Völsung grief into his ribcage's housing —

(carve it in...)

Every generation's cost paid in one dousing.

Both: the Great Heathen Army crossed the grey water in autumn —

(865 AD...)

York fell first — the sons of Ragnar brought it —

(York fell...)

Ælla paid in the way the sight had wrought it —

(blood eagle...)

The pit in Northumbria — Krákumál — we got it.

(Skál to the old boar! Skál — he sang in the venom!)

(Skál to Áslaug! Skál — the crow saw the emblem!)

Drop — Instrumental

Chorus — both

How the little pigs would grunt if they knew (if they knew!)

The old boar dies laughing in the venom-dew (venom-dew!)

Five sons crossing the grey water — nothing to undo (nothing to undo!)

Krákumál — the death-song carries through! (Hu-ha!)

Outro

(Krákumál! Krákumál!)

The venom reached the heart before the last verse...

(Hu-ha!)

The sons already sailing.

York already waiting.

The old boar laughed.

The crow already knew.

The Völsung blood

crossed the grey water

in five ships

and rewrote

the history of England.

(That's enough

for one death-song.)