Autumn came to an end   And the first snow began to fall   Balder's face was clouded   The dreams of warning had called   His mother sought oaths   From all this below the sky   To not to hurt her son   To not to let him die      Balder stood there encircled by gods   Thrown with stones, spears and hit   With sword   No damage they had caused, not a wound   In jealousy Loki disguised to find   Why there was no harm   The mother told him that all the things   On the earth   Had sworn an oath not to harm nor   Kill her son   'All? ', he asked and then she told him   That only one was too young to swear   And mistletoe was the one      So Loki went across the frosted land   To an ancient tree where mistletoe grew   He cut off a piece and   Returned to the plain   Where gods were still enjoying their game      Loki saw Hodur the Blind sitting   Outside the ring watching   The god's game   Loki gave him the twig and offered   To guide his hand   Pleased Hodur stepped forth   And threw the twig across the plain   It hit Balder's chest piercing   His bright body and he fell   Onto the ground in blood   The laughter and the joy ceased   When Balder's blood spilled   On the pure snow of Asg†rd      [Act II: A Farewell to the Son of Odin]      Balder was set into his ship   And there he laid cold   With his wife beside him   On his breast were all his possessions   Placed carefully   As the ceremony began   The sun sank low over the icy sea   Two ravens circled   In the clear blue sky   Singing their sadness   Thor raised his hammer   And blessed the pyre   Waves carried the ship far to the sea   There it burnt bright high   Against the darkening sky   Odin stood... tears falling from his eyes      [Act III: Hermod's Ride to Hel]      Through dark howling valleys   Of wind swept desolation   Hermod rode alone   Towards the land of death   Sleipnir's hooves in fire   Nine days, nine nights   Hermod rode to Hel      On the farthest shore of Gjoll he came   The bridge keeper waited Modgud   Her name   He asked for the release of Balder   His brother   She recalled and showed him the path   Into the dark      Hermod arrived to the palace   At the Hel's table among the dead   He found his brother sitting   Hermod told Balder   He had come to take him to Asg†rd   That night they sat   Chatting and recalling past times      He went to Hel and begged her   For Balder's release   Telling her that all mourned   For his decease   She promised, if all things weeped   For him   He'd be free to return   Through the valleys so dim      Hermod returned and told the gods   What Hel had said   So messengers were sent to   All over the world   And all the world wept   For their Balder beloved   Only one old woman refused:   'Let Hel keep what she had'      [Act IV: The Bounding of Loki]      Soon the gods found   That old woman was Loki   Revenge they swore   And begin to hunt him   Loki spent days as a salmon in waters   Or as himself in a house   Once the gods found Loki hiding   In a river   When he jumped to escape   Thor caught him into his fist   The gods took him to a deep cavern   With his sons   One day changed into a wolf   And the wolf devoured other son's body   The gods took his intestines   And with them bound Loki to rocks   Skadi hung a snake above Loki's head   Venom dripping into his mouth   So great was the pain   That when Loki writhed   All th worlds shook and trembled...      [Act V: The Final Battle]      After Balder's death   The gods withdrew from the earth   Evil spread and Fimbulvetr arrived   Battles raged all over   The wolves rose   One devoured the sun   One the moon   Stars fell crushing onto the earth      Fenris broke his chains   Midgard heaved his body   Drowned the land in waves   Washed the battlefields bloody   Giants marched   Fenris approached   Gjallarhorn's alarm   Echoed in the air      The armies of dead marched   Lead by Loki the avenger   The battlefield of Vigrid   Will soon bathe in blood   Odin rushed   With a spear in his hand   Behind him came   The heroes of Valhalla      And the battle began   God against giant   And giant against god   The brave armies clashed   After a long battle   Both giants and gods   Laid on the ground   Never to rise again...      [Act IV: A New Heaven, A New Earth]      All the earth burnt in flames   In times the flames will die   One man and one woman survived   And they shall bleed a new race   Vidar and vali will walk upon   A new heaven   They'll live upon the Ida plain   Where Asg†rd once was   And re-build it to be   Far greater than before   Children of thor will bring   Their father's hammer   And Balder will return bright   Leading the gods in the new age   ...The new age under the sign   Of the hammer