[Intro]
[Instrumental Intro: Five uneven drum strikes repeat beneath creaking bowed tagelharpa.]

[Verse 1]
I woke with salt upon my tongue,
No word was old, no god was young.
My fingers closed on empty air;
No ground received me anywhere.
The dripping frost ran down my face,
The only touch in all that space.
I raised my head and heard within
A hammer striking bone and skin.

[Pre-Chorus]
Beat after beat, the hollow grew small.
Beat after beat, I filled it all.
No name was spoken over me—
I named myself by being free.

[Chorus]
I am the heart beneath the hoarfrost,
The first warm weight where all was lost.
No throne above, no grave below,
Only the blood that taught me to grow.
The heart beneath the hoarfrost beats—
And empty dark withdraws its feet.

[Verse 2]
My shoulders pushed the mist apart,
The void bent round my swelling heart.
From under one arm, bodies came,
A son and daughter without a name.
My feet brought forth another line,
Flesh born from flesh, yet none were mine.
They clung like roots along my side,
A hungry race with nowhere to hide.

[Pre-Chorus]
Beat after beat, their breathing spread.
Beat after beat, the silence fled.
No law was carved, no boundary drawn;
We were the world before the dawn.

[Chorus]
I am the heart beneath the hoarfrost,
The first warm weight where all was lost.
No throne above, no grave below,
Only the blood that taught me to grow.
The heart beneath the hoarfrost beats—
And empty dark withdraws its feet.

[Bridge]
Was I a father, field or flood?
Were they my children or my blood?
No answer crossed the vapor bare,
No wisdom waited anywhere.
I only knew the rising need
To fill the gap, to swell, to feed.

[Call and Response - EE-meer and Choir]
[Call and Response Direction: The guitars reduce to one crushing chord per heartbeat while the choir answers EE-meer.]

[Male Vocal: EE-meer] I had no law.
[Choir] No law.
[Male Vocal: EE-meer] I had no chain.
[Choir] No chain.
[Male Vocal: EE-meer] I knew no loss.
[Choir] No loss.
[Male Vocal: EE-meer] I knew no pain.
[Choir] Not yet.

[Final Chorus]
I am the heart beneath the hoarfrost,
The first warm weight the void could host.
No throne above, no grave below,
Only the kin my body could grow.
The heart beneath the hoarfrost pounds;
Its pulse becomes the law of sounds.

[Coda]
Let unborn gods remember this:
Before their order, I existed.

[Outro]
Five blows against the ribs of night,
Five dark steps toward heat and light.
The frost released its hold on him—
And all the hollow breathed with EE-meer.
