FAWM: "Merseburg Charm II"

Merseburg Charm II

2025 by @ryuu

Liner Notes

Last year, my wife brought back a beautiful bouzouki from a work trip to Greece. I borrowed it tonight to make this rather spontaneous recording of an almost improvised song.

I love using ancient texts in modern music. It sometimes almost feels like a dialogue through time. This song is an example of my love for ancient sources: The lyrics are the second Merseburg Charm, an incantation written down some time in the 9th century.

(Also, hey, I get to add another language to the list of languages I've sung in!)

#old-high-german #nonenglish #pagan #acousticonetake

Lyrics

Phôl ende Wuodan fuorun zi holza. dû wart demo balderes folon sîn fuoz birenkit. thû biguol en Sinthgunt, Sunna era swister; thû biguol en Frîja, Folla era swister; thû biguol en Wuodan, sô hê wola conda: sôse bênrenki, sôse bluotrenki, sôse lidirenki: bên zi bêna, bluot zi bluoda, lid zi geliden, sôse gelîmida sîn.

===================== Translation

Phol and Wotan were riding to the woods, and the foot of Balder's foal was sprained. So Sinthgunt, Sunna's sister, conjured it, and Frija, Volla's sister, conjured it, and Wodan conjured it, as well he could: Like bone-sprain, so blood-sprain, so joint-sprain: Bone to bone, blood to blood, joints to joints, so may they be glued. (as given by Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merseburg_charms)

Comments

@aeye 2025

I really like how you brought this life. This works perfectly with your voice and instrument. Kinda makes me feel like I should be sitting in a dimly lit stone tavern.