[Intro]
One bell on wheels came grinding through the pine,
Its bronze mouth cast from statues of the line.
No call to prayer, no hour for field or board—
They brought a bell to break the frozen fjord.

[Verse 1]
Red cloaks advanced between the standing stones,
Their hammers rang on tablets, teeth and bones.
Yrsa stood straight, her silver braid undone;
She named the oaths their fathers had betrayed.
The captain raised the Regent’s iron seal:
“Old marks are treason. Kneel, and they may heal.”
She spat black charcoal at his polished shield;
A raven raked his cheek; the captain reeled.

[Pre-Chorus]
I gripped the sword that scarcely held an edge,
A clerk behind a weather-splintered ledge.
The bell-rope tightened; soldiers formed a chord—
Then bronze replied—a roar no wall ignored.

[Chorus]
Ring—the bell that broke the fjord,
Ring for every buried word.
Bronze may drown the honest voice,
But mountains make a harder choice.
Ring—the bell that broke the fjord,
Its final note became a northern road.

[Verse 2]
They chained old Yrsa to the axle beam,
And burned the charcoal pages in the stream.
I charged too late; the captain caught my side,
The rusted sword bent back but would not slide.
A raven tore the reins from Haldren’s mare;
The bell-cart pitched and struck the granite stair.
The ridge replied with one enormous crack—
A wall of snow came roaring down the track.

[Breakdown]
Stone against bronze.
Ice against flame.
Men lost their banners.
Snow kept their names.

[Chorus]
Ring—the bell that broke the fjord,
Ring for every buried word.
Bronze may drown the honest voice,
But mountains make a harder choice.
Ring—the bell that broke the fjord,
Its final note became a northern road.

[Instrumental Break]
[Drums follow the tumbling avalanche while twin guitars play the inverted horn motif.]

[Bridge]
When white dust cleared, the rune field stood half bare;
The soldiers fled, but Yrsa was not there.
Across the gulf, her chains flashed through the air;
Below, black basalt split the glacier bare.

[Build-up]
The world had shifted under boot and blade;
No prayer could close the wound the bell had made.
I heard her final warning in the roar:
“Reach him before they reach the mountain door.”

[Final Chorus]
Ring—the bell that broke the fjord,
Ring for keeper, beast and lord.
Bronze destroyed the ancient ground,
But opened what the crown had bound.
Ring—the truth no king restored—
I followed through the broken fjord.

[Outro]
Behind me, ravens circled ruined stone;
Ahead, the road ran northward and alone.