vii.

Six Sons, Six Candles

Act III — The Bog Released Approx. 4:10

About this track

Track 07 opens Act III on the album’s count-down — the slow erosion of the Eríkssynir across the 960s and 970s as Hákon Sigurðsson Jarl, in coordination with Harald Bluetooth, picks Gunnhild’s sons off one by one. Six sons, six candles: Gamli on the moor at twenty-two, Guthroth in the same year and the same wind, Sigurd at Voss, Ragnfrod on the winter road north, Erling in the wood, and last of all Harald Greycloak, lured to the Limfjord on a lie. The cursing-mother is done cursing — the pouch and the ash of Tracks 04 and 06 are absent, the hearth has gone cold, and the witch only counts. The bridge carries the album’s most careful historical-respect move: she refuses the saga-trope that her own seiðr doomed her sons — “I did not call them. I did not curse. / The years took them back — by no one’s hand but the years.”

Sonically the track is the album’s coldest restraint — 95 BPM mid-tempo descending, palm-muted guitars over a frame-drum heart-beat, the sparsest arrangement on the record after Track 04, with no keening and no funeral-choir warmth anywhere. The mezzo carries Chorus 1 and Chorus 2 entirely solo — the album’s most-withheld women’s chorus, held back all the way to the Final Chorus, because the count-down’s ground is the witch counting alone in an emptying hall. The chorus’s closing line walks from “and I, no less” through “and I, still here” to “and I am Mother still” — the title-claim kept even with no kings left to make it true. The bridge slows to a half-tempo stomp under a bone-flute solo, and the outro plants the album’s last foreshadow before the hard cut: “And I waited for the offer I knew was coming.”

Track 07 of 8 Act III — The Bog Cadence Count-down doom-folk — 95 BPM frame-drum heart-beat, female mezzo solo until the final chorus, jaw harp + tagelharpa + bone-flute bridge, the album’s sparsest engine after Track 04

Verse 1

Two seiðr-chant lines in Old Norse breath, low and dry, then the verse continues sung at a mid-tempo descent — palm-muted rhythm guitars, frame-drum slow heart-beat, jaw harp drone.

Before the bog. Before the offer.
There were six sons — and one by one, the years took them back.
I lit one for Gamli — the moor at twenty-two,
I lit one for Guthroth — same year, same wind,
I lit one for Sigurd — Voss, the sea in spring,
And three brothers fell, and the hall held three flames.

Pre-Chorus

Tightening — jaw harp louder, frame drum heavier, palm-muted guitars climbing.

Three flames burning on the long table,
Three names I will not say aloud —

Chorus

Mid-tempo descending full band, the mezzo solo — no women's chorus yet — palm-muted guitars sustained, frame-drum heart-beat heavy, the lurr horn silent.

Six sons, six candles — six gone in the dark,
Six names I gave them — six the years took back,
Mother of Kings, the kings I made
Are kings no more — and I, no less.

Verse 2

Sung at the mid-tempo descent, palm-muted guitars, frame drum slow, jaw harp drone, tagelharpa entering as a low-drone counter-melody on the candle-lighting.

I lit one for Ragnfrod — road north in winter,
I lit one for Erling — Hákon Jarl, the wood,
I lit one for Harald — Limfjord, the lie,
And six brothers fell, and the hall held six flames.

Pre-Chorus 2

Thickening — jaw harp louder, frame drum heavier, palm-muted guitars climbing.

Six flames burning on the long table,
Six names I will not say aloud —

Chorus 2

Mid-tempo descending full band, the mezzo still solo — no women's chorus — palm-muted guitars sustained, tagelharpa low-drone, frame-drum heart-beat heavy. The closing line mutates.

Six sons, six candles — six gone in the dark,
Six names I gave them — six the years took back,
Mother of Kings, the kings I made
Are kings no more — and I, still here.

Bridge

Drums slow to a half-tempo stomp — pounding with weight, not dropping out. Bone-flute solo over the tagelharpa drone, jaw harp underneath, mezzo low chest. The witch's refusal.

