HEIMDALL LYRICS

1. Prologue

[Book I - Prologue]

Arms, and the man I sing, who, forc'd by fate
And haughty Juno's unrelenting hate,
Expell'd and exil'd, left the Trojan shore.
Long labors, both by sea and land, he 'd borne,
And in the doubtful war, before he won
The Latian realm, and built the destin'd town;
His banish'd gods restor'd to rites divine,
And settled sure succession in his line,
From whence the race of Alban fathers come,
And the long glories of majestic Rome...
[Aeneid - Book I]

2. Forced By Fate

Hear the tales of the pilgrim man
who faced the hate of the goddess
through the fire and through the storm
to the ancient mother

Through the magic splendour
of carthage and Sicilian lands
through the underworld
to the Lavinia shore

[Chorus:]
For the will of fate – from the ashes of the land afire
Through many tears – hear a new birth will rise

How, o Muse, can heavenly minds
Feel hate for such a brave man?
Through bad omens and hard ordeals
he won the promised land

Through the magic splendour
of carthage and Sicilian lands
through the underworld
to the Lavinia shore

[Chorus]

Through many tears… it will rise

[Chorus]

…through many tears… it will rise…
will rise…
…for the will of fate… it will rise…
will rise…

[STORY]
Seven years passed, seven years of pilgrimage, seven years through
the winds and the storms of the seas, seven years had passed after
that fatal day… the fall of Troy. The fleet of the Trojan people who
had survived that tragedy was sailing from Sicily and now was near
Carthage. Inside them the remembrance and the wounds, that those
days had left in their hearts, were still strong.

Dark in his face and lost in his thoughts, the leader of the fleet stood. It
was Aeneas, the Trojan hero with mortal and divine blood, the son of
Anchises and the goddess Venus. His look was lost in the horizon when,
suddenly, a violent storm shattered the ship. Juno, unable to forget her
wrath towards the Trojan people after the judgment of Paris had favoured
Venus, bribed Aoulus to unleash storm winds on them, compelling them
to put ashore in Africa, near Carthage. Venus appealed to Jupiter for
their salvation and he reassured her about their glorious future and a
golden age to come. Venus appeared to Aeneas disguised as a Carthaginian
huntress and told him of Queen Dido and the settlers from Tyre who
had formed the colony at Carthage, surrounded by potentially hostile
peoples. So, aided by his mother, Aeneas reached Dido, receiving a warm
welcome and hospitality. She, also an exiled, responded sympathetically
to his plight and asked him to tell his story. Venus turned her son Cupid
into Aeneas’ son – Ascanius – to make Dido and Aeneas fall in love and to
ensure consequently his safety. Dido’s passion began to rise…

3. Save You

[Book II – The Fall of Troy]

[STORY]
After Dido’s request, Aeneas told about the deceive of the Trojan horse
and the fall of Troy. He started with the story of the “captured” Greek
Sinon who deluded the Trojans telling that the hose had been constructed
to appease Minerva after their attack on her temple. The only one who
opposed the horse was the priest Laocoön: he spared it but nobody
believed his words. He was attacked and killed, along with his sons, by
two serpents. The Trojans broke down their walls to get the horse inside.
In the night, the Greeks sailed back to the shore and Sinon released the
men from the horse, giving start to the tragedy of the fire of Troy. The
palace was attacked and Priam killed by Pyrrhus, Achilles’ son. In the
meanwhile, in dream, Hector appeared to Arneas and told him to flee the
ensuring destruction and to find a new town, a new place where the glory
of Troy would shine once again. A divine portent appeared over the head
of Ascanius. At first Anchises refused to flee with him and so his words
echoed through the ruins of his own home… Troy:

Son, watch around – this is my home
Now burns in flames and I with her sink
I hear thy voice, fate; I obey thy call
As for my grave, let heaven take care…

[Chorus:]
Save you beyond the dark of this night
Save you beyond this line
Save you beyond the clouds to the light
Save you now it’s my time

My way is written, the same of these ruins
Here, my last elegy – her last sad song
I hear thy voice, fate: I obey thy call
As for my grave, let heaven take care…

