Act I: The Death of Balder    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