Weight of the Longship (version 5)

Verse 1

Grandfather rowed for a jarl who never learned his name

Thirty men below deck, one drum, one aching frame

Salt cut the wood grain, blisters turned to bark

Steered by stars he couldn't see past the dark

Said the captain's boots stayed dry the whole trip through

While the bench splintered under every stroke we knew

Fed on hard bread, prayed the storm would pass us by

Buried his brother at sea, kept rowing, didn't cry

Said the ship don't care whose hands are on the oar

Only cares you pull until you can't pull no more

Pre-Chorus

How many benches broke before we saw the coast

How many names got swallowed, never made the boast

I carry what he carried, just a different kind of tide

Chorus

The weight of the longship don't sink the ones who row

Just marks the ones who make it, scars is how you know

No glory in the water, only wake behind

Every bench I sat in built the one that's mine

Verse 2

Now I'm rowing different waters, same drum in my chest

Alarm clock set at five, same ache, same test

Traded timber for a ledger, oar for a pen

Same jarl in a suit, still counting profit off ten men

I steer the room now, still I keep one hand on the oar

Teach the young ones the rhythm so they row for something more

No captain's boots for me, I stand where the salt hits hard

Every scar's a receipt, every callus is a card

I paid what he paid, just a different kind of coin

Same current underneath us, same crew, same joint

Pre-Chorus

How many benches broke before we saw the coast

How many names got swallowed, never made the boast

I carry what he carried, just a different kind of tide

Chorus

The weight of the longship don't sink the ones who row

Just marks the ones who make it, scars is how you know

No glory in the water, only wake behind

Every bench I sat in built the one that's mine

Bridge

Turns out the ones who steer once pulled the hardest oar

That's the only way the wheel gets earned, not before

I put my son's hand on the wood, said feel that grain

That's your blood in the water, that's your name, not your chain

Chorus

The weight of the longship don't sink the ones who row

Just marks the ones who make it, scars is how you know

No glory in the water, only wake behind

Every bench I sat in built the one that's mine