[Intro]
Stack the shields with the split sides out,
Let every crack tell what pride brought about.

[Verse 1]
They met where the gate-ruts filled with rain,
Where wounded horses bit their pain.
No feast-cloth lay on the trampled grass,
Just broken shields and a bronze-rimmed glass.
FRAYR came first with his sword held low,
Thor came bruised with a slower glow.
FRAY-yah's cloak had a blood-dark seam,
Odin looked like a man in a dream.

[Pre-Chorus]
[Duet]
No one asked who had won the field,
When both sides leaned on a broken shield.
NYORD said, “Count what the dead have paid,
Then tell me what victory made.”

[Chorus]
Broken Shields for Peace, lay them down,
No bright oath grows from a burning town.
Broken Shields for Peace, iron released,
Feed the fire and quiet the beast.
Cut the boast, let the war-horns cease,
Build our table from broken shields for peace.

[Verse 2]
They named the slain with a careful tongue,
Old gods first and the barely young.
EYE-seer mothers and VAH-neer wives,
Held the same cloth to different lives.
Loki joked and no one grinned,
TEER shut both eyes in the cold.
GOOL-vayg's ash in a leather thread,
Moved through the talk like the scent of bread.

[Pre-Chorus]
[Duet]
Odin said, “A war can teach,
But only if the victors bleach.”
FRAY-yah snapped, “Do not clean the stain,
Name the mud and name the pain.”

[Chorus]
Broken Shields for Peace, lay them down,
No bright oath grows from a burning town.
Broken Shields for Peace, iron released,
Feed the fire and quiet the beast.
Cut the boast, let the war-horns cease,
Build our table from broken shields for peace.

[Instrumental Break][Acoustic guitars tap the shield-rhythm while tagelharpa carries a slow mourning line.]

[Bridge]
A shield that breaks may serve again,
As bench, as door, as roof from rain.
A hand that struck may pour the mead,
If shame is named before the need.

[Build-up]
Bring the nails. Bring the cord.
Bring the cup and lower the sword.
Bring the names. Bring the grief.
Bring the hard and narrow belief.

[Final Chorus]
Broken Shields for Peace, lay them down,
No bright oath grows from a burning town.
Broken Shields for Peace, iron released,
Feed the fire and quiet the beast.
Build our table from broken shields for peace.
Hold the weight of a wounded guard.

[Outro]
Stack the shields with the split sides out,
Peace begins where the loud gods doubt.