[Intro]
(Three widely spaced tagelharpa notes hang above single drum strikes.)

[Verse 1]
The river was silent beneath a skin of ice,
No ferryman waited, no gate named a price.
The dead stood in houses with frost in the beams,
Repeating old suppers and unfinished dreams.
Runa sat weaving beside their old door,
Arvid scraped mud from his sword on the floor.
They looked as they had on the last winter day—
Too exact to be living, too near to decay.

[Chorus]
Hel has no throne, no crown and no flame,
She rules by returning each face and each name.
Hel has no throne, yet few souls depart—
She builds them a chamber from the wish of the heart.
No chain on the ankle, no lock on the gate—
Only the meal you remember, forever on the plate.

[Verse 2]
Runa touched lightly the frost on his sleeve,
[Runa - Female Voice]
“You carried us farther than grief should be.”
[Arvid - Young Male Voice]
Arvid said, “Father, lay down what remains;
No king gives commands here, no god tightens chains.”
[Skald - Lead Vocal]
The skald almost entered and sat by the fire,
Almost let memory answer desire.
Then Runa poured barley; the cup filled the same,
And Arvid scraped mud that no cleaning could tame.

[Chorus]
Hel has no throne, no crown and no flame,
She rules by returning each face and each name.
Hel has no throne, yet few souls depart—
She builds them a chamber from the wish of the heart.
No chain on the ankle, no lock on the gate—
Only the meal you remember, forever on the plate.

[Bridge]
Hel came without footsteps, half warm and half pale,
Her dress sewn from silence, her breath without veil.
[Hel - Low Female Voice]
She said, “Stay beside them. No morning will take
The sound of her fingers, the son you forsake.”
[Skald - Lead Vocal]
He answered, “A memory cannot be fed.
Love is not keeping the living with dead.”

[Instrumental Break]
(Tagelharpa and sustained guitars repeat the family melody with one note deliberately missing.)

[Breakdown]
Runa broke the pattern.
Arvid left the sword.
The dead stopped repeating—
And showed the road away.

[Final Chorus]
Hel has no throne, no crown and no flame,
Her kingdom is longing rehearsing a name.
Hel has no throne, and still I must part,
For love leaves a doorway instead of a guard.
“MIN-nee LEE-vir, men FAH-rah,” let the frozen rafters know—
Memory lives, but people must go.

[Outro]
The house became frostwood.
The doorway became sky.
Hel watched without anger
As one old man passed by.