The Allfather (Version 2)

Intro

(Allfather! Allfather!)

One eye on the living, one on the dead...

(Hu-ha!) Nine days I bled where the world-tree spread

No god gave me power — I took it instead.

(Allfather!) The runes wrote themselves in the red...

Verse 1

I hung on the ash tree — no hand held the rope,

Self-given to myself at the end of my hope.

Nine nights in the dark at the root and the smoke,

The runes screamed up from the void when I spoke.

Gave the eye to the well — didn't flinch, didn't mourn,

Wisdom costs more than a man can afford.

Mimir keeps the socket — I keep what I saw:

Every war that will come, every king, every flaw.

Pre-Chorus

I sit on Hliðskjálf and I see every throne (every throne)

Huginn brings me names, Muninn brings me the bones.

Geri and Freki at my feet, I eat alone —

The Allfather feeds on the wars that I've sewn. (uh!)

Chorus

I don't fight for the glory — I fight for the end (for the end!)

Every king that I raise is a blade that I bend (that I bend!)

Valhalla's not heaven — it's the army I've penned (army I've penned!)

The Allfather's coming and the world-tree will bend! (Hu-ha!)

Verse 2

I wear the gray cloak in the markets of men,

Drop a word in the ear of a chieftain, and then —

I watch the shields splinter, I watch the blood pen

The saga I scripted before it began.

Gungnir never misses — ask the giant who laughed,

Ask the frost-king who caught the wrong end of my staff.

Sleipnir cross eight legs through the world-root and path,

No realm hides a coward from the Allfather's wrath.

Pre-Chorus

I sit on Hliðskjálf and I see every throne (every throne)

Huginn brings me names, Muninn brings me the bones.

Geri and Freki at my feet, I eat alone —

The Allfather feeds on the wars that I've sewn. (uh!)

Chorus

I don't fight for the glory — I fight for the end (for the end!)

Every king that I raise is a blade that I bend (that I bend!)

Valhalla's not heaven — it's the army I've penned (army I've penned!)

The Allfather's coming and the world-tree will bend! (Hu-ha!)

Bridge

You think I love my einherjar? (no...)

I'm sharpening them for the final scar.

(the final scar...)

I drink the mead of poetry cold —

Every skald that ever lived I stole.

Wednesday is mine — every calendar page,

Every war ever fought was a turn of my stage.

Fenrir slip the chain and I'll meet him with steel —

Even knowing I fall... it's a deal I would seal.

(Skál to the fallen — Skál to the lost!)

(Every throne has its price — I know what it cost!)

Drop — Instrumental

Chorus

I don't fight for the glory — I fight for the end (for the end!)

Every king that I raise is a blade that I bend (that I bend!)

Valhalla's not heaven — it's the army I've penned (army I've penned!)

The Allfather's coming and the world-tree will bend! (Hu-ha!)

Outro

(Allfather! Allfather!)

One eye watching the dark...

(Hu-ha!)

The runes lit the spark —

Every war bears my mark.

The wolf breaks the chain...

(and I'm ready.)