Yggdrasil's Children Fall

[Act I: The Death of Balder]

Autumn came to an end

And the first snow began to fall

Balder's face was clouded

The dreams of warning had called

His mother sought oaths

From all this below the sky

To not to hurt her son

To not to let him die

Balder stood there encircled by gods

Thrown with stones, spears and hit

With sword

No damage they had caused, not a wound

In jealousy Loki disguised to find

Why there was no harm

The mother told him that all the things

On the earth

Had sworn an oath not to harm nor

Kill her son

'All? ', he asked and then she told him

That only one was too young to swear

And mistletoe was the one

So Loki went across the frosted land

To an ancient tree where mistletoe grew

He cut off a piece and

Returned to the plain

Where gods were still enjoying their game

Loki saw Hodur the Blind sitting

Outside the ring watching

The god's game

Loki gave him the twig and offered

To guide his hand

Pleased Hodur stepped forth

And threw the twig across the plain

It hit Balder's chest piercing

His bright body and he fell

Onto the ground in blood

The laughter and the joy ceased

When Balder's blood spilled

On the pure snow of Asg†rd

[Act II: A Farewell to the Son of Odin]

Balder was set into his ship

And there he laid cold

With his wife beside him

On his breast were all his possessions

Placed carefully

As the ceremony began

The sun sank low over the icy sea

Two ravens circled

In the clear blue sky

Singing their sadness

Thor raised his hammer

And blessed the pyre

Waves carried the ship far to the sea

There it burnt bright high

Against the darkening sky

Odin stood... tears falling from his eyes

[Act III: Hermod's Ride to Hel]

Through dark howling valleys

Of wind swept desolation

Hermod rode alone

Towards the land of death

Sleipnir's hooves in fire

Nine days, nine nights

Hermod rode to Hel

On the farthest shore of Gjoll he came

The bridge keeper waited Modgud

Her name

He asked for the release of Balder

His brother

She recalled and showed him the path

Into the dark

Hermod arrived to the palace

At the Hel's table among the dead

He found his brother sitting

Hermod told Balder

He had come to take him to Asg†rd

That night they sat

Chatting and recalling past times

He went to Hel and begged her

For Balder's release

Telling her that all mourned

For his decease

She promised, if all things weeped

For him

He'd be free to return

Through the valleys so dim

Hermod returned and told the gods

What Hel had said

So messengers were sent to

All over the world

And all the world wept

For their Balder beloved

Only one old woman refused:

'Let Hel keep what she had'

[Act IV: The Bounding of Loki]

Soon the gods found

That old woman was Loki

Revenge they swore

And begin to hunt him

Loki spent days as a salmon in waters

Or as himself in a house

Once the gods found Loki hiding

In a river

When he jumped to escape

Thor caught him into his fist

The gods took him to a deep cavern

With his sons

One day changed into a wolf

And the wolf devoured other son's body

The gods took his intestines

And with them bound Loki to rocks

Skadi hung a snake above Loki's head

Venom dripping into his mouth

So great was the pain

That when Loki writhed

All th worlds shook and trembled...

[Act V: The Final Battle]

After Balder's death

The gods withdrew from the earth

Evil spread and Fimbulvetr arrived

Battles raged all over

The wolves rose

One devoured the sun

One the moon

Stars fell crushing onto the earth

Fenris broke his chains

Midgard heaved his body

Drowned the land in waves

Washed the battlefields bloody

Giants marched

Fenris approached

Gjallarhorn's alarm

Echoed in the air

The armies of dead marched

Lead by Loki the avenger

The battlefield of Vigrid

Will soon bathe in blood

Odin rushed

With a spear in his hand

Behind him came

The heroes of Valhalla

And the battle began

God against giant

And giant against god

The brave armies clashed

After a long battle

Both giants and gods

Laid on the ground

Never to rise again...

[Act IV: A New Heaven, A New Earth]

All the earth burnt in flames

In times the flames will die

One man and one woman survived

And they shall bleed a new race

Vidar and vali will walk upon

A new heaven

They'll live upon the Ida plain

Where Asg†rd once was

And re-build it to be

Far greater than before

Children of thor will bring

Their father's hammer

And Balder will return bright

Leading the gods in the new age

...The new age under the sign

Of the hammer