[Intro] Tidal flats stretch under leaden sky Mud buries walls where wealth once stood high Years roll by, then faint tones rise From silt that no diver can prize [Verse 1] Heavy keels lined the crowded quay Coin and cloth flowed endlessly Towers climbed past reason's line Mocked the warnings, drowned the sign They draped a sow in velvet trim Fed it wine, laughed at the hymn Spilled their feasts on sacred ground Till the sea reclaimed what they found [Chorus] Bells in the silt, they murmur through tide Rungholt's towers lost in the wide Surge broke the dikes, took the spires and sin All vanished quick where the waters begin Listen low when the currents grow still Faint rings drift up from the chill [Verse 2] Black wall advanced, foam at its crest Timbers snapped in the endless crest Halls folded under roaring weight Screams swallowed whole by the spate Yet beneath mud the arches remain Church foundation bears no stain No visible ruin, no shattered stone Only the tones in their drone [Bridge] Calm nights return, the veil grows thin Certain ears catch the buried din From depths where light never falls The city exhales in its thralls [Chorus ] Bells in the silt, they murmur through tide Rungholt's excess buried wide Surge took the laughter, the gold and the feast Left only echoes from the east Listen close when the water lies calm The past still hums in its psalm [Outro] Years pass... and they sound again... Rungholt rests... beneath the fen...