[Chorus]

[STORY]
…but that was not his fate… finally, persuaded by the divine force,
Anchises joined his son who carried him on his shoulders. Watched
over by heaven, Aeneas had succeeded in fleeing along with his aged
father, his little son and the Penates, his household gods. Suddenly
Aeneas realized he had left his wife, Creusa, and went back… before
his eyes the desolate scene of Troy… now an immense stake… the
ancient holy temples transformed into a pile of ruins, the majestic and
bright palaces now… blacked skeletons. Searching for her, running,
screaming her name, suddenly he remained sill… not a move, not a
word… a sense of terror ran through is shoulders… in front of him, he
saw the shadow of his beloved wife. She – dead in the ruins – had come
back to him and pophesied his great future…

4. Waiting For The Dawn

[Book III – The Wanderings of Aeneas]

We are lost in these walls of ice
We are lost in this hell
We are lost in these mortal waves
Searching for a light beyond to ride

As bright as a blade – moon, watch over our lives
And show the new way to sail
Thy silver rays be our eyes

From the ashes we’ll arise…

[Chorus:]
Rise – don’t bleed tonight
There’ll be a new day
Don’t fall – waiting for the dawn
Together we’ll arise
Stay side by side
Don’t fall – waiting for the dawn

A new dawn will shine again for us
Dispelling the shades of this night
Erasing those flames from our minds

From the ashes we’ll arise…

[Chorus]

Now, hear the winds…
They will take us far from here
To new horizons and lands
The gods want a new fate for us

[Chorus]

[STORY]
So Aeneas spoke after sailing from Troy. The journey in search of
the promised land began. First, they sailed towards north to Thrace,
then, towards Cete, the cradle of the Trojan race, where a pestilence
forced them to go away. In a dream Aeneas saw Heperia, the land of
the west, as their ultimate goal; so they started a new journey towards
west. They encountered and fought against the Harpies led by Celeano.
They sailed on to Leucas in West Greece and stayed there a year. At
Buthrotum in Chaonia, they were welcomed by the former Trojan
Helenus, who had been enslaved by the Greeks but later freed, made
a king. He prophesied the Italian future and the route to take, including
going to the Sibyl at Cumae. Aeneas departed and sailed across the
Ionian sea to the boot of Italy and on to Sicily. They encountered the
Greek Achaimenides, who told them his story about the Cyclops. They
all had to flee Polyphemus when he appeared, and ended up at Drepanum
on the west coast of Sicily. Aeneas finished his account with the death of
his aged father Anchises.

5. Ballad Of The Queen

[Book IV – Dido and Aeneas]

[STORY]
Though bound by a vow to her husband Sychaeus, Dido fell in love with
Aeneas. Juno got Venus to agree to their union and arranged a hunt and
a storm to take them together into a cave… but Aeneas’ destiny was
different. The father of the gods, Jupiter, through the words of Mercury,
reminded the Trojan of his noble and sacred duty. The cold farewell words
of Aeneas, prompted by Jupiter, caused the anger of Dido who swore
vengeance. Warned by Mercury, Aeneas and his people hastily departed
in their ships. Abandoned and wrapped by pain and desperation, the
Carthaginian queen ascended to the pyre and took her sword, cursing him
and prophesying eternal hatred and war between Carthage and the
descendants of the Trojans…

Why did you find rest here on my shores?
Why did your words light the flame in my heart?
You enemies will be the same that have loved you till tonight
Why are you fleeing taking my soul to distant suns?

