ARCTURUS - 1996
"Aspera Heims Symfonia" [Ancient Lore Creations]
Track List:
 1. To Thou Who Dwellest In The Night
 2. Wintry Grey
 3. Whence & Whither Goest The Wind
 4. Raudt Og Svart
 5. The Bodkin & The Quietus (...To Reach The Stars)
 6. Du Nordavind
 7. Fall Of Man
 8. Naar Kulda Tar (Frostnettenes Prolog)

Facts:
All songs written by Arcturus.
Produced by Arcturus.
Recorded & mixed by Mr. Kristian Romsee.
Recorded at Panser Studios


1. To Thou Who Dwellest In The Night
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Here is so desolate;
Times, they are dark
Words ceas' - to end as echoes rolling afar

Empathy arises
whilst thou drapest this world in black;
The only colour that can paint my soul

Clad in the shades of night
Thou reflects the pure of heart

Amidst all the grief this winter unfoldeth
The thorn in my side - thou retainst

Thy breeze maketh me shiver
Maimeth me with its frozen malice
Thou minglest with the dense night
I hearken to the voice of thy winds
They are the saddest of all sounds of thine
Never will I take leave from thy haunt

Hast thou ever desired me?
I recieve no answer, thou letst it pass in silence...


2. Wintry Grey
++++++++++++++
Frozen streams and vapours grey,
cold and waste the landscape lay...
Then a hale of wind.

Hither-Whirling, Thither-Swilrling,
Spinn the fog and spinn the mist...
Still we walked on through woods and wintry grey,
home through woods where winter lay - Cold and dark...

(Waiting for a change in the weather.
Waiting for a shift in the air.
Could we get there together, ever?
Waiting for our late, late return)

Through the woods. Home through the woods where winter lay...


4. Raudt Og Svart
+++++++++++++++++
Deira dagar har m_rkna
Moder jord meld sitt fraafall
Men sverdet har gaat vidare
Til ein ny b+rar

Me er einsomme menn
Me b+r fenresulvens muspell
Skoll skal sluka sola

Me er djerve menn

Sola svartner
Der fjellvegg ramlar
Naa gjestar sorgen
Paa livets tre (Yggdrasil)

For byleits bror farar
Kva er det ikkje Kampfar klaren?


4. Red And Black (Raudt Og Svart: translation)
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The days have darkened
Mother earth announces her death
While the sword has moved on
To a new bearer

We are lonesome men
We bear the wolf-Fenris Muspell
Skoll shall swallow the sun

We are brave men

Sun blackens
Where mountain's walls collapse
Now guest the sorrow
On the life's tree (Yggdrasill)

For Byleit's brother travels
What is it that the Warfather can't do?


5. The Bodkin & The Quitus - (to reach the stars)
This text is not totally complete and might contain errors.. 
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
These constellations
gleaming at us from afar
They give rise to frigid memories
in my mind
My stellar memetoes are the brightest
signs that twinkle away

Infinity, the faustian spirit,
disheartened, by all
I will never get up there alone
but still I will always percieve
their company
I honor the farthest fall
His fall, I, I...

In my thirst for knowledge
a new kind of thought arose.
Enriched me.
Their weight will always burden me.
As I then fell into reverie.
My (struggling) heart felt it's end,
I lifted the bodkin.
I fall
the final recourse
and the fall, it made me tired, meltdown
I fly

All remembered
They are the reminders of all
All to us unknown, unknown.



6. Du Nordavind
+++++++++++++++
Et blekt avdagsleite
Famler hen, til nattvart himmel
Vandring hjem, til nattsvart himmel
Vandring hjem I eismal
Under skumringens tidligste stjerne
Tusm_rket dypner I det fjerne

Du nordavind, jeg speider fjern og n+r
Kommer du igjen fra de _e land hvor ingen mann er?

Tilsammen - vi to. over beksvart hav

Enn om du aldri hit vil komme
Jeg tilbyi deg mitt kj_lnende blod
Evig vil min sjel skue mot nord
Stundom mitt sinn skal reise
Til tid tar slutt paa jord

Hver en j+vel vill
Som sank I vann f_r tid var til...
Jeg drev forlatt og vandret vill
Ennu har du ikke h_rt mitt hill
I tomme natten skimjet jeg
Et glimt av land, en evig ild


6. You Northern Wind (Du Nordavind: Translation)
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
A pale hour of the day
Grope away, to the night-black sky
Wandering home, to the night-black sky
Wandering home alone
Under evening's earliest star
Twilight sinks in the distance

You northern wind, I'm looking far and near
Will you come again from the wasteland where there is no one?

Together - we two over black pitch sea

Even if you never come here
I can give you my chilling blood
Forever will my soul look at the north
Often my soul shall journey
Until time ends on earth

As wild as a devil
That sank in the water before time was
I walked alone and wandered in the wilderness
Still you didn't hear my call
In the empty night I can see
A glare in the land, an eternal fire


7. Fall Of Man
++++++++++++++
Now there is
my fairytale(s)
of dying flowers

of the earth
and those it covers
of dying maids
and viking men
of birds.. that never
of ever are the same again


8. Naar Kulda Tar (Frostnettenes Prolog)
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Naar vinteren tar bitter fart
Og steiner sprekker I frostklar natt
Ved svarte tjern under naken li
Da er villmarken vond aa ferdes I

Vi befarer store sletter
Der sneen ligger tykk
Det blaaser kaldt - Vi skal d_
Vi har s_rgelig nok forfalt

Fra still tjern
Till hortbetonte vidder
Farvel


8. When The Cold Takes (Når Kulda Tar: Translation)
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
When the winter takes a bitter speed
And stones crack in the frost-clear night
By black lakes under naked slope
Then is the wilderness hard to go through

We walk across vast planes
Where the snow lies thick
It blows cold - we will die
Sadly, we have fallen enough

From still lakes
To far-toned plateau
Farewell