﻿[Intro]
(Five slow drum strokes circle an inverted tagelharpa motif before the guitars enter.)

[Verse 1]
The well had no bucket, no chain and no rim,
Yet three pale reflections leaned over its brim.
One carried linen stained brown at the seam,
One spun a red thread through the skin of a dream.
The third held a knife made of antler and shale,
Its edge bore the names of the newborn and frail.
They spoke without lips, but the root carried sound:
“Drink what was hidden. Leave something unbound.”

[Pre-Chorus]
He offered his silver, they turned it to clay.
He offered his sword, though the sword lay away.
He offered his lifetime; they answered the same:
“We do not require death. We require your name.”

[Chorus]
The well that took my name gave every grave a face,
It showed the hand behind the crown, the hunger behind grace.
The well that took my name left nothing carved for me,
But opened every buried mouth beneath the ash tree.
Let princes keep their titles, let stone proclaim their claim—
I traded one man’s monument to hear the nameless flame.

[Verse 2]
He drank, and the water was colder than ore,
He saw Odin hanging above a black shore.
Not lord of the branches, not master of thread,
But one frightened seeker who bargained with dread.
He saw golden Asgard built over old bones,
Each feast hall supported by unmentioned homes.
He saw every treaty scratched out after war,
While ravens repeated what victors paid for.

[Pre-Chorus]
His mother’s voice faded; his birthplace grew dim,
The shape of his own name withdrew out of him.
The Norns cut the sound from the roof of his mouth—
Then rivers of memory ran northward and south.

[Chorus]
The well that took my name gave every grave a face,
It showed the hand behind the crown, the hunger behind grace.
The well that took my name left nothing carved for me,
But opened every buried mouth beneath the ash tree.
Let princes keep their titles, let stone proclaim their claim—
I traded one man’s monument to hear the nameless flame.

[Instrumental Break]
(Tremolo guitars and low strings cycle through five-beat phrases that repeatedly collapse into four.)

[Bridge - Norns - Three Female Voices]
“OORD,” said the water, “what entered the ground.”
“Ver-THAN-dee,” answered, “what gathers around.”
“Skuld,” cut the thread, “what is owed, not ordained.”
The knife struck the antler: “They hang from its heart.”

[Climax]
I saw the first oath and the last broken shield,
The king in the hall and the bones in his field.
I saw gods make law from the wounds they concealed—
And the root under Asgard beginning to yield.

[Final Chorus]
The well that took my name gave every grave a face,
It stripped the gold from conquest and the sanctity from place.
The well that took my name left no inscription whole,
But poured ten thousand lost lives through the chamber of my soul.
Let princes keep their titles; let praise become their chain—
I carry those they silenced though none can call my name.

[Outro]
No name remained behind him.
No rune marked where he stood.
Only three rings widening
Across the iron flood.
