[Intro]
At the western gate, the ravens turned,
Bronze locks shook and the watchfires burned.
A woman came where the spear-lines wait,
With quiet gold at the western gate.

[Verse 1]
Her cloak was dull, but her fingers shone,
With rings like teeth cut out of bone.
She asked no bread, she praised no throne,
She weighed our names like minted stone.
The shield-wall guards felt their knuckles ache,
The bridge groaned low as the hinges wake.
She smiled at Thor with a copper plate,
And gold rang cold at the western gate.

[Pre-Chorus]
[Duet]
Odin leaned from his ash-wood chair,
One eye hard in the torchlit air.
“Name your craft, and name your rate,”
She said, “All crowns learn how to wait.”

[Chorus]
Gold at the western gate, gold in the god-house,
Gold in the oath and the mouth of the spouse.
Buy me a blessing, sell me a fate,
I am the hunger at the western gate.
Gold at the western gate, gold on the spear,
Pay for your power, then pay for your fear.

[Verse 2]
She crossed the hall on the wolf-skin floor,
Past feast-bright benches and the hammer door.
FRAY-yah watched from a carved oak seat,
With falcon feathers folded neat.
The mead turned thick in the drinking horn,
The dice fell black where the lots were worn.
Even the children of Asgard knew,
Something old had entered new.

[Pre-Chorus]
No sword was drawn, yet the rafters creaked,
No curse was sung, yet the iron shrieked.
Odin’s hand found GOONG-neer’s weight,
While gold laughed soft at the western gate.

[Chorus]
Gold at the western gate, gold in the god-house,
Gold in the oath and the mouth of the spouse.
Buy me a blessing, sell me a fate,
I am the hunger at the western gate.
Gold at the western gate, gold on the spear,
Pay for your power, then pay for your fear.

[Instrumental Break][Hardanger fiddle circles the three-note horn motif while toms answer in a marching pattern.]

[Bridge]
[Duet]
FRAY-yah said, “I know this flame,
It eats no wood, it eats a name.”
Loki laughed from the pillar’s side,
“Let her bargain. Let her ride.”

[Build-up]
The benches shook, the torches spat,
The wolves outside smelled blood and fat.
GOOL-vayg raised one golden thread,
And tied it round the living dead.

[Final Chorus]
Gold at the western gate, gold in the god-house,
Gold in the oath and the mouth of the spouse.
Buy me a blessing, sell me a fate,
I am the hunger at the western gate.
Pay for your power, then pay for your fear.
Call me GOOL-vayg — remember my name.

[Outro]
At the western gate, the ravens turned,
Three coals slept where the watchfires burned.