Amorphis The Beginning Of Times 1. Battle For Light 2. Mermaid 3. My Enemy 4. You I Need 5. Song Of The Sage 6. Three Words 7. Reformation 8. Soothsayer 9. On A Stranded Shore 10. Escape 11. Crack In A Stone 12. Beginning Of Time 13. Heart's Song 1. Battle For Light She robbed the moon from the sky Derailed the sun off its course Inside her mountain enchained the light She took the wisdom for her own The sun no longer shines on us No silver moon reflects The stars no longer give their light To help us find our path I’m thrown on barren wastelands In feverish swamps I’m lost I stagger through white-rimed lands I drown in diseased black mire I fight the forces, forces of dark and cold Upon the witches I cast my spells I strike with a sword, touch with a feather And sing my song into the night Beyond the heaven, the highest one The god supreme smites with his sword Into the sea falls fiery star A pike of deep swallows the spark Skyforger, come to my aid The Magicsmith, by my side Daughter of creation The tiny man from the sea Ilmatar the ancient Mighty ocean-dwarf Skyforger by my side Thunder and lightning We find the hidden moon Release the mountain-bound We light the wisdom of the heart The sun dawns anew 2. Mermaid On the blue waters of mermaids I was sailing on the blue Brought up a catch of strangest wonder On the blue And I drew my knife to gut What I had taken from the blue But it was gone, back to the lake And vanished into the blue The waters, they parted As she rose to shine She was my maid, my wife-to-be Returned to me this one time I did not know her, I made her flee Flee from me Beneath the waves and marbled rocks Watery canyon of blackest depths My hope was sunk My dream taken away Woe to you, she said to me As she broke cover of the blue Don’t you know me? I couldn’t be yours after all I never knew 3. My Enemy He set out to take my life And the power of my soul His spells against my might My wrath he did ignite Your brain replaced by mine Your mind changed into mine You lose sight of yourself Your world no longer yours The lightning of my eyes crumbles you My fingers as snakes drag you to mire The trembling earth now melts under you Your legs turn to sludge from my ire I feel your feelings now I know now what you knew I see how you have lied Plunge you into your grave Under the ground I force you To Underworld I curse you To arms of death deliver And damn inside a rock Remorse is useless there And mercy never shown Bribery’s futile there No promises hold No one feels your pain No one there will listen No one takes your hand No one helps you now But I will show him mercy Let him return to life I will show him mercy I will let him go back 4. You I Need I was born as all the world here was born As tones, words and stories of the primeval song I need no bow, I need no sword My kingship’s known to gods Let their song go on I need you to be the guide The mirror to the sky and sea Portray all above and below The gate of life and death The sea of my loneliness It needs to have a sky To go with my story I also need to have your words Like a king has his moon A queen has her sun To make the song go on Make the song go on The creator of gods Make the song go on and on On and on Be my guide of life and death 5. Song Of The Sage No man nor a god, with a sword he carved With a feather he conjured An instrument from the bone of fish A kantele from the jaws of a pike Sat on a golden rock, on a bank of a golden river By the brink of golden falls, under the golden sun The birds flew to the singer The wildfowl from the open sea The fingers plucked the brightest chord Tolled the fangs of a pike The colours of rainbow lighted Above the silent waters Came forth the woodland creatures, the spirits great and small The mistress and the master of Tapiola, forest folk Behind a cloud of blue, the moon wove the strands of silver On the edge of the cloud of red, the daylight gilded the cloth The small fish in the shallows, the big ones under the surface The king of waters, on the waves, the queen on an open sea From distant fens came the swans An eagle from its heaven high Each one comprehended and understood Each one shed a tear, they wept and cried Each and every tear, tears of everyone All joined to flow into the silent waters The golden stream of life carried the tears to the sea To oceans’ deep keeps the pearls were concealed. 