BLOOD ON ICE
(Bathory)

" BLOOD ON ICE "

The old Crows cry the first warning.
The rumbling frozen ground the last.
Hooves thundering on the three feet snow.
The icy dawn yet to begin.
Bursting through the icy morning
four times five black shadows ahorse.
Steel glimmering in the awakening sun's light.
And blood colours the white snow red.
Cries echoes through the dark deep woods.
Open wounds steam in the cold morning air.
And the new day was greeted with a burden both raped and dead.
Long golden scalps hung by the old twin headed beasts standard black.
Women and children brought far north into the land of no turning back.
The burning village spread by the wind across the tundra.
Cry old crow cry
Long tall beautiful people fallen lifeless to the ground.
Headless scattered still graceful bodies.
Blood coloured the white snow all around.
Through the dark deep woods to the mountains towering to the sky.
The wind carries the quest for revenge and the tale of Blood on Ice...


" MAN OF IRON "


I have paved these forests for so long
I don't know,
if I am man or I am beast.
I though hold deep within me a quest for revenge.
Then I must be a man as much as I can be.
I have learned to speak the tongue of animal.
I have learned to read the signs in bark and snow.
I have taken within myself the spirits of my fathers long
time gone.
In this short time, far from home, a man of iron
I've grown.
A man of iron I have grown.


" ONE EYED OLD MAN "


O yee one eyed old man. You who see it all.
You who see the past and all to be.
Say, yee one eyed old man. For I need to know.
Tell me which path fate has chosen for me.
Say does the Northstar still shine on me.
Say will I set my loved ones free.
O yee one eyed old man. Of yee our elders told.
You have been since land and sky was one.
And if you really knows all that will be, tell me
what the future wants with this young no one's son.
Say does the Northstar still shine on me.
What do you see in store for me............
Questions. Questions. Many you ask.
About the future and some of the past.
Few have seen what I see. Fewer still will ever know.
I gave an eye to see better.
And your thirst for knowledge grows.
But you, my child, who treads the road of pain.
Who have felt such anger. Such that bears no name.
Thee shall I nurse as if you were my own son.
And this very night your training will already have
begun.
For I have seen you come for a thousand years or so.
And the gods have told me to teach you
all that I possess and know.
And though my eye no longer sees
my hand held out in front of me,
I still gaze crystal clear at all
that mortal man cannot see.
And I see you riding up on a stallion as white as
snow.
With the speed of the winds and endurance untold.
And you wield a sword of steel forged in fire and ice.
And the cry of a warrior you sound
and victory is in your eyes.
Hear me my son, for you are the chosen one...


" THE SWORD "

This sword of steel that I hold in my hand.
Ore of this mountain. A sword of this land.
Made for a king when the elders were young.
To guard us and to guide us in an age since long gone.
A sword to protect the peace in troubled times.
A sword made to battle and to take a life.
This sword is the backbone of the life that I know.
Here among mountains and snow.
This sword will be one with me. Body and soul.
All of me will be delivering each blow.
Slung on my back. Oh, its powers I feel.
I can hardly wait to try its steel.
A sword to protect the peace in troubled times.
A sword made to battle and to take a life.
This sword is the backbone of the life that I know.
Here among mountains and snow.
Behold its sharp beauty. Just look at its shine.
This sword was forged in fire and ice.
This sword is the backbone of the life that I know.
Here among mountains and snow.
Now I am ready.
To let this old sword sing again.


" THE STALLION "


Tendons and muscles of steel.
And the blaze of lightning in its eyes.
White as the snow on the hills.
And its reins, that I hold, they are mine.
This stallion and sword in exchange
For my heart and both of my eyes.
The ravens of swift wings my sight.
Surely now victory must be mine.
Eight legged stallion of mine.
Run with the speed of the winds..
Eight legged stallion I stride.
Run as if you carried wings.
I paint thee with blood from my veins.
Images of origin long lost.
I adorn your white mane and tail.
With the stars that fell from the sky.

" THE WOODWOMAN "


Resting by my fire. Looking deep into its flames.
My mind must have been somewhere else.
Far beyond these plains.
I am suddenly aware of a pair
of eyes staring at me.
I turn around and behold the most
ugly thing I have seen.
The woman standing in the glade
like a shadow in the night
Points her wretched finger at me
with a wretched smile.
And she asks me in a voice
that sounds as if it's been so long
since she spoke, if I seek magic,
then I should come along.
I'm but a man. Mortal a man.
But she leaves no footprints in the snow.
Still I follow on to where she is going.
For she has promised me magic if I follow on.
She takes me to a part of these woods
few have ever seen.
Where the sun surely won't reach,
still the ground ominously gleams.
She says she's seen me coming
and that she knows where I'll go.
But befor I leave, she says
there is this one thing I should know.
She offers me the ability
to take a fatal wound.
Every cut by sword or spear will be
absorbed by her tree-womb.
This magic will remain until it's
time for me to part with this mortal world.
And all she'll claim is my young heart.
I'm but a man. Mortal a man.
And I'll need all the help I can get.
So I give my heart to the woman of the dark.
With or without it... my life is not over yet.
Wings of bat and lizzards eye.
Dust of a star fallen from the sky.
Tears of a virgin and the cum of a god.
Thirteen drops of an infants blood.
A twist of a cat's spit and oil of the moon
Stir for a while a very soon.
A salve to be applied upon the chest
close to where the heart beats strong.
No pains will occur when her hand is pushed into
my flesh.
She'll slowly draw my living heart out of my open
chest.
She'll place my heart on the pit of the snake and
behold the years go by.
Hers to keep from the moment when the time has come for
me to die.