[Chorus:]
Hear the ballad of the queen
A melody of pain
Hear my memories and dreams
Hate – for the years to come

I was so foolish to hear your words
The same that now are as cold as blades
Your friends will be your enemies
And the sun will start to cry
Hate will domain between our mates
I swear it to the stars

[Chorus:]
Hear the ballad of the queen
A melody of pain
Hear my memories and dreams
Hate – for the years to come
Hear the ballad of the queen
A melody of cry
Hear my memories and dreams
Damned – for the years to come

The flames burns on into my heart
It does go on… I must stop it
Cold friend, free me under the stars
And give me peace, give me peace,
Give me peace…

6. Funeral Song

[Instrumental]

[Book V – The Funeral Games for Anchises]

[STORY]
Watching the flames in the distance, the Trojans sailed back to Eryx
in Sicily where King Acestes received them. He and Aeneas decided
to hold funeral games to honour Anchises who had died one year before.
When new rays of sunlight shone high in the heavens and when the
stars had already gone away welcoming the birth of a new day, Aeneas
remembered the death if his beloved father Anchises, in the land of Sicicly:

“Once more, hail, my sacred father: hail spirit,
ghost, ashes of my father, whom I rescued in vain
I was not allowed to search, with you, for Italy’s borders,
our destined fields, or Ausonia’s Tiber, wherever it might be”
[Aeneid – Book V]

The image of Anchises appeared to Aeneas, asking to come to him in
the underworld. In the meanwhile, Venus appealed to Neptune to
protect the Trojans during the journey and was reassured by him
that only one man would be sacrificed as they sailed to Italy. This
was the fate of the helmsman, the noble friend Palinurus who was
put to sleep by the god of sleep and fell into the water.

7. Underworld

[Book VI – Journey through the Underworld]

[STORY]
The Trojans arrived at Cumae, in Campania, on the west coast of Italy
where Aeneas searched for the Cumaean Sibyl, the prophetess. She
prophesied war and the trials ahead. Aeneas asked for her help during
the visit to his father in the realm of the dead. She told him to give a
golden bough to Proserpina in order to gain access and to bury one of
his men, Misenus. So Aeneas and Sybil entered the cavern by the lake
Avernus, leading to the underworld. They passed many personified
evils and monsters. Then they saw Dido and her husband Sychaeus.
They also encountered Trojans and Greeks, including Deiophobus, the
third husband of Helen that revealed how Helen betrayed Troy. Tartarus,
on the left way, was descried as a place of suffering and punishment for
those found guilty by the judge Rhadamanthus. Instead, they turned
right. Aeneas placed the bough at the threshold of Proserpina and finally
entered the land of the blessed, Elysium, where the spirits were awaiting
reincarnation after drinking water of Lethe which induced forgetfulness.
There, he encountered his beloved father Anchises…

[Aeneas:]
Walking the shades of the night
Towards an unknown, dark world of fallen tears
Walking through a lonely way
Dismal light like the moon in a grey cloudy sky

[Chorus:]
Underworld – I have come for you
To hear your voice and your words
Underworld – I have come for you
Watch over your son and bless his soul

Anchises:
Son – I’ll show you what’s your fate
What will be born from your deeds –
Painful and hard
You’ll see the kings of the world,
Of the empires to come
They are tomorrow…

[Chorus]

[Aeneas:]
Stand by my side along the way
If I fall take my hand
Please be my guide – show me the light
If I bleed heal my wounds

How many wars will be done for the splendour to shine?
How many tears will be poured for the kingdom to come?

[Chorus]

[STORY]
Anchises revealed him the distant future and the heroes of that
future. After leaving his father, Aeneas re-emerged to the world
of the living, ready to start his journey again towards his destiny…

8. Gates Of War

[Book VII – Italy: The Promised Land and the Outbreak of Wat]

[STORY]
Reassured by this vision and the words of his father, Aeneas landed
near the Tiber’s mouth in Latium and, on the basis of the signs that
had been foretold, he recognized the promised land…

He made a pact with the king of the Latins, Latinus, to guarantee the
safe and peaceful future of both peoples. To celebrate this alliance,
he offered Aeneas his daughter Lavinia in marriage… but goddess
June burled her wrath against the sacred pact, stirring up discord and
war.

First of all, she infected Queen Amata, Latinus’ wife, with resentment
at her husband’s decision. Secondly, she sent the Fury Allecto, the
demon of discord, to stir up the king of Rutulians, Turnus, who was
betrothed to Latinus’ daughter. The sacred pact was broken and the
dynastic marriage, arranged between Aeneas and Lavinia, was called
off… the gates of war were thrown open while Latinus couldn’t do
anything to avoid it.

