[Intro]
[Detuned twelve-string guitar plays the original three-note motif slowly, now completed by a low tagelharpa answer.]

[Verse 1]
The rope was coiled beside the root;
Rainwater filled the empty boot.
Gungnir lay dark against the tree;
Its edge held no apology.
He gathered ring and cloak and crown,
Then walked the nine cold pathways down.
The ravens watched from branch and stone;
They knew his step, but not his tone.

[Chorus]
Wisdom never comes without a wound;
The well keeps watch beneath the ground.
The runes may raise a dead man’s hand,
Yet cannot teach that hand to understand.
A god came back with knowledge crowned—
Wisdom never comes without a wound.

[Verse 2]
Frigg had kept the lamp alight,
A little sun against the night.
He entered with one living eye;
She did not ask the reason why.
He set nine symbols on the board;
Each one obeyed his quiet word.
She touched the scar beneath his brow;
He knew all things but not her now.

[Chorus]
Wisdom never comes without a wound;
The well keeps watch beneath the ground.
The runes may raise a dead man’s hand,
Yet cannot teach that hand to understand.
A god came back with knowledge crowned—
Wisdom never comes without a wound.

[Interlude]
[Frigg’s contralto hums the feather-counting melody while tagelharpa repeats the well motif.]

[Verse 3]
Beneath the earth, the severed eye
Still watched the wolf approach the sky.
It watched the ship begin to form,
Nail after nail before the storm.
Above, the king wrote charm and law
For war, for birth, for wound and thaw.
Each mark increased the worlds he knew;
Each mark made ordinary mercy new.

[Bridge]
[Female Vocal: Frigg]
Did what you learned prevent the end?
[Male Vocal: Odin]
It showed the roads where endings bend.
[Female Vocal: Frigg]
Did what you suffered teach you care?
[Male Vocal: Odin]
It taught me what all bodies bear.

[Break]
[Duet: Ravens]
We brought him every field and face.
He searched beyond the living place.
[Female Vocal: Frigg]
He sought the law behind each breath
And brought its coldness back from death.
[Choir]
The wound may seal; the price remains.
The wisest hand still carries stains.

[Final Chorus]
Wisdom never comes without a wound;
The root keeps count beneath the ground.
The runes may bind and wake the dead,
But cannot warm an empty bed.
One eye sees far, one eye looks down;
The man grows faint beneath the crown.

[Final Refrain]
We praise the word, we fear the sound—
Wisdom never comes without a wound.

[Verse 4]
Years later, skalds would praise the tree,
The spear, the runes, the victory.
They carved the tale on horn and stone
And called the seeker wisdom’s throne.
But in the well an eye remained,
Still watching every future stained.
And on the floor, beside the door,
Nine raven feathers gathered more.

[Outro]
[The ensemble enters a final nine-beat coda, then falls away until only voice and tagelharpa remain.]

[Male Vocal: Odin]
I learned the language under breath.
I learned the workmanship of death.
I learned the binding of the spear.
I learned the shape of every fear.
[Female Vocal: Frigg]
Then learn the chair beside the flame.
Learn one warm hand without a name.
[Male Vocal: Odin]
The root still speaks beneath the ground.
[Female Vocal: Frigg]
And I am here.
Can you hear that sound?

[Choir]
A crown may rule.
A rune may bind.
A wound may open root and mind.
But knowledge bought with all you are

[Final Refrain]
May guide the world—
And leave you far.

Wisdom never comes without a wound.
