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Land of the Setting Sun

from Land of the Setting Sun EP by Isenmor

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    CD version of Land of the Setting Sun EP. Features art by Knud Baade and John Charles Dollman.

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about

"Land of the Setting Sun" is loosely based on the viking expeditions to the new world at the beginning of the 11th century CE. The title refers to North America, the land far to the west, beyond the setting sun for those still in Europe. While this term does not appear in any of the extant literature (to our knowledge), it is based on the mythology surrounding the sun, and our imagining of what a pagan viking might have thought when venturing to the west. The vikings did not know the earth was round, and their mythology described the sun as being pulled in a chariot by the mythical horse Skinfaxi (Shining Mane). That a pagan viking might have thought he was venturing to the same land that the sun traveled to during its trip across the sky seemed a reasonable enough scenario for us to make a song on it. The song is riddled with references to the Norse myths surrounding the sun, but funnily enough, and contrary to popular belief, Christianity had reached Greenland before Leif Erikson's expedition, and Leif as well as many or all of the vikings who reached North America were Christians, not the noble pagans we normally imagine. In addition to referencing the historical event, with special considerations for those voyagers who kept to the old ways, the song is also an ode to the human drive for discovery and adventure that led the vikings to North America, and leads people to new discoveries even to this day.

lyrics

At the end of day
There must be a place
Where Shining Mane
Stops his chariot to rest

Beyond the icy seas
No man has ever crossed
A hidden land must lie
Where the sun waits for the dawn

Tearing glaciers, raging seas
Screaming winds lie between

Though dangers there may be
This land is within reach
For men who have the will
To brave the treacherous sea

To leave their hearth and home
And families behind
To set out on the waves
With likely death to find

To the Land of the Setting Sun
Far across the raging seas
Over Jörmungander’s deep
We make our place in history

Sail to the west
To unknown shores
Will you find death
Or a place to call home?

What you shall find
No man can know
But if you don't seek it
Then none ever shall

So cast up sails
And see to the oars
No land shall be spared
From the Men of the North!

At the end of day
There must be a place
Where Shining Mane
Stops his chariot to rest

And why should this land
Stay unseen by men
If there are those who
Will voyage to the west?

For as long as there are men
Who yearn to prove
their worth
And seek out the unknown
We shall always find
new shores

The land of the sun’s rest
Shall not be the end
For the fire in man's mind
Is ever hard to quench

credits

from Land of the Setting Sun EP, released October 14, 2016

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about

Isenmor Baltimore, Maryland

ISENMOR is dual-violin-fronted Gewyrdelic Folc Metal. Combining elements of folk metal greats ENSIFERUM, HEIDEVOLK, ELUVEITIE, FALKENBACH, and TÝR, ISENMOR fuses the heart of the Old World with the spirit of those who sought out new shores.

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