Verse 1 Hush now, wind on the headland, lay your teeth of sleet, The shield-wall has broken, and silence takes its seat. We found him where the spear-rain cooled on shattered stone, With frost in his beard and his brave breath gone. No more will he laugh in the low-lit hall Only the hearth remembers, and the night hears all. Refrain Row him, row him, over the whale-road’s swan, Past blackening water where the long days drown. Let the oars keep time with a grieving song Carry him home where the chosen belong. Verse 2 We washed the red from iron, we closed his weathered eyes, We laid his hands together under clouded skies. His blade is beside him, his ring on his hand, A little earth of home-ground in a linen band. Mother of sorrows, do not call him back The road he has taken will not turn its track. Refrain Row him, row him, over the whale-road’s swan, Past blackening water where the long days drown. Let the oars keep time with a grieving song Carry him home where the chosen belong. Verse 3 Hear the ravens turning in the ash-dark air, Two shadows above us, counting out our prayer. Odin, cloak of stormcloud, one-eyed, wide and still, If you watched him fall, then you know his will. He did not flinch from the wolf-mouth’s stare Take him gently, Father, to your high seat there. Verse 4 For the Valkyries ride where the battle-smoke streams, Helm-glints like cold stars in the torn-up seams. They lift him from the field with steady, ringing hands, Past the scream of the gulls and the salt of lands. Not as a thief in the night he goes But as a flame that the winter cannot close. Refrain Row him, row him, over the whale-road’s swan, Past blackening water where the long days drown. Let the oars keep time with a grieving song Carry him home where the chosen belong. Verse 5 In Valhöll the doors are a bright knife-edge, Gold on the threshold, oath on the ledge. There the Einherjar rise with the morning’s horn, Wounds made into stories, and fear reborn. They feast where the mead runs warm as sun Then laugh, and fall, and fight again, undone. Bridge Yet here we are only earth and bone, Only the creak of the boat’s long groan. If glory is real, let it not be cheap: Let it cost us tears, let it buy him sleep. So we sing his name into sea and fire A last slow note on a broken lyre. Final Verse When the last wolf howls and the last shield splits, When the world-tree shivers and the daylight quits, May he stand in the doorway with spear held high, Not as a stranger when the end draws nigh. Until that horn, until that hall We keep his place, and we carry it all. Final Refrain Row him, row him, over the whale-road’s swan, Past blackening water where the long days drown. Let the oars keep time with a grieving song Carry him home… where the chosen belong.
