Abandoned

 
  • Composer: Ada Palmer
  • Format: Duet

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

Abandoned is a duet for Baldur and Hella.  It is a partner piece for My Brother, My Enemy, and, like it, takes place after Baldur’s murder and Loki’s imprisonment.  Here Baldur and Hella are both in the underworld, and describe their reflections on the catastrophe which they can do nothing to change.  Baldur describes the shock of discovering so many dark sides to a universe of which, before his death, he had only enjoyed the best and brightest.  Hella, in turn, describes her childhood banishment, and the experience of growing up as Queen of the Dead and watching the  many humans who come to her.  The two are cousins, but have always been forced by circumstances to live as enemies, yet now their fates are eerily parallel.

Composer’s Comment: Here I tapped one of the more questionable sidelines of Norse mythos, the common folk belief (not confirmed in the Eddas) that trolls, and by extension Jotuns, don’t have eternal souls, but that humans, made by Odin, do.  This appears in numerous folktales, and also fits well with the idea of Odin as a creator of life breath, which is the soul.  It also explains why Hel seems to be a land for dead humans, but we don’t hear of the ghosts of Jotuns there.

Lyrics:

BALDUR HELLA
After strife, I bring smiles of
The family that strives beside.
After war, I bring children
To grow strong.
After frost I bring colors of
The summertime to come again.
After dark I bring patience
For the dawn.
While I grew, I felt summers growing
Stronger with the mounting years.
When I played I felt nature
Playing too.
While I lived I thought nothing was too
Frozen for my warmpth to heal.
When I died, then, Lady,
I met you.
Fields fade and warm days age and
Summer suns grow weak.
Shades sleep and shadows creeping
come.
Dim dreams as fear grows near and
Doom knows what it seeks
And dark and dank to thank
When death has you.
Grieving
world.
Souls too many to
Tell.
Even memories of
Summer sun grow
Harsh and black as
On Valhalla’s steps the laws of death
Are easy to forget
When the power rests with those who
cheat so well.
The gods above and those they love
Share Asgard’s golden rest,
While the greater part of life is cast to,
Hel
.
I
.
See now what grown men
Fear and every
Child but me has always
Known, I’d never
Seen true dark before
And now your father has me
Join you in the land of the
.
To me, who
.
can see
With mother’s eyes beyond the dark below
A witch’s vision of
The world above that I have never
Tasted, I am wasted by your
Father’s fear of what I could have been
And what he made me be
In the land of the
Abandoned men, abandoned place,
Abandoned world, abandoned race,
Abandoned you, abandoned me,
Abandoned all to the Hel of the
Abandoned… abandoned… abandoned… abandoned…
Blackest
World.
Cold and distant and
Strange.
Even thinking freezes
Year by year, but
Still can’t
Fade away.
When ice-born Jotuns meet or end
We fade to senseless dust,
Unless darker spells compel the will to
stay.
But Odin fashioned humans with
Eternal souls in trust,
That don’t even have the choice
To fade away.
Yes I knew, while Valhalla
Held the chosen in my father’s care,
There were limits to whom Valkyries
could catch.
There were many hopeful voices
That fell silent with a final prayer,
But I never saw the
Consequences
When ice-born Jotuns meet our end
We fade to senseless dust,
Unless spells keep spirits bound as
Witches choose.
But Odin fashioned humans with
Eternal souls in trust,
That must wait and hate and
Rot their long night
.
Like you do.
.
Like I do now
.
Only one end
Patient ’till when
Ragnarok comes and ends it.
Through
.
True
Like I do now
Waiting for the cock that never crows.
Only one end
Patient ’till when
Ragnarok comes
Father always planning for
Tomorrow, not today.
Father, I trust you did
The best the Norns allow.
He granted you dominion over
Those who fall away, never
Thinking I would
Follow them down
Your father, always planning for
Tomorrow, not today,
And pretending it’s
The best the Norns allow.
He granted me dominion over
Those he casts away, never
Thinking such a
Gift would matter
.
To you who
.
I knew as
Nothing but a
Stranger’s distant name,
A curse, an enemy,
A memory.
The souls up there had
Nothing but hate for you,
So glad to escape you, and
Ready to face you down
When the darkness comes,
But those down here
Who were so near
And tried so hard
And fell so far
Down into the dark
Where even
I fall
blind without my
Light, but learn to
see inside your
Shadow and your
sorrow and your
night. Father would say
There was no other way
