Guðríðr's Voyage

Intro

(Guðríðr! Guðríðr!)

Born at the edge — died at the center — touched every shore...

(Hu-ha!) Iceland first — then Greenland — then the western door —

Vinland — Rome — the pilgrim road — then more —

(Guðríðr!) The most traveled woman of the age — that's the score...

Verse 1 — Guðríðr

Þorbjörn's daughter — Iceland born — the western breeding —

Father lost the farm — the debt exceeded —

Greenland crossing — storm — the ship conceding

Every promise Erik made to those who heeded.

Shipwrecked first — that's where the story started —

Not the end — the hardening — the open-hearted

Reading of a world that kept the faint-hearted

Back in harbor — I came through it — not departed.

Þórir took me to Greenland — died that winter —

First husband gone — the frost a splinter

Removed clean — grief without the long-run hindrance —

I learned early: loss is just the next adventure's enter.

I heard the dead-wife speak — Þorsteinn's hall — the seeress —

Sitting in the high-seat — prophecy — the nearness

Of something vast — I heard my future — fearless —

Many children's children — a long line — all clearness.

Then Þorfinnr came with the Icelandic trading —

Tall enough to fill the door — not parading

The quality — I saw it underneath the aiding

Of the hall's work — we were married before spring's fading.

Pre-Chorus — both

Þorfinnr: three ships — sixty men — the western heading (western heading)

Guðríðr: I carried Snorri through the Atlantic threading —

(carried him west...)

Both: Vinland a second time — the turf walls still bedding —

The first European child on American ground — his first breath spreading. (uh!)

Chorus — both

Iceland to Greenland to Vinland's west shore (west shore!)

Guðríðr gave birth where no Norse child came before (came before!)

Rome to the east — the pilgrim road — one more (one more!)

The most traveled woman of the age — hear her roar! (Hu-ha!)

Verse 2 — Þorfinnr

I came to Greenland for the trade — found the margin

Better than the cargo — Guðríðr — no bargain

In the merchant sense — the opposite — enlarging

Everything I'd planned to be — no discharging

Of the feeling — I just altered every heading.

Three ships for Vinland — wedding fresh — the treading

Of new ground with a woman worth the spreading

Of the entire venture on — no dreading.

The Skraelings came in waves — the first year trading —

Red cloth for grey furs — the price degrading

When they panicked at the bull — the peace cascading

Into spear-work — Freydís style without the wading.

I held the line while Guðríðr held the longhouse —

Snorri already walking the first wrong-cross

Of American soil — Norse child — the long truce

Between arrival and departure — our own song's source.

Three winters tried it — the Skraelings outnumbered —

I made the call: too few of us — encumbered —

Packed the ships before the fourth spring thundered —

Left the turf walls standing — sailed — and wondered.

Pre-Chorus — both

Þorfinnr: three ships — sixty men — the western heading (western heading)

Guðríðr: I carried Snorri through the Atlantic threading —

(carried him west...)

Both: Vinland a second time — the turf walls still bedding —

The first European child on American ground — his first breath spreading. (uh!)

Chorus — both

Iceland to Greenland to Vinland's west shore (west shore!)

Guðríðr gave birth where no Norse child came before (came before!)

Rome to the east — the pilgrim road — one more (one more!)

The most traveled woman of the age — hear her roar! (Hu-ha!)

Bridge — trading

Guðríðr: Þorfinnr died in Iceland — second loss — same clean —

(second loss...)

I raised the son born west of the world's seam —

(raised him...)

Then I walked to Rome — the pilgrim's dream —

(walked to Rome...)

Not for God alone — for the full extreme.

Þorfinnr: she crossed four worlds in one life's accounting —

(four worlds...)

The Norse grid and the Christian — both surmounting —

(both crossed...)

Iceland, Greenland, Vinland, Rome — the mounting

Evidence that one woman held the whole world's counting.

Both: Snorri Þorfinnsson — first European born in the west —

(first child west...)

His mother walked to Rome — that's the full breadth —

(walked to Rome...)

The Norse world and the Christian world's request

Met in one woman — she outlived the rest.

(Skál to Guðríðr! Skál — four worlds in one life!)

(The most traveled woman of the age — Vinland's wife!)

Drop — Instrumental

Chorus — both

Iceland to Greenland to Vinland's west shore (west shore!)

Guðríðr gave birth where no Norse child came before (came before!)

Rome to the east — the pilgrim road — one more (one more!)

The most traveled woman of the age — hear her roar! (Hu-ha!)

Outro

(Guðríðr! Guðríðr!)

She died a nun in Iceland...

(Hu-ha!)

Shipwrecked.

Widowed twice.

Vinland.

Snorri born west of the world.

Rome on foot.

Iceland at the end.

Four continents.

One life.

(The bog at L'Anse aux Meadows

holds one child's first breath.

She walked to Rome

to balance it.)