[Intro]
[One frame-drum strike answers each bent tagelharpa phrase.]

[Verse 1]
[Elder Male Vocal: Mimir]
Your boots bring thaw into my cave;
Your banners mean nothing to the grave.
Leave wolf and weapon by the stair;
No throne has jurisdiction here.
I heard your ravens on the stone.
They told me why you came alone.
You want the root to speak your name,
Yet hope to leave the root unchanged.

[Verse 2]
[Male Vocal: Odin]
I crossed the frost, I crossed the shale.
I did not come to hear a tale.
Name gold, name cattle, name a blade;
I pay the debts that I have made.
I seek the memory under earth,
The laws before the world had birth.
Let me drink deep and I will swear
Your guarded truth receives its share.

[Chorus]
Mimir keeps the well and weight;
No king may drink and dodge the rate.
Bring me the eye that watched men kneel,
And I will show what sight conceals.
Here crowns are clay and gods must wait—
Mimir keeps the well and gate.

[Verse 3]
[Elder Male Vocal: Mimir]
Your rings would rust beneath one wave.
Your cattle cannot feed the brave
Who died before the grass had grown
Or warm the children turned to bone.
The payment must remember pain;
The loss must never grow again.
Not what you own, but what you are—
Give me your nearest, brightest star.

[Pre-Chorus]
[Male Vocal: Odin]
My right eye reads the spear and shield.
My left surveys the wider field.
[Elder Male Vocal: Mimir]
Then choose which world you wish to keep—
The waking road or what lies deep.

[Chorus]
Mimir keeps the well and weight;
No king may drink and dodge the rate.
Bring me the eye that watched men kneel,
And I will show what sight conceals.
Here crowns are clay and gods must wait—
Mimir keeps the well and gate.

[Instrumental]
[Low guitar harmonics descend beneath bowed tagelharpa while five-beat drum strokes gradually separate.]

[Bridge]
[Male Vocal: Odin]
Will wisdom shut the jaws of war?
[Elder Male Vocal: Mimir]
It shows the teeth behind the door.
[Male Vocal: Odin]
Will wisdom teach me whom to save?
[Elder Male Vocal: Mimir]
It names the cost, but not the brave.

[Break]
[Elder Male Vocal: Mimir]
The well gives nothing.
[Male Vocal: Odin]
Then let it trade.
[Elder Male Vocal: Mimir]
No god returns from bargains made.

[Final Chorus]
Mimir keeps the well and weight;
The cup is full, the hour is late.
Bring me the eye that measured men,
And drink what cannot sleep again.
No oath can alter what awaits—
Mimir keeps the well and gate.

[Outro]
[Elder Male Vocal: Mimir]
Take up the knife.
Put down the crown.
The oldest water waits below ground.
