The Disappearing Hagalaz
Hagalaz - Poem One - Veiðimenn Fókusar
Hagalaz: The Disappearing
The cold bites through my wool. I press my thumb to the frost on the bark.
The elders stay by the hearth. They speak of the quiet woods. They do not hear the pounding in my chest. It is louder than the winter wind.
I cross the fire line. I leave the village behind.
The snow is deep. My boots crush the ice. Hunger pulls me forward. I am only breath and bone.
I reach the tree line. The sky is dead white. The pines are black iron.
Ravens circle above. They watch the hunt. They wait for the kill.
I see the shape in the mist. It is heavy and still.
I draw the string. The tension cuts my fingers. My arm locks. I hold my breath. I am ready.
The mist moves. The shape shifts.
My hand waits to loose the string. The release never comes. The shape dissolves before my fingers can know it. It scatters in the cold glow of the dawn.
I lower the bow. The string slaps my wrist. There is no blood on the snow. There is no snapped twig.
I walk to the empty shadow. Nothing is there. The forest keeps its secret.
A wind drops from the pines. It hits my chest. It feels older than my father. It is older than the feast and the death.
It passes through my ribs. It leaves a weight I cannot see. It strips my name away.
I stand in the cold. My hands are empty. The dark speaks my shame back to me.
I am changed. I am the same. I am still hungry.
The Lyrics
[Verse 1]
The elders spoke of stillness
As if the woods were blind
But I heard my own heart pounding
Past the fire line
I pressed my thumb to frost
Like they taught me when I was young
Read the earth in silence
Till the cold bit my tongue
[Pre-Chorus]
Beyond the last pine branch
There is no village song
Only breath and bone and hunger
Only the way things go wrong
[Chorus]
At the tree line
At the tree line
I lost my name
At the tree line
At the tree line
The dark spoke back my shame
[Verse 2]
Ravens held the ceiling
Black marks in the drift-white sky
I drew the string with purpose
Held my body still and hard
Then the mist took the shape
Before my hand could know
No snapped twig, no blood to follow
Just the dawn in its cold glow
[Pre-Chorus]
I searched the empty shadow
Where the beast should have stood
But the forest kept its secret
Like a mouth full of old blood
[Chorus]
At the tree line
At the tree line
I lost my name
At the tree line
At the tree line
The dark spoke back my shame
[Bridge]
A wind came through the pines
And it knew me by my breath
Older than my father
Older than the feast and death
Something passed through my ribs
Not fury, not fear
A weight with no face at all
And it left me standing here
[Final Chorus]
At the tree line
At the tree line
I lost my name
At the tree line
At the tree line
I came back changed the same
At the tree line
At the tree line
The woods called me by flame
