Intro
(Beinlausi! Beinlausi!)
Carry me in on the shield — I'll carry us out...
(Hu-ha!) No legs for the charge — no need — no doubt —
The mind cuts deeper than the axe, without
(Beinlausi!) The boneless king plans while the brothers shout...
Verse 1 — Ivar
They call the boneless a weakness — call it a condition —
I call it the gift that separated my position
From every sword-arm in the army's composition:
I can't charge — so I think — that's the acquisition.
Björn swings the iron — Hvítserkr takes the wall —
Ubba burns the flanks — Sigurðr answers the call —
I lie on the shield above the battle's sprawl
And read the field like a Norn reads the hall.
Mother said: plan cold — I heard: plan colder —
Mapped every English garrison from Humber to the shoulder
Of Northumbria's wall — each king — each boulder —
Three moves before the brothers knew they'd told her.
York at the feast of All Saints — gates half-sleeping —
We came in the dark while the English were keeping
Their prayers and their candles — no one was weeping
Before we were inside — the walls in our keeping.
Pre-Chorus — both
Áslaug: I gave him the sight before the harp-wood gave me breathing —
(the sight...)
Ivar: she gave me the cold — that's the only thing worth heeding —
(plan cold...)
Both: the boneless general on the shield — never conceding —
The Völsung blood runs ice through every son she's seeding. (uh!)
Chorus — both
No legs for the charge — the mind does the breaking (the breaking!)
York fell while the English were still waking (still waking!)
Ælla paid the debt the snake-pit was making (was making!)
Ivar the Boneless — cold — never shaking! (Hu-ha!)
Verse 2 — Áslaug
I bore him different — felt it in the carrying —
The others came out roaring — Ivar — varying —
Quiet — watching — the cord still in the marrying
Of Sigurðr's blood to something new — not tarrying.
Ragnar said: this one scares me — I said: good —
The scariest thing I've made is what I would —
Brynhildr's fire through a body that withstood
Every blade by never standing where it could.
I sent the sight south when the army crossed the water —
Rode with him on the shield as Spangereid's daughter —
Felt the York gates open — felt the slaughter —
Felt Ælla in the pit below the quarter.
Ragnar died in adders — I felt it in the marrow —
Ivar planned the answer cold and arrow-
Straight: the blood eagle — Völsung grief — the narrow
Point of every generation's sorrow.
He sent no word before — that's the cold deciding —
Just the plan, the sons, the blade — no hiding —
The Krákumál still singing, still presiding —
The old boar's death-song in the blood eagle's guiding.
Pre-Chorus — both
Áslaug: I gave him the sight before the harp-wood gave me breathing —
(the sight...)
Ivar: she gave me the cold — that's the only thing worth heeding —
(plan cold...)
Both: the boneless general on the shield — never conceding —
The Völsung blood runs ice through every son she's seeding. (uh!)
Chorus — both
No legs for the charge — the mind does the breaking (the breaking!)
York fell while the English were still waking (still waking!)
Ælla paid the debt the snake-pit was making (was making!)
Ivar the Boneless — cold — never shaking! (Hu-ha!)
Bridge — trading
Ivar: Ælla in the hall — I read his face first —
(read him cold...)
Every English king has one tell — pride — the worst
(pride kills kings...)
Strategic asset — used it — then dispersed —
The blood eagle isn't rage — it's the rehearsed.
Áslaug: I felt the ribs open from Spangereid's distance —
(felt it open...)
Ragnar's last verse paid in full — insistence
(the debt paid...)
Of every Völsung generation's persistence —
The old boar laughed last — that's the evidence.
Both: Dublin next — then Mercia — then the long game —
(the long game...)
Ivar built the kingdom no blade could reclaim —
(built it cold...)
Died in his bed — the boneless — no shame —
(Skál to the cold one! Skál — the mind's the flame!)
(Ivar the Boneless — the sharpest edge that came!)
Drop — Instrumental
Chorus — both
No legs for the charge — the mind does the breaking (the breaking!)
York fell while the English were still waking (still waking!)
Ælla paid the debt the snake-pit was making (was making!)
Ivar the Boneless — cold — never shaking! (Hu-ha!)
Outro
(Beinlausi! Beinlausi!)
The shield carried him in...
(Hu-ha!)
York fell.
Ælla paid.
Dublin built.
The boneless king
outlived every enemy
who came for him
with iron.
(The coldest blade
is the one
you never see
coming.)
