The Boneless General

Intro

(Beinlausi! Beinlausi!)

Carry me in on the shield — I'll carry us out...

(Hu-ha!) No legs for the charge — no need — no doubt —

The mind cuts deeper than the axe, without

(Beinlausi!) The boneless king plans while the brothers shout...

Verse 1 — Ivar

They call the boneless a weakness — call it a condition —

I call it the gift that separated my position

From every sword-arm in the army's composition:

I can't charge — so I think — that's the acquisition.

Björn swings the iron — Hvítserkr takes the wall —

Ubba burns the flanks — Sigurðr answers the call —

I lie on the shield above the battle's sprawl

And read the field like a Norn reads the hall.

Mother said: plan cold — I heard: plan colder —

Mapped every English garrison from Humber to the shoulder

Of Northumbria's wall — each king — each boulder —

Three moves before the brothers knew they'd told her.

York at the feast of All Saints — gates half-sleeping —

We came in the dark while the English were keeping

Their prayers and their candles — no one was weeping

Before we were inside — the walls in our keeping.

Pre-Chorus — both

Áslaug: I gave him the sight before the harp-wood gave me breathing —

(the sight...)

Ivar: she gave me the cold — that's the only thing worth heeding —

(plan cold...)

Both: the boneless general on the shield — never conceding —

The Völsung blood runs ice through every son she's seeding. (uh!)

Chorus — both

No legs for the charge — the mind does the breaking (the breaking!)

York fell while the English were still waking (still waking!)

Ælla paid the debt the snake-pit was making (was making!)

Ivar the Boneless — cold — never shaking! (Hu-ha!)

Verse 2 — Áslaug

I bore him different — felt it in the carrying —

The others came out roaring — Ivar — varying —

Quiet — watching — the cord still in the marrying

Of Sigurðr's blood to something new — not tarrying.

Ragnar said: this one scares me — I said: good —

The scariest thing I've made is what I would —

Brynhildr's fire through a body that withstood

Every blade by never standing where it could.

I sent the sight south when the army crossed the water —

Rode with him on the shield as Spangereid's daughter —

Felt the York gates open — felt the slaughter —

Felt Ælla in the pit below the quarter.

Ragnar died in adders — I felt it in the marrow —

Ivar planned the answer cold and arrow-

Straight: the blood eagle — Völsung grief — the narrow

Point of every generation's sorrow.

He sent no word before — that's the cold deciding —

Just the plan, the sons, the blade — no hiding —

The Krákumál still singing, still presiding —

The old boar's death-song in the blood eagle's guiding.

Pre-Chorus — both

Áslaug: I gave him the sight before the harp-wood gave me breathing —

(the sight...)

Ivar: she gave me the cold — that's the only thing worth heeding —

(plan cold...)

Both: the boneless general on the shield — never conceding —

The Völsung blood runs ice through every son she's seeding. (uh!)

Chorus — both

No legs for the charge — the mind does the breaking (the breaking!)

York fell while the English were still waking (still waking!)

Ælla paid the debt the snake-pit was making (was making!)

Ivar the Boneless — cold — never shaking! (Hu-ha!)

Bridge — trading

Ivar: Ælla in the hall — I read his face first —

(read him cold...)

Every English king has one tell — pride — the worst

(pride kills kings...)

Strategic asset — used it — then dispersed —

The blood eagle isn't rage — it's the rehearsed.

Áslaug: I felt the ribs open from Spangereid's distance —

(felt it open...)

Ragnar's last verse paid in full — insistence

(the debt paid...)

Of every Völsung generation's persistence —

The old boar laughed last — that's the evidence.

Both: Dublin next — then Mercia — then the long game —

(the long game...)

Ivar built the kingdom no blade could reclaim —

(built it cold...)

Died in his bed — the boneless — no shame —

(Skál to the cold one! Skál — the mind's the flame!)

(Ivar the Boneless — the sharpest edge that came!)

Drop — Instrumental

Chorus — both

No legs for the charge — the mind does the breaking (the breaking!)

York fell while the English were still waking (still waking!)

Ælla paid the debt the snake-pit was making (was making!)

Ivar the Boneless — cold — never shaking! (Hu-ha!)

Outro

(Beinlausi! Beinlausi!)

The shield carried him in...

(Hu-ha!)

York fell.

Ælla paid.

Dublin built.

The boneless king

outlived every enemy

who came for him

with iron.

(The coldest blade

is the one

you never see

coming.)