Song of Atmora

A song about the history of Atmora and its people, the ancestors of the Nords, composed by the Nord warrior Reinhardt War-Born — brother to renowned Hero of the Pact, Brinsingr War-Born. Reinhardt claims to have personally visited the frozen land of Atmora in our day and age, 2E 583, and learned their history from the men of yore themselves during his past eleven years with them. While his claim lacks any substance, the song still retains the potential to become a favorite amongst the bars and taverns in Skyrim, especially in Eastmarch. “Song of Atmora” goes like so:

In elder days, the world was young;
No mead was drunk, no songs were sung;
The toils of Men were not yet known;
When Atmorans woke, they walked alone.

They ventured over hill and fen,
And walked through lands unknown to Men;
They raised their heads, and saw up high:
Their dragon lords up in the sky.

They knew their gods, and knelt before
The mighty beasts with shaking roars;
A Pact was forged, a union made
With Man and Dov joined for the age.

Atmoran kings sat on their thrones
Their totem beasts carved on the stones
With argent floor to greet their lords
And house their gleaming golden hoards

The hardy wood of oaken trees
Made into ships, to claim the seas
Undaunted by whale, or shark, or tide;
They feared no things the dark could hide.

The forge’s fires burned hot and bright
Where tempered arms were made to fight;
There iron was worked, and care was paid
With runes of might etched on each blade

Their gleaming swords were sharp and pale,
Their armor wrought like Dragon-scale
Atmoran warriors bore them strong
And led the charge, in war and song.

Beneath the dragons, life was fair
They ruled and sat in mountain lair
But peace and life would not long last;
Those distant days of green have passed.

The dragon lords spread wings for flight
To flee the coming frigid blight;
Faced with a foe they could not fight,
Atmora faded in the night.

In modern day, the world is old
The northern lands lay dead and cold
No songs are sung, not small or grand;
A frigid curse has gripped the land.

But all is not like you may think:
Across the Sea, near Jylkurfyk*
Beneath the ice, life yet remains;
Atmora will rise up again.

In places deep, in caverns dark

The men of yore stand tall and stark.

*For the benefit of those who do not know, Jylkurfyk is the name of a large city on the southern coast of Atmora, where Ysgramor was said to have set sail on his legendary voyage to Skyrim on his two great longships: the Darumzu and the Harakk. While the song’s author makes claims that still seem highly unlikely, at least he does not seem ignorant of the Nordic ancestral homeland across the Sea of Ghosts.

“Arctic Tundra”  |  Illustration by Orofjallkuni