[Intro]
[Boots, shield rims and low toms establish the 6/8 march before the full guitar riff enters.]

[Verse 1]
Ash crossed the fields in a slanting sheet,
Clung to our cloaks and hardened our feet.
Black furrows marked where barley had grown;
A plough lay split by a blood-dark stone.
Three sledges carried the sick and small;
Two oxen remained from the eastern stall.
We bound each runner with leather and wire,
Then marched beneath clouds still red with fire.

[Pre-Chorus]
Keep the children inward.
Keep the spearheads wide.
Count the breathing faces.
Leave no one behind.

[Chorus]
Black Snow March, keep heel with heel,
Ash in the mouth and frost on the steel.
No victory waits where the north winds blow;
We guard the living through blackened snow.
Black Snow March, hold line and pace.
Let none disappear without name or face.

[Verse 2]
At noon we passed the ice-locked mill;
Its wheel stood buried beside the rill.
A raven struck once at the splintered door,
Then lifted over the frozen moor.
Old Eydis stumbled and broke through the crust;
Her sons raised her gently from cinders and dust.
She cursed the hands that kept her alive,
Then gripped their sleeves and resumed the drive.

[Pre-Chorus]
Keep the wounded inward.
Keep the bowstrings dry.
Hear the wolves behind us.
Do not ask them why.

[Verse 3]
At dusk, three riders returned from the ridge;
Enemy fires ran south of the bridge.
No colours showed and no count was known,
But iron-shod horses had shattered the stone.
I sent twelve spears to the rear of the train,
Six through the forest and six through the plain.
Young Arn demanded a place at my side.
I gave him my waterskin, not leave to die.

[Bridge]
Our border was no longer fields;
It moved with the sledges and battered shields.
The realm had shrunk to a marching span:
First frightened child to the last walking man.

[Instrumental Break]
[The guitars repeat the marching riff while bowed lyre and lead guitar trade the descending three-note motif.]

[Breakdown]
One step for the buried.
One step for the burned.
One step for the children
Who must still return.

One step for the nameless.
One step for the known.
One step until morning.
No one walks alone.

[Final Chorus]
Black Snow March, now heel with heel,
Night in the lungs and ice on the steel.
No victory waits where the hard winds blow;
Still we bear the living through blackened snow.
Black Snow March, though the old roads end,
Each guarded heartbeat is ground we defend.