I use all the forces and let it transpire
I confront the darkness absolute
And blinding, dazzling brilliance

From roaring flames the shapes emerge
Come forth they do with vile charms
Their poisoned core hides in beauty
But I see and perceive their deceit, I see

Into the blaze I shove them back
To lose their forms to the hungry fire
Again and yet again
I start my work anew
Again and again
I start my work again


2. Silver Bride

From the mystic dream of a nighttime
I saw the clarity of my days
From the gates of longing
Looked for the familiar glow
The death of my wife's slayer
Brought no comfort to me
No shape for loneliness
For a dream

A queen of gold I made
A silver bride I built
From the northern summer nights
From the winter moon
Responded not my girl
No beating heart I felt
I brought no sighs to the silver lips
No warmth to the gold

Within my heart a flame of desires
Provoked the power of my will
Forced into silvery shape
A golden queen for me
I made our bed under the stars
Covers a-plenty, bear skin hides
Stroked the arc of golden curves
Kissed the lips of silver

A queen of gold - I made her
A silver bride - I built her
A queen of gold - no heart
A silver bride - no warmth

No life


3. From The Heaven Of My Heart

I who have forged the heavens
I also have my king
To northland I was sent
I was cast to distant Pohjola
Enforced by my king's spells
His orders undenied

From the small crumbs of earth
From a fleece of summer ewe
From a memory of a single seed
From the flair of a swan's feather
I let the milk come seeping from the heaven
Heaven of my heart

There my skills were known to them all
They all knew my name
All knew of my might
And I forged a godly device
A machine divine
The gates of plenty opened by me


4. Sky Is Mine

From my world the sun faded
And the moon from my sky was gone with stars
I came home to a bleak room of sorrow
Forsaken house, place of grief, in solitude

I listened to my heart beating
The faint rush of my blood
I listened to my heart beating
The echoes from space

Something moving in the emptiness
Something drew me near
Someone told me of my future deeds
Whispered them in my ear

The sky stirred
The lights of space flared
Beneath my feet
The living earth started to breath

The sky is mine
This sword is mine
This fate is mine
This miracle, mine

From steel I made the master's sword
Cleaving stone, cliff, a mountain
From darkness I stepped
Onto the path of stars


5. Majestic Beast

In the bowels of rocky mountain
A fiery bird I forged
Forged from iron, from molten steel
A flaming eagle majestic beast

On the wings of my eagle
To black river I flew
To the dale of the dead
To the stream that grinds all flesh

The eagle soared sky high
Touched the vault of heaven
The sky sparkled
Cracked and creaked

The eagle soared sky high
Soared my flaming griffin
The thunder crashed and rolled
Rolled the monster's head

I found a monster, a black giant pike
From it's jaws my eagle saved me
Dragged the fish under the sun
Split it's belly, ripped the head off

I rolled the pike's head to the house of the north
I threw the bony skull at they haughty queen
Here's a throne for you to rest your frozen bones
I have done my share, now keep your promise

I had made the heavens
Forged out a miracle
The snake infested field of death turned over
Slayed the wolf of shadow lands
Shackled the bear of death
I captured the impossible
The pike from the black river


6. My Sun

Slowly turns the key of time
In the lock of promises broken
In mute silence of my space
I crouch under my yearning

The works of my gods receding now
Evade my grasping hands

Her hair I would long to adorn
With glowing stars
Her brow with shining sun
In silver I would trace
The moonshine of her grace
The shining one

Perfection of the skies I knew
And memories of my deeds
Fade away beyond my reach
And change to lonely nights

But ever so slowly
Turns the key of time
In a rusty lock
Of broken promises


7. Highest Star

Under the vault of heavens
I stood alone, waiting
The blaze of silver shining in my eyes
My hands of gleaming gold
The red of iron in my veins
The blue of steel in my bones
The sparkle of blackness of coal in my hair
My chest golden with waved

It is my heaven
It has my eyes
It is my space
It has my shape

I knew it was my masterwork
I felt the strength of gods
Revised the soaring heights
Let the heavens be aligned

I listened with care the place for the moon
Made sure of the tones
Painted through void the route for the sun
Made out the locus of stars
I pierced the distant dome
For the lights to seep through
I checked the curves of borders of all
And placed the highest star

It worked and sun and danced
It shone and gloved and gleaned
It circled, curved and blazed
It pulsed, burned and waned

It flowed from my bones
And bolted from my fingers
And settled on and over me
And made me face my longing


8. Skyforger

Inside this nonexistence
I know very clearly
The directions, all the points
Of every potential quarter

I forge my wisdom
Into an arc surrounding all
I forge my heartbeat
To a dome all heavens wide

I know the sun and the moon
The names of stars
Their movement and purpose
I mark the place of polaris on these impossible heights

I forge the horizons
I craft them for flowing blood
I forge the places
Precise for silver, precise for gold

In solitude, I measure out
The range of barren lands
I drain unto the nothingness
The intersecting curves
I look at all directions
I look at one clear point
I see them all come together
I see into the heart

This here is my place, it is my work
I was made the maker of the sky

I am the maker of the sky
I am the forger of the arc


9. Course Of Fate

Got a maid from the lands of north
A wife from lands of strange
The work of gods was at last replaced
By days and nights of men

She wakes beside me
She stands by me
She stares at our sky
She lives our lives

In the beginning of all time the sounds of war
I sanctified for work
Cries of terror harmonized to a song
Spirits of wrath restrained

And now dead is my wife
Ripped apart by iron teeth
Slashed by the claws of steel
The ancient venom surfaced again

She lies in the ground
She's gone from me
She stares without eyes
She stares at me

Poisoned by the bane of riches
Betrayed by lies manifold
Slain by avenger
The ancient venom turned the course of fate

She woke beside me
She stood by me
She stared at our sky
And lived our life


10. From Earth I Rose

Darkness was my light
Muteness was my tongue
Death was my life
Matter was my spirit

I am a brother to the fire
To fire a brother I am
From breasts of maidens three
I drank the black milk
Devoured the white milk
I swallowed the red milk

Brother to the fire I am
Brother to the fire

I've lain in the dark bowels
Bowels of this marshland
Dead beneath the soil
Under the waters
Oblivious to all
Devoid of all knowing


11. Godlike Machine

[Digipak edition bonus track]

To a strange land, land of Pohjola
I took my gift, I received it from the gods
I melted the knowledge of heaven
From the pieces of my heart I built a golden mill

I made the heavens, I delivered them
I gave the horn of plenty, released them

My king sold me to the northland queen
I forged and gave her a godlike machine
It wasn't enough for the queen of liars
To the river of death I also was sent

The field of death I furroved
I turned the soil black with steaming viper blood
In a forest deep underground
I hunted a wolf and a bear from the shadows

I was offered death as a prize for my great deeds
False words, from the tongue of the northland queen

A heart turned unto me
She whispered the knowledge of gods
And gave the missing words of wisdom
To me, a creator of heavens

A heart turned unto me