Intro
Valknut on my knuckle, three points cut deep
Grandfather inked it by lantern where the sled dogs sleep
Said the cold picks its legends, leaves the rest to freeze
Called every scar a season, called every debt he'd seize
Verse
Nineteen winters old when the ice cracked at Marrow Bend
Truck went sideways, chains snapped, walked the last mile with no friend
Frost ate the tip of my thumb, left it purple then left it numb
Cold don't ask you twice for payment, takes what debt is owed and comes
Father ran the trapline back before the mill shut down for good
Said the wolves don't hate you, they just hunt the way they should
Three-day blizzard buried camp, we dug ourselves out clean
Momma kept a coffee tin of fire lit between
Dragged sixty pound of pelts through drifts up past my knee
Sold them cheap to men in town who never once thanked me
Second knot went in the ink the winter I lost Cole
Fever took him in the cabin, buried him in frozen coal
Third knot came the night I should've drowned beneath the floe
Pulled myself out on the rope, that's the only truth I know
Grandfather said a name ain't earned till winter tries to steal it
Mine's still mine, three times over, cold can't ever feel it
Chorus
It's valknut weather, three knots tied by frost
The cold don't kill the chosen, it just counts the cost
Every knuckle got a winter, every scar's a name
The ones who make it through it wear the frost like flame
Verse
Twenty years now, boys call me chief along the line
I teach them ice talks slow, it hums before it breaks its spine
Di
