The Serpent's Trail

(album: The Great Heathen Army - 2022)

There's a crack in reality
Inside there is a hidden veil
I sense my fate waits for me
As I descend the serpent's trail

The winding path downwards leads me
Through twisted trees and stinking bogs
I dare not stop to look around me
I'll lose myself in thickening fog

Into darkness, I am drifting
I am losing my direction

Someone told me, keep your feet
If you are to walk this way
A fearless heart with a steady beat
Or else you may be led astray
What you look for, what you seek
Is at the end of this trail
You must walk with a steady beat
Or else you may be led astray
You will drift away

I see shapes of men among the trees
Stuck in a place of frozen glow
They're turned to stone by what they've seen
A pain and fear they can't let go

I spiral down towards the earth's core
Where all my terrors seem to dwell
Where many who have come before
Stumbled, crumbled and they fell

Into darkness, I am drifting
I am losing my direction

Someone told me, keep your feet
If you are to walk this way
A fearless heart with a steady beat
Or else you may be led astray
No return, no retreat
But you will surely find your way
Keep your heart at a steady beat
And you will live to fight another day

And there it is, the river Gjoll
Flowing cold with tears of grief
One cannot swim the river Gjoll
One has to cross the golden bridge

I reach the depths of Nifelhel
Alone, naked, and weak
Then appears the Goddess Hel
Who the dead and wretched keeps

But as I face my deepest fears
I open up my heart
And so a different path appears
My ascension starts