Intro
(Fensalir! Fensalir!)
I saw it all — I have always seen it all...
(Hu-ha!) The marsh-halls quiet while the nine worlds fall —
I don't speak the fate I see — that's the protocol —
(Fensalir!) The woman who knows everything — that's my call...
Verse 1
Höðr's blind hand and the mistletoe were always in the weaving —
I saw the thread before the infant Baldr started breathing.
I rose at dawn and started on the oath-extracting — grieving
Wasn't something I could do — I had a world to be leaving.
Fire swore it — water swore it — iron gave the token —
Every serpent, every sickness — every stone had spoken.
I found the mistletoe and looked — too young — half-broken —
And kept walking — knowing — that was the hinge unspoken.
You want to ask me why — I know the question's forming —
Why skip the one thing — why leave the loophole performing?
Because the Norns wrote Baldr's death before his first morning
And no oath from any living thing rewrites the Norns' ordering.
I tried anyway — that's the part the skalds keep missing —
I knew the outcome and I stood in the frost extracting, listing
Every oath I could collect — not because I was dismissing
The fate — but because a mother's reach is worth the persisting.
Pre-Chorus
Odin knows the end and schemes to delay it — that's his method (his method)
I know the end and hold the hall — that's how I edit.
Two gods — same knowledge — two ways to bear the credit —
He speaks the plan to ravens — I keep the knowing — said it. (uh!)
Chorus
I see what Odin sees but I don't speak it out (speak it out!)
The knowing without speaking — that's the hardest route (hardest route!)
I bound the world to oath and lost him anyway to doubt (anyway!)
Frigg holds the fate in silence — that's what I'm about! (Hu-ha!)
Verse 2
Loki came to Fensalir — that particular morning —
Disguised as a woman — I should have read the warning.
He asked which things had sworn — I answered without scorning —
Gave him the mistletoe loophole before the storm was forming.
That's my failure — I've held it since the hall went quiet —
Not the oath I missed — I knew — I let it riot.
I told the disguised Loki what he'd come to buy — it
Cost my son his life — and I can't dignify it.
I watched Hermóðr ride for nine nights into darkness —
I sat in Fensalir and kept the hall from heartless
Falling into ruin — held the grief regardless —
A queen who falls apart abandons what the hall protects hardest.
I watched Hel set the term — one dry eye unravelling —
Felt Þökk withhold the tear — felt the whole gambit travelling
Back to Loki's hand — the thread already ravelling —
Baldr stayed below — I set the hall to carrying.
Pre-Chorus
Odin knows the end and schemes to delay it — that's his method (his method)
I know the end and hold the hall — that's how I edit.
Two gods — same knowledge — two ways to bear the credit —
He speaks the plan to ravens — I keep the knowing — said it. (uh!)
Chorus
I see what Odin sees but I don't speak it out (speak it out!)
The knowing without speaking — that's the hardest route (hardest route!)
I bound the world to oath and lost him anyway to doubt (anyway!)
Frigg holds the fate in silence — that's what I'm about! (Hu-ha!)
Bridge
You want to know what it costs to hold the knowing?
(what does it cost?)
Not the grief — the grief at least keeps the blood flowing.
(not the grief...)
Not the loss — the loss you name and keep it going.
(not the loss...)
It's the knowing before the seed is even sowing.
I watched every god in this series from my hall-seat —
(watched them all...)
The berserker, the blood-feud man, the Norns' heartbeat —
(every one...)
The skald composing, the draugr in the cold retreat —
(every thread...)
I saw them all before the Norns made the first complete.
I watched Odin ride to Fenrir without turning —
(watched him ride...)
Gungnir forward — that one eye — the last discerning —
(one eye back...)
He looked at Fensalir once — I felt the burning —
Two gods who know the end — and neither one adjourning.
I didn't weep —
(didn't weep...)
A queen who holds the knowing holds the posture.
(holds it straight...)
The hardest throne in all nine worlds needs nooster.
(nooster...)
I saw the new green world before the fire took it —
(Skál to the knowing! Skál — she never forsook it!)
Drop — Instrumental
Chorus
I see what Odin sees but I don't speak it out (speak it out!)
The knowing without speaking — that's the hardest route (hardest route!)
I bound the world to oath and lost him anyway to doubt (anyway!)
Frigg holds the fate in silence — that's what I'm about! (Hu-ha!)
Outro
(Fensalir! Fensalir!)
The new world rose from the water...
(Hu-ha!)
Baldr walked back out.
I saw that too.
Before any of it happened.
The knowing was always the hardest part.
(Skál.)
