[Intro]
[The full three-note oath motif returns on tagelharpa, followed by a bar of silence.]

[Verse 1]
We found their walls above the bay,
A timber fort of fresh-cut grey.
Our stolen shields lined up the rail,
Lord Harek’s boar carved on a pail.
We could have fired the lower gate,
And fed their roof to winter’s weight.
Old Torsten caught my torch-lit wrist:
“Name what you seek before you risk.”

[Chorus]
The Law of Ash and Iron asks what survives:
A debt paid in corpses, or order in lives.
Iron gives judgment when witness is heard;
Ash is what follows when fury is law.
The Law of Ash and Iron is narrow and hard:
Punish the guilty, but stand as a guard.

[Verse 2]
We laid the bent bronze bowl on stone,
The same scarred rim our hands had known.
We set Eirik’s axe beside,
And Harek’s sword the traitors prized.
Torsten named the charge aloud:
False oath, hall murder, stolen crown.
“Come without steel before first light.
Be judged by those who saw that night.”

[Chorus]
The Law of Ash and Iron asks what survives:
A debt paid in corpses, or order in lives.
Iron gives judgment when witness is heard;
Ash is what follows when fury is law.
The Law of Ash and Iron is narrow and hard:
Punish the guilty, but stand as a guard.

[Verse 3]
A young man opened half the gate,
Then Ketil pulled him back too late.
We heard the blow, we heard him fall,
And saw his blood beneath the wall.
Ketil called, “No law remains.
Your lord lies cold, your hall is stained.”
I answered, “Law is not a chair.
It lives when wounded men act fair.”

[Bridge]
[Older voice and narrator alternate over single guitar chords.]

“Will judgment bring your brother breath?”
“No judgment reaches through his death.”
“Then why climb armed into the flame?”
“To keep revenge from ruling law.”

[Instrumental]
[Lead guitar plays a restrained lament, ending without a high note.]

[Breakdown]
No torch to roof.
No spear to child.
No sword to servant.
One dawn to yield.

[Final Chorus]
The Law of Ash and Iron asks what survives:
Not innocence restored, but a border for lives.
Iron gives judgment when witness is heard;
Ash marks the place where we abandoned the word.
The Law of Ash and Iron is narrow and hard:
We climb for the guilty and stand for the spared.

[Outro]
[After the final word, the band leaves two full bars of silence.]

No gate moved open with the dawn.
We took our shields and carried on.