[Intro]
[Jaw harp and muted guitar imitate hoofbeats before the full 6/8 rhythm enters.]

[Verse 1]
We left the roof before the sun,
Two blackened arrows, two as one.
Below us, fields of iron frost
Marked every mile the king had crossed.
He rode with questions in his reins,
Through birchwood cuts and shale-grey plains.
No hunter called, no hearth-fire shone;
He kept his one desire alone.

[Pre-Chorus]
We cried, “Turn west—the ice is thin.”
He only drove the stallion in.
We cried, “Turn back—the pines have ears.”
He fed the road another year.

[Chorus]
Northward under raven wings,
Past frozen mouths and burial rings.
The farther flown, the less he knew;
The hidden well pulled hard and true.
No king commands what knowledge brings—
Northward under raven wings.

[Verse 2]
A farmer raised a mittened hand,
But Odin stared beyond the land.
A child held up a carved wood horse;
He never slowed or changed his course.
At dusk we found a field of spears,
Their points made red by weathered years.
He searched each shaft for some old sign,
While hungry wolves pressed near behind.

[Chorus]
Northward under raven wings,
Past frozen mouths and burial rings.
The farther flown, the less he knew;
The hidden well pulled hard and true.
No king commands what knowledge brings—
Northward under raven wings.

[Interlude]
[Tagelharpa and jaw harp circle the descending motif while the drums shift between 6/8 and 5/8.]

[Verse 3]
The mountains closed like broken teeth,
The road became a scar beneath.
We tasted water in the air,
Old copper, root and buried prayer.
He tied the horse below a stone,
Then walked the final mile alone.
We flew ahead, then wheeled around;
No bird would perch upon that ground.

[Bridge]
We knew the names of every field,
Each marriage bed, each buried shield.
We knew which jar concealed the grain,
Which roof would fail beneath the rain.

[Breakdown]
[Raven One]
Turn back before the water speaks.
[Raven Two]
Turn back before it names what seeks.
[Male Vocal: Odin]
A truth that waits beneath the ground
Is worth the flesh in which I’m bound.

[Final Chorus]
Northward under raven wings,
Beyond the reach of courts and kings.
The farther flown, the more he shed—
The kindly word, the backward tread.
The well below had drawn its strings—
Northward under raven wings.

[Outro]
[The galloping rhythm stops at once; three isolated tagelharpa notes remain.]
We carried warning in our cries;
He carried hunger in his eyes.
