Bloodaxe on the Ridge

Intro

(Bloodaxe! Gunnhildr!)

Harald's favorite — five brothers paid the choosing...

(Hu-ha!) York twice — the third time — no refusing —

Gunnhildr's cold eye saw the ridge — he kept cruising —

(Bloodaxe!) The last Viking king of York — Stainmore losing...

Verse 1 — Eiríkr

Harald Fairhair's bloodline — the chosen credential —

Five brothers dead by my hand — the sequential

Logic of a throne that won't be divisional —

Norway for one blade — that's the essential.

Athelstan gave me York — the Danelaw breathing —

I supplied the iron where the peace was teething.

Twice king, twice expelled — the third time seething

With ambush on the ridge — no room for leaving.

Ivar took this city back in 866 —

I held it after — built the Norse Danelaw fix —

Stainmore was the price — Maccus — politics —

I rode in anyway — that's the Bloodaxe mix.

Pre-Chorus — both

Gunnhildr: they called me sorceress — I called it reading the room (reading the room)

Eiríkr: she saw Stainmore three years early — I chose the doom —

(chose it cold...)

Both: the last Viking king of York rode into the gloom —

Gunnhildr outlived every kingdom — that's the bloom. (uh!)

Chorus — both

Bloodaxe on the ridge — no retreat, no yield (no yield!)

Gunnhildr's cold arithmetic — the long shield (long shield!)

York fell twice — the third time sealed (third time sealed!)

Stainmore 954 — the Danelaw revealed! (Hu-ha!)

Verse 2 — Gunnhildr

Kónungamóðir — Mother of Kings — the title

Given by survival — every recital

Of my name came wrapped in fear — the vital

Sign of power held without requital.

Seiðr accused, Óðinn accused — the whole

Litany men compile when a woman's role

Exceeds their mapping — I controlled the shoal

Of every alliance from the inside — cold.

I saw Stainmore in the pattern — Maccus hired,

Osberht's sons aligned, the ridge pre-wired —

Told him: don't ride north — he called it tired

Woman's fear — I packed the sons — retired

Clean to Orkney while he made the martyr-

Ride York remembers — I became the charter

Of five sons — Haraldr, Gamall — the starter

Of everything that outlived the blood-slaughter.

Pre-Chorus — both

Gunnhildr: they called me sorceress — I called it reading the room (reading the room)

Eiríkr: she saw Stainmore three years early — I chose the doom —

(chose it cold...)

Both: the last Viking king of York rode into the gloom —

Gunnhildr outlived every kingdom — that's the bloom. (uh!)

Chorus — both

Bloodaxe on the ridge — no retreat, no yield (no yield!)

Gunnhildr's cold arithmetic — the long shield (long shield!)

York fell twice — the third time sealed (third time sealed!)

Stainmore 954 — the Danelaw revealed! (Hu-ha!)

Bridge — trading

Eiríkr: five against a hundred on the ridge at morning —

(outnumbered...)

Harald Fairhair's son doesn't die warning

(no warning given...)

Everyone to stop — I hit the ridge adorning

The axe with the last thing — no mourning.

Gunnhildr: I outlived the exile and the York — twice over —

(twice over...)

Sons scattered north — I was the cover

(the cover held...)

That kept the bloodline past the clover —

(Skál to the Bloodaxe! Skál — he fell a rover!)

(Stainmore closed the Danelaw — she crossed to Dover!)

Drop — Instrumental

Chorus — both

Bloodaxe on the ridge — no retreat, no yield (no yield!)

Gunnhildr's cold arithmetic — the long shield (long shield!)

York fell twice — the third time sealed (third time sealed!)

Stainmore 954 — the Danelaw revealed! (Hu-ha!)

Outro

(Bloodaxe! Gunnhildr!)

Stainmore — 954 AD...

(Hu-ha!)

Last Viking king of York.

Fell on the ridge.

Gunnhildr took the sons north.

The Danelaw closed.

(The axe was his.

The survival

was always hers.)