Story Behind the Song
Inspired by our dummer's 'Scandimania' and Portugal's best red. Of course I've never been to Iceland, but it did inspire my first extended-length track.
Lyrics
JOURNEY NORTH
1. PREPARATION & ASSORTED READINGS
Þegar Norðmenn fundu Ísland á síðara hluta
níundu aldar, komu þeir að óbyggðu landi.
Með stofnun Alþingis settu þeir á fót lýðveldi, sem stóð þar til um miðja þrettándu öld. Þá hafði um nokkur ár verið ófriður innanlands meðal höfðingja, og endaði hann með því, að landið gekk Noregskonungi á hönd 1264. Með norsku krúnunni komst landið undir dönsk
yfirráð 1380.
2. JOURNEY
We're flying across the sea
Northern lights ahead
Lands of ice, here we come
The journey begins
3. NORTHERN LIGHTS
Instrumental. Clarinet performed by Maria João Tavares.
4. HIGHLANDS
I might as well be on the moon
The end of time is here too soon
The voice of the earth in the magma below
My frozen breath, ice in my eyes
Crystal wind blows from the skies
Crystallised, my bones and my mind
So far away, out here
The horizon so cold
Far from the world
In this barren land of ice
Two-thousand year old lichen grows
On granite and basalt's stony toes
The horizon spreads underneath the white sky
There's no shelter for me to hide
No burrow in this land so wide
So I stand in the wind and the cold and the ice
So far away, out here
The horizon so cold
Far from the world
In this barren land of ice
5. SAGA
Iceland was uninhabited until AD 874, when the Norwegian king Ingólfur Arnarson settled in what is now known as Reykjavík. From then on until the end of the tenth century, the country was settled
from southwest Norway and the Viking colonies of the British Isles. The events of the settlement are recounted
in the Sagas.
It is said that the earth's circle
Which the human race inhabits
Is torn across into many bays
So that great seas run into the land
Thus it's known wide and far
That a great sea goes in
At Narvesund, and up from there
To the land of Jerusalem
To Åsa's son Queen Skade bore
Sæming, who dyed his shield in gore,
The giant-queen of rock and snow,
Who loves to dwell on earth below
From this great sea
A long bay stretches to the north
Called the Black Sea
Dividing the three parts of the earth
North of this Sea lies Swithiod the Great
Reckoned by some as big as Serkland
The iron pine-tree's daughter, she
Sprung from the rocks that rib the sea,
To Odin bore full many a son,
Heroes of many a battle won
In Swithiod are many great domains
And many races of men
There are giants, and there are dwarfs
Blue men, and creatures
There are huge wild beasts,
And dreadful dragons…
6. GEOLOGY
Instrumental
7. SEISMIC WOMB
I lie flat on the ground
My ear against the belly of mother Earth
Crystal echoes below the
Fragile crust underneath my skin
Listen to the shifting
Layers of melting rock
Magma runs in the veins of the land
Breaking the horizon in two
Lava to granite to endless sky
Make this land eternally new
Seismic womb, take me in
Seismic womb, take me home
Seismic womb, take me in
Seismic womb, take me home
8. FEARLESS
We don't care whether the
Earth shakes — sky breaks
As long as the drinks don't fall from the table
We don't mind the cold
The blizzard and the storm
But don't you forget to close the door behind you
We don't care whether the
Ocean rises
As long as the drunks won't drown in the flood
We don't care whether the
Earth shakes — sky breaks
As long as the drinks don't fall from the table
9. FAREWELL
The island lies far behind now
Course is set for the sun
The open ocean ahead now
The journey home
Has begun
10. JOURNEY HOME / WHALES
Instrumental
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