Skaði's Choice

Intro

(Öndurguð! Öndurguð!)

I came to Ásgarðr armed — not asking — demanding...

(Hu-ha!) Full armor, war-face — no misunderstanding —

My father's blood on their hands — I was standing

(Öndurguð!) The ski-goddess came in — they weren't commanding...

Verse 1

Þjazi dead — the eagle-feather falling —

Ásgarðr's walls ahead and I was calling

Every god to answer — armor on — not stalling —

A giantess in full war-kit — the hall goes appalling.

They'd lured him, tricked him, lit the fire for landing —

My father's life bought cheap — no understanding

Of what the blood-debt means when someone's standing

At your gate with axe and grief — demanding.

Óðinn didn't send Valkyries — he came down —

Saw the math: a winter giantess in full gown

Of iron — better terms than battle — sit down —

Weregild or war — I laid both on the crown.

I negotiated standing — not on bended —

Marriage to the god of my choosing — defended

My right to pick — and laughter — Loki rendered —

The terms were mine before the hall had ended.

Pre-Chorus

I chose by feet alone — the fairest in the line (in the line)

Thought the best pair had to be the bright god's — fine.

Got Njörðr the sea-god — wrong guess — still mine —

The terms were met regardless — that's the design. (uh!)

Chorus

I came armed to the hall where my father's blood was dried (blood was dried!)

Walked out with a husband and my grief dignified (dignified!)

Nine nights sea, nine nights mountain — love can't override (can't override!)

Skaði took the mountain back alone — that's pride! (Hu-ha!)

Verse 2

Nine nights at Njörðr's shore — that was the arrangement —

Gulls screaming off the water — strange estrangement.

Woke each morning with the sea-sound derangement —

Every crashing wave undoing the engagement.

I need the peak where the frost bites clean and certain —

Where the silence has a weight behind the curtain

Of the spruce-tops — where the mountain keeps inserting

Its cold into the marrow — not diverting.

Nine nights at Þrymheimr — Njörðr's turn to sample —

The wolf-howl in the small hours — not a trample

Of contentment — just the mountain's full example

Of the life I need — for him too ample.

We parted without rage — that's the rarest ending —

Two beings built for different worlds — not bending

Pretending one could be the other's tending —

The marriage failed clean — no pretending.

I skied back to the peaks before the next moon rising.

Pre-Chorus

I chose by feet alone — the fairest in the line (in the line)

Thought the best pair had to be the bright god's — fine.

Got Njörðr the sea-god — wrong guess — still mine —

The terms were met regardless — that's the design. (uh!)

Chorus

I came armed to the hall where my father's blood was dried (blood was dried!)

Walked out with a husband and my grief dignified (dignified!)

Nine nights sea, nine nights mountain — love can't override (can't override!)

Skaði took the mountain back alone — that's pride! (Hu-ha!)

Bridge

You want to know what I took back to the mountain?

(what did you take?)

Not bitterness — the grief already draining.

(not bitterness...)

Not failure — the marriage ran its counting —

(not failure...)

Two clean worlds that couldn't share their grounding.

I took the bow strung tight for the morning hunt —

(the bow...)

Skis waxed hard for the north face — cold and blunt —

(the skis...)

The silence of the peak before the sun-front —

(the silence...)

The mountain doesn't negotiate or front.

Þrymheimr was my father's hall — I reclaimed it —

(reclaimed it...)

Every rafter and cold stone I renamed it.

(renamed it...)

The gods gave me weregild — I reframed it —

(reframed it...)

Into the only life I ever aimed at.

I walked in armed —

(walked in armed...)

I walked out married — then I walked out free.

(walked out free...)

Three different arrivals — all of them were me.

(all of them...)

No hall in Ásgarðr holds what the mountain's giving —

(Skál to the winter! Skál — she chose her own living!)

(Skaði walked back to the frost — that's called surviving!)

Drop — Instrumental

Chorus

I came armed to the hall where my father's blood was dried (blood was dried!)

Walked out with a husband and my grief dignified (dignified!)

Nine nights sea, nine nights mountain — love can't override (can't override!)

Skaði took the mountain back alone — that's pride! (Hu-ha!)

Outro

(Öndurguð! Öndurguð!)

The skis on the hard-pack before dawn...

(Hu-ha!)

Bow across the back.

Þrymheimr cold and mine.

I came armed once.

I left on my own terms.

(The mountain was always the answer.)