" THE LAKE "


The one eyed old man told me that the face that
I will see
Has paralysed a thousand brave men sure of victory.
I cannot fight blindfolded and I'd freeze if I should see.
So I need to sacrifice my eyes to see all from within.
The one eyed old man had told me of a lake that no one
knows of.
Where the end of the sky unites with the bottom
countless feet down deep.
And he told me when this world was young
into its depths his eye he had thrown
So that, though one eyed, he could see more than can be seen.
I'll throw my eyes into the lake
So that I will see from within.
I'll throw my eyes into the lake.
And when blind I will still see.
At the bottom of the lake
My two eyes will shine like the stars.
At the bottom of the lake
I will see no matter how near or far.
Regardless at which speed my horse
takes me through the night.
No matter how sharp the blade
of my sword seems to be.
Even with the aid of two pair
of eyes way up high.
In the end before the Beast its face
I would have had to see.
But with my two eyes in the depths,
my vision is supreme.
I see all things that can't be seen
but not my hand held out in front of me.
The face that makes men freeze
I now need not see at all.
I'll feel the presence of the Beast
but will not need to stare him down no more.
I've thrown down my eyes into the lake
So that I will see from within.
I've thrown my eyes into the lake
And now when blind I still see.
At the bottom of the lake
My two eyes are shining like the stars.
At the bottom of the lake
I now see no matter how near or far.



" GODS OF THUNDER OF WIND AND OF RAIN "


Creator of life. Guardian of the dead.
Goddess of battle and war.
All of yee watch me. My sword by my side.
Proudly I sit on my horse.
And I wait for the sign in the sky to appear
telling me that the moment has come
For me to ride beyond the edge of this world
into the realms where the shadows are strong.
Gods of Thunder of Wind and of Rain.
Valkyries my soul is yours should I fail.
Let my beheaded and battered corps lay.
And take me where you bring all nordsmen slain.
Gods of Thunder of Wind and of Rain..
Hugin and Munin my eyes in the sky.
Heart of mine thrown in the pit of the snake.
I will not need no heart where I go should I die.
Realms of the shadows bring me no fear.
I may stand or be beaten and torn.
The mountains will stand. But the life of a man
was decided long before he was born.
Leaving the plains where my ancestors hunted
for meat and for hides against the cold.
Here the fire was tamed. Here our swords were made.
And here the elders amazing tales told.
I ride into land few have seen or returned from
to tell of its bleakness and dark.
I see nothing but mist and the mountains so tall
I can't tell them and the sky apart.
Gods of Thunder of Wind and of Rain.
Valkyries my soul is yours should I fail.
Let my beheaded and battered corps lay.
And take me where you bring all nordsmen slain.
Gods of Thunder of Wind and of Rain.
Hugin and Munin my eyes in the sky.
Heart of mine thrown in the pit of the snake.
I will not need no heart where I go should I die.
Realms of the shadows bring me no fear.
I may stand or be beaten and torn.
The mountains will stand. But the life of a man
was decided long before he was born.
Gods of Thunder of Wind and of Rain.
Valkyries my soul is yours should I fail.
Let my beheaded and battered corps lay.
And take me where you bring all nordsmen slain.
Gods of Thunder of Wind and of Rain.
Hugin and Munin my eyes in the sky.
Heart of mine thrown in the pit of the snake.
I will not need no heart where I go should I die.

" THE RAVENS "


Steadily on jagged wings.
Feathers black against the burning sky.
Spread your wings and ride the wind.
Gaze down on me with blackest eyes.
Fly my Ravens, fly ahead.
Over the mountains and endless sky.
Fly my Ravens, over my head.
Let the wind carry you up high.
Fly my Ravens, it's time to fly.
And for me maybe to die.

" THE REVENGE OF THE BLOOD ON ICE "


Fifteen years have passed.
Every day in the woods have cried
the words of vengeance and revenge.
The Gods have watched him day and night
by the Northern stars bright light.
Growing stronger. Coming nearer.
Upon a steed as white as snow
he is riding through this land of no return.
His hair blowing in the wind.
A sword in his hand. And his eyes they burn.
Guide me, my Ravens. Find the way
through the woods and snow.
Let your eyes be mine seeking
for the valley of death.
Come this far I am willing
to face the twin-headed beast's breath.
Let your wings be my heart
in the air, black as the night.
I have steel at side. Powers of thunder.
The Gods with me ride.
I trust on my Ravens , watching from above.
Black as night. Swift as lightning
and graceful as the doves.
I trust on my Stallion. Born by the wind.
Taking me through the valley
where this world ends and the shadows begins.
I trust on my Sword. Forged in fire and ice.
Its sharp blade shall be baptised in blood
as I take the Beast's life.
Cry, old crow, cry...
Come out of darkness, you beast of Hel, face me.
Out on this field of moonlit snow.
I will not be deterred by your ugliness.
Before my sword your two heads will roll.
I will not let my sword rest until its steel
has sung for your ugly twin head.
I'll wipe the sweat off my face with your bloody scalps
and watch your four eyes telling me that your dead.

Gathering speed. Charging forward.
Collision is close now.
The swords are drawn, held high,
they flash in the pale blue moonlight.
Aiming at throats bare. The moment is so near.
The time seems to halt for a while.
Even the stars in the sky hold their breath.
This is the moment of glory or death...
The moment to maim or be put to rest...
So close now I almost can hear the black blood
in the beast's thick veins pumping.
I am swinging my sword. May the Gods be with me.
I ride out through the vast portals of Hel.
I swing my sword in the air.
And the dead beast's two bloody scalps attached
to a spear.
Now is come the moment for me to set free
those, along time ago, brought far north
by the twin-headed beast.
On that daybreak when old crow did cry...
That hard winter when I still a child...
By my Father was told of a hall way above the clouds.
Gates open wide for the one who dies
with sword in hand.