[Intro]
[Snare and floor toms alternate in five-beat measures; low brass answers in four until the patterns collide.]

[Verse 1]
A hundred leagues wide lay the frost-bitten plain,
Cut by old rivers, swollen with rain.
The einherjar entered in shield-locking rows,
Steam from their mouths and red mud on their toes.
No feast-cup was lifted, no bench-song was sung;
Each man felt the weight of the name on his tongue.
Above them, the ravens flew crooked and low,
As if even Huginn had nowhere to go.

[Choir]
Line upon line.
Name upon name.
Men out of Valhalla.
Giants from flame.

[Chorus]
Across Vígríðr, every road becomes one,
Wolf-road and corpse-road beneath the dead sun.
Across Vígríðr, shield edge meets shield;
No god leaves untouched, no wound stays concealed.
The horn called us forward; the field holds us fast—
Across Vígríðr, the first war is the last.

[Verse 2]
Thor found the furrow where saltwater ran;
Freyr faced the south with an antler in hand.
Týr watched the gateway where Garm’s muzzle bled;
Heimdall saw Loki at the prow of the dead.
Odin rode Sleipnir through spear-bearing ranks,
Gungnir red-gold on the storm’s burning banks.
Víðarr walked silent in thick leather shoes,
Already prepared for the father he’d lose.

[Pre-Chorus]
Each enemy knew the face he must find;
Old injury stood at the head of each line.
No captain gave orders, no map had a part—
The prophecies marched like a drum in the heart.

[Chorus]
Across Vígríðr, every road becomes one,
Wolf-road and corpse-road beneath the dead sun.
Across Vígríðr, shield edge meets shield;
No god leaves untouched, no wound stays concealed.
The horn called us forward; the field holds us fast—
Across Vígríðr, the first war is the last.

[Drum Break]
[Five-beat god-army drums and seven-beat corpse-ship knocks compete, then lock into a single four-beat charge.]

[Bridge]
A young dead warrior tightened his strap;
He died once in winter, an axe in his lap.
He asked the old captain, “What happens if fate
Has measured the field and has numbered the gate?”
The captain said nothing, then lowered his spear:
“Courage is walking while knowing the fear.”

[Buildup]
Thor to the ocean.
Freyr to the flame.
Týr to the blood-hound.
Each to his name.
Heimdall to Loki.
Odin rides west.
Víðarr says nothing.
Silence knows best.

[Final Chorus]
Across Vígríðr, every heartbeat is heard,
The scrape of an axe and the wing of a bird.
Across Vígríðr, both armies collide;
The dead strike the deathless and fall at their side.
The horn’s three notes vanish beneath the attack—
Across Vígríðr, there is no turning back.

[Outro]
[All competing meters collapse into one sustained chord cut by the first impact of battle.]

The shield walls meet.
The spear shafts bend.
Every prophecy
Has found its end.
