The Names We Carry

Snow keeps the shape of every road we crossed I speak to the dark (and it answers with frost)

Hey! Hey! Hey! Ooh, eeh

I carried their names where the black rivers bend Etched into iron so the dead do not end Each mile took a promise, each winter, a friend Still I walk north when the night has no end

I gathered the echoes the mountains let fall A mother, a brother, a voice from the hall Not ghosts at my shoulder, not chains at my feet They live in the rhytm beneath every beat

(Who keeps the fire when the longhouse is cold?) I keep every story the silence once stole (Who bears the weight when the old banners tear?) We bear it together (the names that we carry)

We carry the names through the wind and the rain Through iron and ember (through hunger and pain) If memory is fire, then ours will not fade (We carry the names) We carry the names

(Le-re-re-eh, le-re-re-ee-eh) (Le-re-re-eh)

No, nah No grave can command me, no blizzard can blind me The past is a blade but its edge is behind me I strike with the truth of the oaths that survived me The drum is my heartbeat, their courage will guide me

Then rise from the quiet, let sorrow take wing The lost are not lost while the living still sing I call through the snowfall, I answer the flame And thunder returns with the sound of each name

(I remember the fallen) I remember the brave (I remember the promise) That outlives the grave (No voice disappears) while another remains

We carry the names through the wind and the rain Through iron and ember (through hunger and pain) If memory is fire, then ours will not fade (We carry the names) We carry the names

(Le-re-re-eh, le-re-re-ee-eh) carry the names Nothing is lost (Le-re-re-eh) (Le-re-re-re-eh, le-re-re-re-eh) Carry the names