--- **[Intro / Spoken over harp]** In the age when frost still crept like wolves across the sea, A skald named Eirik Ash-Tongue wandered from the northern fjords… And this is the tale he sang from hearth to hearth. --- **[Verse 1]** Far above the storm-torn cliffs of Midgard’s shore, Sat the high seat of the One-Eyed Wanderer, Lord of gallows, runes, and kings forevermore. On his shoulders perched two ravens black as night, Huginn, thought that cuts like spearpoints in the fight, Muninn, memory that bears the weight of every light. At dawn they flew across the worlds on silent wing, Over battlefields where blood and rain would sing, Over lovers under birch, and mothers by the flame, Over tyrants, over beggars, all the same. **[Chorus]** Huginn and Muninn, Thought and Memory, Carry every sorrow, every victory. Through the nine realms they roam, through the dark they roam, Bringing back the world to Odin on his throne. Heavy are the wings that never rest alone. --- **[Verse 2]** One winter colder than a graveyard sea, When stars went dark for nine long nights of misery, The storm rose howling out of Jotunheim, And Muninn did not come home. Odin waited, silent on his high seat grim, Even Thor laid down his hammer, eyes turned dim. Huginn circled Valhalla’s rafters in despair, Crying sharp as spearheads through the frozen air. **[Chorus]** Huginn and Muninn, Thought and Memory… One without the other is a ship lost at sea. --- **[Bridge – slower, spoken-sung]** So Huginn flew through Midgard’s snows and dwarven halls, Through silver forests where the light-elves danced in thralls. Down, down he went to Helheim’s black and silent gate, Where rivers ran like old forgotten tears of fate. There beneath a dead ash tree, ragged wings and dimming eye, Sat Muninn, heavy with the weight of all who died. **“Brother…”** “Why do you linger in this kingdom of the lost?” **“Because memory is heavy,”** **“And I am weary of the cost.”** --- **[Verse 3]** “I remember mothers burying their sons, Oaths betrayed for gold when honor should have won. Kingdoms drowned beneath the waves, faces no tongue recalls, Every child who cried to gods who never heard their calls.” Huginn bowed his head and pressed his feathers to his kin, Not as warriors clasp, but softly, feather against feather in the din. **“Yes, memory is heavy… But thought is empty without it, my brother. Joy of ale means nothing if we forget the laughter, Pain of loss means nothing if we forget the love that mattered.”** --- **[Final Chorus – building, voices layered]** Huginn and Muninn, side by side once more, Thought and Memory flying stronger than before. No soul survives alone beneath the sky, Memory needs hope, and hope needs memory’s eye. Even in the halls of gods, the strongest magic known Is simply holding one another when the long night chills the bone. **[Outro – soft, fading with harp]** So the skalds still sing beside the roaring hearth… That even ravens of the All-Father Need each other in the dark. *Huginn and Muninn…* *Nevermore apart.*
