Ýmir

Intro

(Ýmir! Ýmir!)

You have been inside me since the first song started...

(Hu-ha!) My skull above you — my blood where you charted —

My flesh below your feet — my bones where you parted —

(Ýmir!) The world is my body — I already departed...

Verse 1

Ginnungagap — the void — two forces at the border:

Niflheim's venom-rivers spilling out of order,

Múspellsheim fire-breath surging hard from southward —

Where the two collided — rime-frost thawed to daughter.

I was the meeting — neither flame nor frost completely —

The first shape in the nothing — forming neatly.

Auðhumla found me — licked the salt ice sweetly —

Fed me her milk while she pulled Búri discretely.

I sweated in the dark — the first jötnar forming —

Armpits thick with life before the first grey morning.

Left leg crossed right leg — a son — born without warning —

The first life self-made — one body's outpouring.

Then Búri's grandsons came — no trial — no stating —

Óðinn, Vili, Vé — three brothers not debating.

The first murder in the void before the world's creating —

My blood ran wide and everything started taking.

Pre-Chorus

They lifted me and built before the red had dried (had dried)

Skull pressed to the sky-vault — four dwarves on each side —

Norðri, Suðri, Austri, Vestri — corners tied —

Every world you've ever walked was built from my inside. (uh!)

Chorus

You fight on my flesh — every shield-wall and blade (shield-wall and blade!)

You sail on my blood — every whale-road you've made (road you've made!)

You breathe my skull-sky — every prayer and crusade (every crusade!)

Ýmir is the world — the price was already paid! (Hu-ha!)

Verse 2

The sea you call the whale-road — that's my blood still running —

Every longship keel that split the wave-dark coming

Through my vein-water — salt from my blood's outrunning —

The ocean is my body — it keeps going, never undone-ing.

The mountains Skaði skis before the grey dawn breaks —

My bones compressed — that's the altitude it takes.

The clouds your skalds describe when the storm-sky shakes —

My brains dispersed — every weather-sign it makes.

The earth the berserker bleeds on mid-battle —

My flesh held flat — the draugr's mound — my skin like cattle.

The trees your longships' keels were carved from — that's my hair —

Every timber-beam you ever split was growing there.

Miðgarðr's wall that keeps the frost-giants outside —

My own eyebrows arching — think on that as you reside

In halls your fathers built upon my hide —

The wall that guards your world came from the face that died.

Pre-Chorus

They lifted me and built before the red had dried (had dried)

Skull pressed to the sky-vault — four dwarves on each side —

Norðri, Suðri, Austri, Vestri — corners tied —

Every world you've ever walked was built from my inside. (uh!)

Chorus

You fight on my flesh — every shield-wall and blade (shield-wall and blade!)

You sail on my blood — every whale-road you've made (road you've made!)

You breathe my skull-sky — every prayer and crusade (every crusade!)

Ýmir is the world — the price was already paid! (Hu-ha!)

Bridge

You want to know what the first death felt like?

(what did it feel like?)

Not the blade — the blade was just the one strike.

(not the blade...)

It was the spreading — becoming the unlike —

Skull rising into sky — bone finding its type.

I felt my blood go wide across the nothing —

(blood went wide...)

Felt my skull lift up and set the sky's clothing —

(skull became sky...)

Felt my bones press into mountain — nothing loathing —

(bones became mountain...)

Felt my flesh spread flat beneath the world's slow smoothing.

Every song you've heard rang inside this body —

(inside this body...)

The berserker raged on my flesh — red and bloody —

(on my flesh...)

The Allfather hung on a tree from my hair — sturdy —

(from my hair...)

The serpent swam through veins still warm and ruddy.

The Norns sit at a well bored through my chest-floor —

(through my chest...)

Níðhöggr gnaws the root-tip at my deepest core —

(gnaws my root...)

Surtr's fire burns my flesh back to before —

(Skál to Ýmir! Skál — the world he bore!)

(Everything you've ever known lives in his gore!)

Drop — Instrumental

Chorus

You fight on my flesh — every shield-wall and blade (shield-wall and blade!)

You sail on my blood — every whale-road you've made (road you've made!)

You breathe my skull-sky — every prayer and crusade (every crusade!)

Ýmir is the world — the price was already paid! (Hu-ha!)

Outro

(Ýmir! Ýmir!)

My skull is still above you...

(Hu-ha!)

My blood still runs below.

My flesh is still your ground.

You have been inside me

since before the first song.

(You still are.)