The Völva

Intro

Hlióðs bið ek allar — I demand you still...

(Hu-ha!) Pulled from my grave by the Allfather's will —

I owe him nothing — I speak what is real —

(Silence!) The seeress sees what the gods fear to feel...

Verse 1

I remember the void before the void had a name —

Ginnungagap yawning — no heat and no flame.

No sand, no sea, no cooling ground-frame —

Just the gap — and the weight of the nothing the same.

Then Ymir formed from the frost where the rivers of venom

Collided with fire from the south — I was in them.

Odin and his brothers took the giant and skinned him —

Skull became the sky-vault — sea from within him.

Ask and Embla found — two trees on the shore-line —

Breathed in by the Æsir — stood up in the morning-shine.

Golden age came — the gods played in their fine time —

No need for falsehood — no hunger — by design.

Then three came from Jötunheimr — giantesses knowing —

And the golden age cracked at the seam, stopped glowing.

I saw it from the mound — the rot slowly showing —

Before the gods understood what they were sowing.

Pre-Chorus

Odin came to my grave and he knocked on the stone (on the stone)

Asked what I see — I see everything alone.

He leans in close — thinks the knowledge is on loan —

Seeress owes the Allfather nothing — I've always known. (uh!)

Chorus

I was dead when he called me — I'll be dead when I'm done (when I'm done!)

I saw the first morning and I'll see the last sun (the last sun!)

Every god in the nine worlds — every daughter and son (every son!)

The Völva speaks the truth and then her work is undone! (Hu-ha!)

Verse 2

Baldur dreamed his death — the hall went quiet with worry,

Frigg extracted oaths from every stone in a hurry.

One thing missed — the mistletoe — small and blurry —

Loki found the loophole — blind Höðr threw in flurry.

Baldur hit the ground and even Hel went silent,

Odin's face — I watched it — something fractured, violent.

Not the grief — the calculation — cold and pliant —

He already knew the ending — just resisted and defiant.

Loki bound beneath the mountain — snake-venom dripping —

Sigyn's bowl filling — emptying — the mountain gripping.

Every tremor in the earth — his shoulder slipping —

The clock on everything already ticking, tipping.

Then I see it — Fimbulwinter — axes, swords, wind-time,

Brother killing brother — every shield-wall in a blind-climb.

Surtr from the south with the fire-blade sublime —

The gods march out — I've already seen the endline.

Pre-Chorus

Odin came to my grave and he knocked on the stone (on the stone)

Asked what I see — I see everything alone.

He leans in close — thinks the knowledge is on loan —

Seeress owes the Allfather nothing — I've always known. (uh!)

Chorus

I was dead when he called me — I'll be dead when I'm done (when I'm done!)

I saw the first morning and I'll see the last sun (the last sun!)

Every god in the nine worlds — every daughter and son (every son!)

The Völva speaks the truth and then her work is undone! (Hu-ha!)

Bridge

Odin leans in — asks the question he most fears:

(ask it...)

"What whispered in the ear of Fenrir — who appears?"

(ask it...)

I see the one-eyed god and feel his cold tears —

(the cold tears...)

He's run every calculation for ten thousand years.

He knows the wolf swallows him — he's known since the binding —

(since the binding...)

He's been stacking the einherjar — endlessly finding —

(endlessly finding...)

He already knows the answer he's been hiding —

(already knows...)

He just needs to hear it from the one mouth not lying.

I tell him.

(what did you tell him?)

What you already know if you've listened to this.

(what we know...)

The end is the beginning — nothing's been amiss.

(nothing amiss...)

Then the earth rises green from the sea after the fire —

(rises green...)

And the new sun — daughter of the old — climbs higher.

(Skál to the seeress! Skál — she saw it complete!)

(From Ginnungagap to the new green — nothing's defeat!)

Drop — Instrumental

Chorus

I was dead when he called me — I'll be dead when I'm done (when I'm done!)

I saw the first morning and I'll see the last sun (the last sun!)

Every god in the nine worlds — every daughter and son (every son!)

The Völva speaks the truth and then her work is undone! (Hu-ha!)

Outro

The earth rises green from the flood...

(Hu-ha!)

Baldr returns from Hel.

The new sun climbs.

Now I must sink.

(Nú mun hon søkkva.)