Half-Living

Intro

(Half-living! Half-living!)

Nobody chooses to come here — they arrive...

(Hu-ha!) I don't hunt the dead — I just receive the tide —

Half my face the living — half the other side —

(Half-living!) Hel holds more souls than Valhöll ever tried...

Verse 1

Loki's blood in the marrow — Angrboða's daughter,

Born in Járnviðr — sister to the wolf and the water.

Óðinn saw the three of us and moved to slaughter

The prophecy before it grew — and partly got her.

Cast me down to Niflheim — thought it was a binding —

Gave me nine worlds worth of dead — that's not confining.

Every soul the Valkyries passed without finding

Comes through my gate — that's the vast overwhelming.

They praise Valhöll — five hundred forty doors of glory —

Four hundred thirty-two thousand — that's the story.

I hold the rest of everyone — do the inventory —

The sick, the old, the drowned — the whole obligatory.

Farmers who worked the frost until the body cracked open,

Mothers who died in childbed — oath already spoken,

Children who never saw the shield-wall or the war-token —

They all come here — every hinge and spoke broken.

Pre-Chorus

Half my face the bloom of living — half the grave-blue cold (grave-blue cold)

Half my hall called Éljúðnir — that's the hunger-hold.

Plate called Hunger — knife called Famine — that's what I was told

To build with — I built a kingdom — watch it unfold. (uh!)

Chorus

Don't confuse my silence for a weakness in the frame (in the frame!)

Every soul that ever lived will come and speak my name (speak my name!)

Valhöll gets the warriors — I get all the same (all the same!)

Hel holds nine worlds worth of dead — I run this game! (Hu-ha!)

Verse 2

Hermóðr came to me on the eight-legged horse, riding —

Nine nights through the valley-dark — not hiding.

Leapt the Gjöll bridge — Móðguðr barely deciding

To let him pass — his living footfall overriding.

He found me in the mead-hall — Baldr at my right hand —

Nanna beside him — both of them the bright-brand.

He made his case — I listened to the full plan —

Then I set the terms the way that only I can:

If every living thing and every dead thing weeping

Proves the worlds above still want what I am keeping —

Then I'll open the gate — no argument — no cheating.

One dry eye breaks the contract — that's my meeting.

I knew about the giantess before he rode back northward —

I knew the dry eye waiting — calculated, tortured —

I kept the term because the term was what I authored —

Hel doesn't change the rules when outcomes feel disordered.

Pre-Chorus

Half my face the bloom of living — half the grave-blue cold (grave-blue cold)

Half my hall called Éljúðnir — that's the hunger-hold.

Plate called Hunger — knife called Famine — that's what I was told

To build with — I built a kingdom — watch it unfold. (uh!)

Chorus

Don't confuse my silence for a weakness in the frame (in the frame!)

Every soul that ever lived will come and speak my name (speak my name!)

Valhöll gets the warriors — I get all the same (all the same!)

Hel holds nine worlds worth of dead — I run this game! (Hu-ha!)

Bridge

You want to know what power actually looks like?

(what does it look like?)

Not the axe — the axe is just the one-night.

(not the axe...)

Not the sword — the sword is what they bring to the fight.

(not the sword...)

Power is what waits at the end of the light.

Óðinn schemes a thousand years to fill his war-hall —

(a thousand years...)

I receive without scheming — I outlast them all.

(outlast them all...)

Surtr burns the nine worlds — the ash settles — the rainfall —

(the ash settles...)

Who do you think receives the dead from that downfall?

Even gods come through my gate when the fighting clears —

(even gods...)

Even einherjar — even Óðinn — all frontiers.

(all frontiers...)

Half my face has always been the truth they fear:

(the truth they fear...)

The living half reminds them death is already here.

I don't rage — I don't recruit — I don't campaign —

(don't campaign...)

I just keep the gate and wait for the nextrain.

(Skál to the half-living! Skál — she holds the slain!)

(Every soul that ever lived passed through Hel's domain!)

Drop — Instrumental

Chorus

Don't confuse my silence for a weakness in the frame (in the frame!)

Every soul that ever lived will come and speak my name (speak my name!)

Valhöll gets the warriors — I get all the same (all the same!)

Hel holds nine worlds worth of dead — I run this game! (Hu-ha!)

Outro

(Half-living! Half-living!)

Ragnarök came and went...

(Hu-ha!)

The gate opened.

Baldr walked out first.

Then the rest.

I was still standing.

(I am always still standing.)