So, a powerful coalition of Latin peoples marched on the Trojan camp,
including the tyrant Mezentius and the Volscian warrior-maiden Camilla.
The biggest army never seen from the times of Achilles and Hector…

On the plain – look
to the sunshine burns
The shadow of mars returns
His altars arise
Here it comes – the time
to be brave is at hand
Shields, lances and swords
Twirl high in the air

[Pre-chorus:]
Now the gates of war
are forced by the Queen
Come down from the holy skies

[Chorus:]
Day after day, remember this time
They are marching on to blood and tears
Day after day, remember this time
For the glory and life after death

Holy muse, may my chant celebrate
of these and ancient times
the heroes and kings
May I sing – keepers of memories
the greatest war never see
from Troy’s times

[Pre-chorus]
[Chorus]

9. Hero

[Book VIII – Aeneas at the Site of Rome and the Divine Gift]

[STORY]
Confusion reigned… Tiber, the river-god, after the prayers of Aeneas,
appeared to him in a dream, encouraging him and promising to assist
his ships upstream. Besides, he advised the Trojan hero to ally with
King Evander, son of Mercury and therefore kin. He was the leader of
Arcadians who lived in the place where foundations of Rome would
stand, Pallanteum on the Palantine Hill. So Aeneas encountered Evander
who assured his support. The king – simple and noble – told the Trojan
of his glorious and heroic past and the history of his land. While touring
the landmarks of the future Rome, he recalled the golden age, Hercules
victory over the half-man monster Cacus, the figure of Saturn that gave
local law and order and the name of Latium. They became friends, so
that the king turned his beloved son Pallas over to Aeneas to become a
warrior. Suggested by Evander and with the help of Pallas, Aeneas allied
with the Etruscan coalition that had risen up against Mezentius, the cruel
tyrant of Caere, now expelled, and ally of Turnus. In the meanwhile Venus
had appealed to her husband Vulcan to make a suit of armour for Aeneas.
So she gave her son the divine gift, a set of armour forged by Vulcan and
his Cyclops, the shield of which was decorated with scenes from future
Roman history and triumphs. She told him not to fear war… he would
become, of that age, the hero…

Yesterday the world only knew confusion and chaos
A new culture now is going to start
A new lord is sitting on the throne
The glory shining on

[Chorus:]
In your eyes – there is the light of a god and a warrior

Yesterday brothers killed each other moved by hate
Now the same will fight under one crown
So the way is drawn – the stars are clear and be like that

[Chorus:]
In your eyes – there is the light of a god and a warrior
In your eyes – there are the holy signs of the hero

Hear the roar of the streams
The storm of wind will sweep away everything
The masters watch over you
Blessing your soul by their shining eyes

In this silence, my hero
Your word will be the guide
Towards the glorious,
Awaited age of gold
In this darkness, my hero
Your eyes will show the way
Beyond the clouds and shadows
of this night

[Chorus]

10. Night On The World

[Book IX – Attack on the Trojan Camp]

During Aeneas’ absence, Juno sent Iris to Turnus to tell him that the
moment for attack had come. So accepting the divine call to arms, he
and his troops marched on the Trojan camp, alongside the river. The
Trojans, according to the instructions of Aeneas, didn’t respond to
Turnus’ challenge, remaining behind their walls. In the meanwhile,
Nisus and Euryalus, close friends, decided to pass through the enemy
lines in order to reach and warn Aeneas. In the silence of the night,
they fell upon the sleeping enemies, killing many of them, but when
their journey started, Euryalus was discovered and caught. Nisus, who
had managed to escape, returned but he could not save his friend and,
after heroically avenged him, met his death. The Trojans saw the heads
of these brave warriors impaled on enemy spears… the battle started
again…

Look up the horizon
The heavens blacken
The screams tear the silence
Watching above – the moon
No light here in this lonely land

I’m in the dusk
Watching the world fall
Still in the darkness

[Chorus:]
Burning down
The gods are crying for our fate
Burning down – night falls down
here on the world