6. Three Words From all the four corners From the heights beyond the changing skies From in between the golden stars From lands of dead below I seek the magic for my spell The power for my charm For want of three words For want of three words for my song Three words for my magic song A boat for love I’d carve Three words for my magic song A craft of life I’d build Along the Tuoni pathway To gloomy shore Across the lands of dead To find the missing charm Death’s maiden showed the way To death’s grim abode Where death’s wife offered me Death’s drink to have Three words for magic Three words from Death 7. Reformation When I am broken, when I depart When my eyes stray from yours When I no longer know you, my love When I am broken, when I depart Fear not for me, weep not for me For finally I am released Fear not for me, weep not for me To the heaven of all earths I am released When from my head my mane is torn When my hair is blowing in solar wind When into my eyes driven are the nails When weighted boots march across my grave Don’t you fear 8. Soothsayer I rose and raised, the others with me, too I shared the ancient wisdom And taught the ways to be I sang the charms of stars And sowed the land with strength I set the abodes for men And steered the rightful roads Within my being sings the god on high The glimmer of stars in my bloodstream I am the abyss, I am the bridge I am the sky, I am the land I feel the communion Of the largest and the least The way from death to life The path of stone and gold I live on wings of eagle I know the secrets of seas My forms countless Like words, names and stars I’ve been here from the beginning Echoes and tones I understand Eternal poems of nonexistence The birthwords of time’s beginning 9. On A Stranded Shore Silk of blue woven by the moon Red spun by the sun Of the sun’s gold Silver in wrists and in her rings Hair braided in red Her shoes featherlight As reeds and straws on the shore As bark and foliage As clamshells and sand My maiden’s flesh Now fish in the lake deeps Her blood now waters blue Oh god of sleep Tell in my dream Where has my maiden gone Where lies my mermaid now Rise above the waves From the waters’ grave From the side of spottled stones Become alive again These shores are for memory These waters not for baiting No shallows for the thirsty No sun beheld above these shores No reflection of the moon on these waters here My maiden’s hair Grass on the waters’ edge Now willows on a shore 10. Escape Therein lie the nets of iron Snares of copper made They offered drinks that lull to sleep Of everlasting chains But I changed my mortal shape And took the form of a snake I swam through the nets of deception Crawled back to life again Death bestows no wisdom No might from death endowed They say there’s no return but I Made my way back home Back to life I was there among the shadows Who whispered put their screams I was transformed by the strength Of my will to live Death bestows no wisdom No might from death endowed There is no return, no way To ever walk back home Death bestows no wisdom No might from death endowed They say there’s no return but I Made my way back home Back to life 11. Crack In A Stone In the North, a prisoner of darkness In black court, a victim of sleep Slither like a snake I tried A mole under the soil A king, a fool trapped in a strange land A slave of the black queen I was under the darkest magic Bound by an unknown spell The one crack in the stone I need Just the one, one fracture in the wall Just the one hole in the sky I need Just the one lock with the key An otter lost in muddy waters An elk upon strange trail A prisoner in black court A victim of sleep in lands of dark One path there to be known One sign in a dream In time just one direction One star in my mind One path One sign One star One lock One key One crack in the stone 12. Beginning Of Time I have a wish to sing Of time before the beginning When nothing was all But how to sing of nothing? So I sing of the beginning The birth of all creation The borders of nothingness The substance of inception The solitude of space my uncaring mother My father salt of the sea Still unborn I remained Unopened the narrow gate Unborn in my hiding place No release by my maker Wrapped around my darkness I knew my that time was waiting I felt the passage of days and nights And northern stars The solitude of space my uncaring mother My father salt of the sea The void and infinity were never ending Time had no beginning The songs were born into my mind The knowledge of the stars The stories before and after The spells of war and peace The birth of the world was my birth too I found the land, began the time From shorelessness of the sea From underneath the space I have a wish to sing Of time before the beginning… 13. Heart's Song [Bonus track] The spirit of clouds I am... and the spring creeks singing... A stillness within a river great... A rainbow on the falls... A blackness of waters... The spirit of man... In a warrior straw-haired I am not a god... I am not a god... A man I'm not... I am my people, the song of my tribe... The wisdom and the skills... A sword turned into poem... I am the oaken sage... The bone-hurting one... The boulder on some riverside... The eye of the golden hawk... The embrace of red bear... The song in the heart... In the heart of the man... I am not a god... I am not a god... A man I'm not... I am my people, the song of my tribe... The wisdom and the skills... A sword turned into poem... I am not a god... I am not a god... A man I'm not... I am my people, the song of my tribe... The wisdom and the skills... A sword turned into poem...