[Intro][Slow tom strikes and bowed tagelharpa in a sparse minor line.]

[Verse 1 - Female Lead Valkyrie]
The fires were fed, but the warmth was gone,
A red mouth open in the hall without dawn.
Men sat awake with their cups unraised,
Watching the rafters where the spear-runes blazed.
No rooster called from a mortal yard,
No wife came near with a winter card.
Only the bootstep, only the horn,
Only the wound that would heal by morn.

[Verse 2 - Female Lead Valkyrie]
They locked my saddle in a western room,
Took my spear and my feathered plume.
The elder riders would not meet my eye,
Their silver bridles hanging dry.
One whispered softly, “Bend and live,”
One said, “There is nothing left to give.”
I heard the dead in the yard below,
Learning again how to kill in snow.

[Chorus]
In the hall without dawn, no morning breaks,
Only the hammer of old mistakes.
In the hall without dawn, the torches lean,
Gold grows dull where the gates stay mean.
We were told that the brave live on,
But not like this in the hall without dawn.

[Instrumental Break][Slow guitar harmonies answer the tagelharpa motif.]

[Bridge]
I dreamed of Midgard’s smoke and bread,
Of a child with ashes on his head.
I dreamed of hooves on a frozen plain,
Then woke to drums and the same old chain.

[Bridge 2]
If silence is safer, silence is sold;
My tongue is warm, but the room is cold.

[Chorus]
In the hall without dawn, no morning breaks,
Only the hammer of old mistakes.
In the hall without dawn, the torches lean,
Gold grows dull where the gates stay mean.
We were told that the brave live on,
But not like this in the hall without dawn.

[Build-up]
A name in my mouth.
A key in the wall.
A crack in the lock.
A choice for us all.

[Final Chorus]
In the hall without dawn, no morning breaks,
Only the hammer of old mistakes.
In the hall without dawn, the torches lean,
Gold grows dull where the gates stay mean.
We were told that the brave live on,
But not like this in the hall without dawn.

[Female Lead Coda]
If no sun comes to the high god’s room,
Then I will carry dawn through the gloom.

[Outro][Sparse female harmony repeats the final line once.]