But now I understand how
Now
.
Who
I knew as
Nothing but a
Stranger’s distant name,
A curse, an enemy,
A memory
That others cling to.
Nothing but
Promises and
Prophecies, the
Souls down here are
Eager to stay with you, and
Desperate to pray to you, and
Quick to embrace you now
That the sun has come
To the dark,
without your
Warmth, without your
Hope, without your
Light, who were so
Far and tried so
Hard, but fell to
Me.
They continue to pray to you
Beg to be saved by you
But what can you offer them now?
Children, mothers,
Elders, lovers,
Peaceful folk could
Hate us so that
They would rise at
Ragnarok and
Join our foe.
‘Cause we
Men love you,
Beasts love you,
Stones love you,
Seas love you.
They loved you
Once but you
Stay our foe.
Abandoned men, abandoned place,
Abandoned them, abandoned race,
Abandoned you, abandoned me,
Abandoned all to the Hel of the
Abandoned… abandoned… abandoned… abandoned…
And I knew
There were races that were
Older than the worlds we
made. There were
Reasons why my
Uncle sat
Alone. There were
Monsters in the
Darkness that my
Brothers had helped seal
Away, but we
Never called you
‘Cousin’, only
You knew
There were races that were
Older than the worlds you
made. There were
Reasons why my
Father sat
Alone. There were
Monsters in the
Darkness that your
Brothers sealed
Away, but you
Never called me
‘Cousin’, only
‘Crone’,
‘Enemy’.
How could I see
Beyond the labels and the
War?  Which must
Come, so
Certain since our
Fathers made it so,
Fathers made us go
.
‘Enemy’
How could I see
Beyond the labels and the
War?  Which must
Come, so
Certain since our
Fathers made it so,
made us go
Here
.
Near
Dangers that
Breed so
Close in the
Promises and
Prophecies and
Lies
.
Down here, where
I can hear with
Mother’s ears a
Father’s curses,
Shreeking in his
Shackles, not too
Close but not too
Far to feel his
Heat, his leaking
Rage, its lava
Creep that always
Churns and never
Sleeps. Your father
Waits for him to
Weep but he waits
Only for the war.
I could hear as my
Father’s envoy begged you and you
Dictated the
Terms of my release, you asked
Everything alive and dead to
Weep as one for me. You were
Testing them, weren’t you?
Asking consent from the
Dead in your Hel, and the
Living who may
Yet fall
Down into the dark
Where so many will come.
Heat, his leaking rage, its lava
Creep, that always churns and never
Sleeps. Your father waits for him to
Weep but he waits only for the war.
Soon it’s coming, say it’s coming
Soon our battle and our
End. Soon it’s coming, say it’s
Coming soon our battle, our
Revenge. Soon it’s coming
soon. We’re here waiting for the
Cock that never crows.
Soon it’s coming, keep it coming
Soon our battle.
For if I rejoin the living world
Forgiving and forget,
And the stones and seas and Odin too
Renounce their grim revenge
And Forgiveness heals Yggdrasil
And peace reigns strong
Then to warm the fleeting living we
Condemn the frozen dead
To wait on.  And give up
Ragnarok
For me.
For if you rejoin the living world
Forgiving and forget,
And the stones and seas and Odin too
Renounce their grim revenge
And Forgiveness heals Yggdrasil
And peace reigns strong
Then we wait and wait and
Wait and Wait,
Just to warm the fleeting living
You condemn the frozen dead
To wait on.
.
There they wept, every ghost
.
Every soul in your great lost host.
Just so I can warm the living
They consent, the patient dead,
Every child, every man,
Every root, every tree,
Every bird, every beast,
Every ghost, every god except one.
And they would’ve waited too.
.
Anything for you.
.
Just so you can warm the living
They consent, the patient dead,
To wait on. They love you, they love you,
Every bird, every beast,
Every ghost, every god except one.
Father
I still
Trust you but
Don’t under-
stand why
You no
Longer
Try to stop the war,
Which must come,
So certain since our
Fathers made it so,
Certain since our
Fathers won’t let go.
His leaking
Rage, its lava
Creep that always
Churns and never
Sleeps. Your father
Waits for him to
Weep but he waits
Only for the
War, which must come,
So certain since our
Fathers made it so,
Certain since our
Fathers won’t let go.
I think on our fathers, the choices they made,
And I almost believe there was no other way,
But we wait, and we learn, and the anger, it fades,
But there is no hope of rescue until both our fathers change.
And they
Abandoned us, abandoned place,
Abandoned them, abandoned race,
Abandoned you, abandoned me,
Abandoned all to the Hel when we
Accepted death, accepted war,
No longer try to change its course.
Abandoned life, abandoned hope,
Abandoned all to the Hel of the
Abandoned… abandoned… abandoned… abandoned…