[Intro]
[The song begins instantly with a fast descending riff, double-kick accents and no atmospheric prelude.]

[Verse 1]
We reached the black shore at break of day,
Where six narrow longships lay frozen in spray.
Their dragon-head carvings were blistered but sound;
We cleared ice from hulls and gear from the ground.
Dead men's cloaks had patched the sail;
Grain lined the beach in a guarded trail.
For one breath, the western horizon spread wide.
Then fire drew an arc from the cliffs at our side.

[Pre-Chorus]
Cut every mooring.
Push from the stone.
Cover the children.
Get one vessel gone.

[Chorus]
Longships in Flame, red teeth on the tide,
The sea takes the road we were promised to ride.
Oars turn to charcoal, sailcloth to rain;
The west has gone dark in the Longships in Flame.
No harbour can answer, no mast can remain.
Our old road is burning through salt, smoke and pain.

[Verse 2]
The first arrow buried in tar by the mast;
The second caught wool and the fire travelled fast.
Men hacked at the rigging with axes gone dull
While sparks filled the ribs of the half-frozen hull.
A mother threw blankets across her two sons.
A helmsman kept rowing though no vessel runs.
He drove his blade deep through the ice by the keel,
As if one arm could bargain with fire and steel.

[Pre-Chorus]
Break open the water.
Drag who you can.
Fire has no honour.
Flame knows no man.

[Verse 3]
One ship slipped free with its stern all alight
And drifted like sunset into the white.
Its carved wooden serpent sank mouth-first below;
Burned sail mixed black with the snow.
I ordered the grain and the waterskins saved.
My warriors stared at the sea they had braved.
For years it had carried our silver and scars;
Now smoke barred the road beneath morning stars.

[Bridge]
We trusted the tide more than fortress or field.
We thought every coast held a door it would yield.
The world narrowed down from the mountain to foam.
No vessel remained to bear memory home.

[Guitar Solo]
[Two lead guitars trade urgent phrases over the inverted three-note motif while the rhythm section maintains the fast rowing pulse.]

[Breakdown]
Burn the rope.
Break the oar.
Six roads ended
On one shore.

Save the grain.
Save the young.
What cannot sail
Must still be sung.

[Final Chorus]
Longships in Flame, black ribs in the tide,
The sea holds the road that the fire denied.
Oars became charcoal, sails became rain;
Still we will not vanish with Longships in Flame.
No westward horizon will carry our name.
Then carve it in iron and walk through the blaze.