Ash on the Fjord

[Style: Slow, crushing doom-death with weeping tagelharpa, low mournful horns, and a single distorted guitar that sounds like a mountain cracking in half.] [Vocals: Clean gang vocals soaked in grief, occasional broken gutturals that feel torn out of the chest.] [Intro – Tagelharpa alone, wind through pine, distant surf] (Softly, almost whispered) The fire speaks their names tonight… [Verse 1 – Clean gang vocals, funeral march drums] We set the dragon ships alight Nine proud keels for nine proud dead Bear-shirts wrapped in crimson sails Mead upon their beards still red No chains ever held their wrists No fear ever slowed their stride They laughed when the world broke open They grinned when the spears arrived [Chorus – Low, heavy, voices cracking] Ash upon the fjord Ash upon the waves Brothers, we release you To the gods who once misbehaved Ash upon the fjord Ash upon the sky You were never ours to keep Only ours to watch you die [Verse 2 – Softer, almost spoken over bowed lyre] One had a daughter he never saw walk One had a song he never finished One carried his mother’s comb in his beard One died still roaring a joke no one understood We placed their axes on their chests We placed their wounds toward the stars We gave them the shields they split So the next world knows who they are [Bridge – Deep guttural, a single voice raw with rage and sorrow] I would tear open Hel’s cold gates I would drag you back through frost and flame But you bastards would only laugh And call me coward for mourning your names [Final Chorus – Full choir of broken voices, guitars drop lower than burial mounds] Ash upon the fjord Ash upon our tongues The fire is drinking your stories And we are too hollow for songs Ash upon the fjord Ash in our lungs Go now, bear-shirts Go now, beloved ones [Outro – Tagelharpa and horn duet, slow and endless, fading into lapping waves] The ravens are quiet tonight Even they cannot find words Only smoke Only smoke And nine empty places around the fire Where the greatest of us once stood.