A New World

 

This song will appear on our upcoming Norse themed album, Sundown.

In the Prose Edda, Snorri includes a list of which gods will survive Ragnarok.  There are few names on it, but among them are Magni and Modi, Thor’s two sons.  In this piece Frigg, their grandmother (not by blood, since she is Thor’s stepmother not his actual mother, but close enough) sings to them about the significance of their survival, and they ask her questions about what they should do after the world ends.  The Lokasenna suggests that “Frigg knows all the fates of men,” and several other texts allude to her possessing special insight into the world, fate and the future, so she is a logical person here to voice the prophecies of the new world which will come after Ragnarok, though the new world is actually described by the Seeress in the Voluspa, the first part of the Poetic Edda.  Lif and Lifthrasir are the two humans who are supposed to survive the battle and repopulate the Earth after Ragnarok; their names mean “Life” and “The stubborn will to live”.

Composer’s Comment: Frigg is not among the gods whose death at Ragnarok is specifically described.  Odin’s death is referred to as the “second grief of Frigg,” the first being Baldur’s murder, so we know she lives long enough to see her husband die.  Since she is not a warrior, it is possible she could sit the battle out and survive, but I find it more plausible that, like Baldur’s wife Nana, she would voluntarily follow her fallen husband.

Lyrics:

Grandchildren, Thunder-sons, pride of your father
And light of your grandfather’s all-seeing eye,
The day is approaching of Ragnarok battle,
When all of your family will die,
except you.

But a new world will rise from the waters,
And new life will stir in her seas,
And the old sun will leave us a daughter,
As bright and as precious as she.

Well we know, Grandmother, all that must come
How the wolf and its children will swallow the sun,
And our father and grandfather fall to the beasts,
And the fires of Musphell will feast
on the dead.

But a new world will rise from the waters,
And new eyes will wake to her dawn,
And the last pair,
Lif and Lifthrasir,
The woman and husband,
Will guard in their hiding place
Life and the will to live on.

Well we know, Grandmother, all we must do
When the humans establish their homesteads anew.
We must teach them, like grandfather, all that they need,
How to stand, how to speak, how to fight, how to lead,
Why the old worlds have fallen, and why they still live,
But we don’t know what answer to give
When they ask of us

What was Odin?
(Answer me, answer me, somebody answer me)
This strange Allfather,
(oldest of questions and deepest of needs)
Who built such wonders
(our mystery, mystery, teach us our history)
And lost them again to the dark?
(lost them again to the dark of the grave)

Was he cruel? Was he kind?
Was he wise? Was he blind
To the needs of the humans
who suffered and died?
As he kept his worlds locked
On their desperate course
With his justice and witchcraft
And guile and force?

What was Odin?
(Answer me, answer me, somebody answer me)
This teacher and soldier
And trickster and king?
Who lost such wonders?
(who mystery, mystery, fathered our history)
Seducer and savior
And rapist and king.

Grandchildren, take with you only one answer
To teach a new world what your grandfather was:
That from fire and ice, where no man can live easy
He carved out a place where a man can live proud.

And a new world will rise from the waters,
And new men will bask in her day.
And my lost sons:
Dear shining Baldur
And unlucky Hod will
Return from the darkness
And join you in guiding their ways.

And they know
From Hel and Valhalla
What Fate shows
At their father’s last stand
That from fire and ice, where no man can die easy
He carved out a place where a man can live long
And die proud.

And they know
From Hel and Valhalla
What your grandfather gave to you
So carry him with you
In all that you teach and do.

When the new world will rise from the waters,
And new men will ask you our names.
And my lost sons…
Tell them I love them,
And tell them I miss them,
And tell them I thought of them
Even as Ragnarok came.

Grandchildren, Thunder-sons, pride of your father
And light of your grandfather’s all-seeing eye,
The day is approaching of Ragnarok battle,  (Help me know why I live)
When all of your family will die, (When all will die)
except what lives on inside you.  (Even you)

  One Response to “A New World”

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