[Intro]
[An axe haft knocks an iron pillar ring three times before the full riff enters.]

[Verse 1]
The feast rolled on beyond the fire,
While colder talk climbed ever higher.
Near smoke-black posts, away from song,
Men weighed the years they had felt wronged.
One lacked the farm his father claimed,
One bore a wound no lord had named.
One watched a younger cousin rise,
While winter hardened in his eyes.

[Hook]
Iron rings in the pillars, black against grain,
Hands closed around them while tongues counted pain.

[Verse 2]
Ketil came with measured tread,
And never once declared intent.
He asked who paid, who gained, who bled,
Who filled the stores, whose sons were sent.
He did not promise crown or land;
He let each grievance make demand.
A careful man need plant no seed
Where pride already feeds the weed.

[Chorus]
Iron Rings in the Pillars, cold in the palm,
The roof still stood and the feast sounded calm.
Oak held the rafters and iron held oak,
But no ring could fasten the words that men spoke.
Iron Rings in the Pillars, witness and chain,
They heard wounded honor turn hunger to gain.

[Verse 3]
I passed them once to fetch more mead,
And caught no phrase that proved a deed.
Ketil praised Eirik’s shield-wall stand,
Then laid one hand on Arnulf’s hand.
Their voices stopped as I drew near;
They grinned and offered winter cheer.
I drank, returned, and let it lie,
While rings shone black at shoulder height.

[Drum Break]
[Floor toms imitate slow fists striking hollow pillars.]

[Chorus]
Iron Rings in the Pillars, cold in the palm,
The roof still stood and the feast sounded calm.
Oak held the rafters and iron held oak,
But no ring could fasten the words that men spoke.
Iron Rings in the Pillars, witness and chain,
They heard wounded honor turn hunger to gain.

[Bridge]
A hall may settle without a sound;
A beam may rot while walls stand round.
A man may swear with steady breath,
Then nurse a thought that ripens death.

[Final Chorus]
Iron Rings in the Pillars, cold in the palm,
The roof still stood beneath borrowed calm.
Oak held the rafters and iron held oak,
While men chose the meaning behind what they spoke.
Iron Rings in the Pillars, dark in the grain,
You held up the roof but could not hold our name.

[Outro]
[The iron knock returns, now answered by muted guitar harmonics.]

Three rings of iron, three knocks in wood.
The hall held firm. The brothers would not.