[Intro]
[Instrumental Intro: An iron bell sounds once; bowed tagelharpa answers with the three-note motif.]

[Verse 1]
I knelt beside the newborn sea
And pressed both hands beneath its skin.
The current carried back to me
The same dark red I washed them in.
I scraped my nails against the sand,
But sand was ground from EE-meer’s frame.
There was no clean and foreign land,
No element untouched by blame.

[Refrain]
Blood on OH-din’s hands,
Blood in OH-din’s sea.
Every wave that leaves the land
Returns the deed to me.
Blood on OH-din’s hands—
No water washes free.

[Verse 2]
VEE-lee spoke of fertile plains,
VAY arranged the ribs in rows.
I heard only the flooded veins
And saw the woond beneath the snows.
We had won the right to shape,
Yet lost the right to call it pure.
No crafted wall, no guarded gate
Could make the first foundation sure.

[Refrain]
Blood on OH-din’s hands,
Blood in OH-din’s sea.
Every wave that leaves the land
Returns the deed to me.
Blood on OH-din’s hands—
No water washes free.

[Verse 3]
I closed the giant’s clouded eyes;
One held MOOS-pel, one held frost.
Within them burned no paradise,
Only surprise at what was lost.
I spoke his name and heard it fail,
Too small against the empty dome.
The murderer writes the victor’s tale;
The body bears the victor home.

[Bridge]
VEE-lee said, “The deed is sealed.”
VAY said, “Make the woond a field.”
I said nothing. Under stone,
A rootless whisper found my bone:
“Build what you will from blood and breath.
No shape you make escapes its death.”

[Instrumental]
[Instrumental Direction: A single guitar bends downward while the bell and heartbeat drum alternate without meeting.]

[Final Refrain]
Blood on OH-din’s hands,
Blood beneath the tree.
Every world that learns to stand
Will bear this memory.
Blood on OH-din’s hands—
No crown can make them clean.

[Coda]
The first dawn has not risen yet,
And still the end is seen.

[Outro]
I rose without a spoken prayer.
The giant’s blood was everywhere.
I dried my hands upon my side;
The stain went inward, where it dried.
