﻿[Intro]
(Nine descending notes move from tagelharpa to guitars as drums accelerate beneath them.)

[Verse 1]
The first root burned under the farmhouse floor,
The second split ice at Helheim’s door.
The third climbed the mountain through fetter and scar,
The fourth licked the gold from the pillars of gods.
The fifth boiled poison in serpent-black mud,
The sixth filled the dwarven deep forges with blood.
The seventh made Alfheim’s white branches turn brown,
The eighth shook the rainbow road out of its crown.

[Pre-Chorus]
The ninth root lay silent beneath the skald’s hand,
Still holding the seed from the giant child’s land.
He felt all the worlds pull their breath through its grain—
One body of branches, one network of pain.

[Chorus]
Nine roots burning, nine wounds become one,
Fire below us before battle has begun.
Nine roots burning, no realm stands apart,
The ash is not a ladder—it is one living heart.
“NEE-oo RYE-tur BREN-nah,” let heaven hear the claim:
RAG-nah-rok began when the gods first fed the flame.

[Verse 2]
The BEEV-rost buckled like glass under weight,
While Heimdall stood ready and stared through the gate.
In Midgard the mother woke cold in her bed,
And dreamed of red wool wownd tight round the dead.
In YOH-tun-hyme mountains let loose sheets of snow,
In Hel every frost-covered river ran slow.
The Norns dropped their spindles; the well turned to steam—
And Odin saw fire consume his old dream.

[Pre-Chorus]
The harp’s final string cut the skald’s weathered thumb,
He knew if it sounded, no silence would come.
He pulled till it parted with one silver cry—
Then IG-drah-sil spoke through his lungs and his eyes.

[Yggdrasil - Choir]
I carried your halls in the cups of my leaves.
I carried your gallows, your cradles, your thieves.
You called me a pathway and harvested veins—
I am not your servant. I remember the chains.

[Chorus]
Nine roots burning, nine wounds become one,
Fire below us before battle has begun.
Nine roots burning, no realm stands apart,
The ash is not a ladder—it is one living heart.
“NEE-oo RYE-tur BREN-nah,” let heaven hear the claim:
RAG-nah-rok began when the gods first fed the flame.

[Instrumental Break]
(Nine contrasting rhythmic cells collide across guitars, drums, tagelharpa and low strings before all instruments stop.)

[Bridge]
In the silence, Runa’s broken harp lay mute,
Yet her melody continued in the marrow of the root.
He opened his fist; the seed had split its shell—
A white root curled outward as the burning branches fell.

[Breakdown - Skald + Choir]
“IG-drah-sil LEE-vir!”
Not untouched—alive.
“IG-drah-sil MIN-nist!”
The wounded roots survive.

[Final Chorus]
Nine roots burning, nine wounds become one,
Fire below us before battle has begun.
Nine roots burning, every border comes apart,
The ash was never Asgard’s—it was every world’s one heart.
“NEE-oo RYE-tur BREN-nah,” now mortal voices claim:
RAG-nah-rok began when the mighty fed the flame.

[Outro]
No string remained to answer.
No gold remained unstained.
Nine roots burned beneath the worlds—
But one white shoot remained.