The armies clash tonight
The bloody swords twirl without rest
Fragments in black and white
Silver tears rain down from the skies

I’m in the dusk
Watching the world fall
Still in the darkness

[Chorus]

11. All Of Us

[Book X – Aeneas at War]

[STORY]
With the Trojan camp under siege, Aeneas returned with his allies and
called his companions together, his words echoed around the whole plain
and pierced like arrows of fire, the hearts of men who were listening to him:

I’m with you to celebrate this day
I’m with you to draw a new world paint
I’m with you when pride will be our god
and when the black clouds will cover the sky

United together
Under the noble flag…

[Chorus:]
All of us – in this magic age
We are marching and marching on
The hardest way
All of us – in this mystic place
Revolution is calling our names

I’m with you in these shady plains
I’m with you in for deliverance
I’m with you when the dawn lights us
and when the blood-stained curtain falls down

United together
Under the noble flag…

[Chorus]

[STORY]
Led by his noble and brave words, they fought with honour and courage
and, despite the fact that they were in minority, they conquered victory.
But this clash saw many deaths in both armies. Turnus killed the young
and brave Pallas, Aeneas’ ally and dear friend, stripping him of his sword
belt, as a reminder of his victory, and Aeneas killed Mezentius, Turnus’
strongest ally, and his son Lausus.

12. Away

[Book XI – The Despair of the Latins]

[STORY]
The battle paused for funeral rites for the numerous victims. After his
first victory, Aeneas mourned the death of his dear friend Pallas:

Away in the sky where the heroes live
There – thy spirit runs
Our hearts on a bed of thorns
Bleeding, pray for you and cry
You leave them alone

Fly, noble warrior
to the right arms of the gods
Fly, noble warrior
beyond the sun and the clouds
Fly to the high gold world
Thy armour shines on like thy value and pride
Fly noble and dear friend
While the silver rain goes on falling down

Away in the sky thy spirit flies
while these tears say goodbye…

[STORY]
After the funeral, Pallas’ body was taken to his father, King Evander,
who cried for the death of his beloved son and called for Turnus’ death
while pyres consumed the bodies of the deceased. In the council of the
Latins, the kings expressed their will to stop the war against the Trojans,
suggesting to make a treaty with them or, in alternative, to end the
conflict with a single combat between Turnus, as he was largely responsible
for it, and the chief of Trojans, Aeneas. Turnus who was not ready to
concede defeat, accepted the challenge. The council was interrupted by
the news that the Trojans and Etruscans were advancing. Turnus called
the men to arms. The battle began. It was once again cruel and bloody
and saw the death of another Latin hero, the noble virgin warrior Camilla.
At the end Turnus, defeated, retired with his warriors…

13. The Last Act

[Book XII – The Final Combat]

[STORY]
It was the time… Turnus decided to face Aeneas in a single combat…
Aeneas accepted… in his hands not only the destiny of Lavinia, but
above all the destiny and the future of his people. Too many warriors
have died in this war, too much blood was spilled… Aeneas invoked
the victory for the birth of a new breed where the Latins and the
Trojans could join and live together… At dawn, both armies gathered
on the plain for the coming battle between the two champions…

[The Last Act (The Combat of Aeneas and Turnus)]

The sun’s just started his march
and the clouds darken the plain
Look – the swords high in the sky are ready to fight
The winds brush their skins
Now no move – eyes to eyes
Honour, pride, fates of their mates
in a single fight

[Pre-chorus:]
Hear the force of the winds
An era is dying
Hear the rumbling of thunders
The sound of the blades

[Chorus:]
Master of the thunder
Their future in your hands
Master of the thunder
It’s the birth of the empire

The king is on the ground
Now defeated, bloody, unarmed
Praying for a noble burial
or his life to be speared
Around him, holy and bright
The sword – belt of his friend shines
Blinded by anger, Aeneas slays the foe

[Pre-chorus]
[Chorus]

The storm is near
The hero fights alone
Aeneas slays the foe blinded by anger







HEIMDALL LYRICS