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 Asgrd

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 Asgrd
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 Asgrd 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