They came back to me one by one —
Not as men, as names, as ash, as wind.
I did not call them. I did not curse.
The years took them back — by no one's hand but the years.

Final Chorus

Biggest stomp — full band, the women's chorus finally locked, tagelharpa escalating, one lurr-horn hit on the thesis-line downbeat. Closes on the two-line couplet.

Six sons, six candles — six gone in the dark,
Six names I gave them — six the years took back,
Mother of Kings, the kings I made
Are kings no more — and I am Mother still.
And six candles burned.
And six the years took back.

Outro

Drums hold one beat, bone flute fading, hard cut.

And the hall grew quiet. And the loom grew slow.
And I waited for the offer I knew was coming.

The history

960s–970s · Norway and Denmark · Gunnhild in her emptying hall, lighting one candle on the long table for each son the years take

Source: Heimskringla — Haralds saga gráfeldar (Snorri Sturluson, c. 1230); Fagrskinna (c. 1220); skaldic verses composed for Hákon Jarl (tenth century)

Named figures

Gunnhildr konungamóðir (G2, ageing — silver at the temples) The Mother of Kings counting her sons home. The album’s grief track keeps her cold and counting — and gives her the bridge’s explicit refusal of the saga-trope that her own seiðr doomed the Eríkssynir
Harald Greycloak (Haraldr gráfeldr) Eldest of the Eríkssynir and king of Norway for nearly a decade with his mother ruling through him. Dies last — lured to Hals at the mouth of the Limfjord by Harald Bluetooth’s false pretext of a meeting and a marriage, and killed there c. 970
Hákon Sigurðsson Jarl Jarl of Lade, the agent of the slow erosion — named once in the lyric as the hand that takes Erling in the wood, but never rendered as the track’s antagonist. The antagonist of Act III is time
Harald Bluetooth King of Denmark, who had sheltered the Eríkssynir through the wars of return and then turned — the lure at the Limfjord, and the offer Gunnhild waits for at the outro

What this song renders

The destruction of the Eríkssynir is firm political history — multiply attested across Heimskringla, Fagrskinna, and Ágrip, with skaldic verses composed for Hákon Jarl preserving some of the kill-events in near-contemporary detail. After c. 970, Hákon Sigurðsson Jarl moved against Erik’s sons in coordination with Harald Bluetooth, who had previously sheltered them; Harald Greycloak was lured to Denmark under a false pretext and killed at Hals on the Limfjord, and Norway passed to the Jarl. The broad arc — the brothers picked off one by one across nearly two decades — is exactly what the count-down compresses.

The count itself is Snorri’s. Six is Heimskringla’s principal tally of the Eríkssynir — Gamli, Guthroth, Sigurd Sleva, Ragnfrod, Erling, Harald Greycloak — though the traditions vary on names, order, and cause: Gamli falls at Rastarkalv to Haakon the Good’s army, and Sigurd Sleva’s death at Voss is told three contested ways. The lyric pins each death to a place and a season without picking a contested cause, and names Hákon Jarl only where the saga requires a human hand. Everywhere else the agent the album renders is time.

What the album refuses is the saga’s most damaging insinuation — that the cursing-mother’s own seiðr hung over her sons’ ruin. The bridge has her deny it outright: “I did not call them. I did not curse.” She claims her cursing-acts where the tradition records them (Stainmore, Fitjar, the nithing-pole duel) and refuses the agency the tradition never proves. The outro then hands the album to its closer: the hall grown quiet, the loom grown slow, and the offer she knows is coming — Bluetooth’s marriage-lure, and the bog at Haraldskær.

Verdict

Documented deaths, sagaic frame. That Hákon Jarl and Harald Bluetooth destroyed the Eríkssynir one by one through the 960s and 970s is multiply-attested political history with near-contemporary skaldic support; the six-count, orders, and causes are Snorri’s and vary between sources. The candles, the count-down, and the witch’s explicit refusal of agency in her sons’ deaths are the album’s — its deliberate answer to the chroniclers’ insinuation.

See the full Truth, Saga & Legend entry →