[Intro]
[Plucked lyre states a six-note melody; every third bar leaves one deliberate beat empty.]

[Verse 1]
I remember the barley bowed under her feet,
The frost on the orchard, the breath turning sweet.
Gerðr stood silent where winter held sway,
And all of my summer had nothing to say.
Skírnir named payment; I opened my hand,
The sword left my keeping at Skírnir’s command.
Her cold doorway opened one promised day—
I gained what I loved with the sword I gave away.

[Chorus]
The sword I gave away still cuts me today,
Not edge against armor, but debt I must pay.
The sword I gave away will not answer my hand;
Surtr brings daylight like steel to the land.
I do not regret her, whatever they say—
I only regret what the world has to pay.

[Verse 2]
Now ash settles warm on the boar’s golden hair,
The field smells of copper and smoke-thickened air.
Across from my shield stands a furnace made tall,
His blade throws my shadow like night on a wall.
An antler is bound where the bright sword once lay,
One antler branch at the ending of day.
Yet men stand behind me with burns on their skin;
I cannot step backward and let Muspel in.

[Pre-Chorus]
A bargain is not a mistake without end;
Love was no theft, and my bride was no sin.
But choices grow older, then sharpen and stay—
The past has found Vígríðr and blocks up the way.

[Chorus]
The sword I gave away still cuts me today,
Not edge against armor, but debt I must pay.
The sword I gave away will not answer my hand;
Surtr brings daylight like steel to the land.
I do not regret her, whatever they say—
I only regret what the world has to pay.

[Instrumental]
[Cello carries the lyre melody while low guitars enter on the previously empty beat.]

[Bridge]
Gerðr, do not let them reduce us to blame,
As though one true embrace were the cause of this flame.
The worlds had their fractures long before mine;
The wolf had his fetter, the gods crossed the line.
I chose you completely; I choose you once more—
Then turn with an antler and walk into war.

[Buildup]
No self-fighting steel.
No weapon of light.
One shield turning black.
One body upright.
No promise of rescue.
No bargain delayed.
Only the man
That the choice of a god has made.

[Final Chorus]
The sword I gave away cannot save me today,
But my hand is still mine and my feet will not sway.
The sword I gave away left my fingers unarmed;
It did not take love, and it did not take heart.
Let Surtr come forward; I stand in his way—
One heartbeat for Midgard is all I can pay.

[Outro]
[The lyre melody returns alone, but the missing beat is filled by one low shield strike.]

Tell her the orchard was green in my mind.
Tell her I carried that spring to the line.
Tell her no fire could make me betray
The life that I chose with the sword I gave away.