Vedergällningen [English translation]

I was born before the cockcrow

- My paths are wide

My mother died before the sunrise

- She will have to wait for the sorrow

My father traveled so far around the country

- My paths are wide

So that he found an evil stepmother

- She will have to wait for the sorrow

First she fostered me with needles1

And told me that I would yearn

Then she fostered me with knives

And told me that I wouldn't feel at home [here]

Then she fostered me with scissors

And told me that I wouldn't grow

Then she fostered me with the grey wolf

And told me that I should go to the forest2

She told me that I wouldn't be cured

Before I'd drunk the blood of my brother

So I hid myself under a hillside

Where my stepmother would ride

Then I hid myself under a bridge

Which my stepmother would pass

There, with most of my strenght, I took

My stepmother down from the horse

Then I mustered all my strenght

And took her fetus from her bosom

And then, when I'd drunk the blood of my brother

I became a brave and kind knight

1. "Skapte mig" could either mean "turned me into" or "fostered me", from "skapt" -> "foster, raise" (dialectal)2. This can also be translated as "go to hell". I suspect this is a double entendre based on the idiom "dra åt skogen" -> "go to hell"

• Artist:Garmarna
• Album:Vedergällningen