Assassin's Creed: Valhalla: Dawn of Ragnarök soundtrack

Assassin's Creed: Valhalla:Dawn of Ragnarök(Original Game Soundtrack)
Composer(s)	Stephanie Economou Einar Selvik
Arranger(s)	Stephanie Economou
Producer	Stephanie Economou
Release date	10 March 2022
No. of discs	1
No. of tracks	24
Length	50:09 53:11 (with bonus track)
Link	iTunes Spotify Amazon

The Assassin's Creed: Valhalla: Dawn of Ragnarök soundtrack is a collection of music tracks written by American composer Stephanie Economou that were used as background music in the Assassin's Creed: Valhalla downloadable expansion Dawn of Ragnarök. The album also features backing vocals by Norweigan composer Einar Selvik, American singer Ari Mason, and American folk metal group Wilderun. It released digitally on 10 March 2022.

At the 65th Annual Grammy Awards on 5 February 2023, the album won the first Grammy Award for Best Video Game Soundtrack, an entirely new category created by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences to recognize the impact of music in video games and other interactive media. Later at the Fourth Society of Composers & Lyricists Awards on 15 February, the album won the award for "Outstanding Original Score for Interactive Media".

Background

Word on Economou's involvement in the soundtrack was first made public, albeit obliquely, in an early May 2021 interview with concert entertainment site CineConcerts regarding her work scoring the music for Jupiter's Legacy, a Netflix show based on the comic series of the same name. When asked if she had any other projects after Jupiter's Legacy, Economou revealed that she had just finished writing the score for The Siege of Paris and was also working on another undisclosed work for the Assassin's Creed series.

On 11 February 2022, a month before the March debut for Dawn of Ragnarök, the tracks "Svartalfheim", "Forsaken", and "Stranger in a Strange Land" were released for preview online. There was no further news on the album until 3 March, a week before the expansion's launch, when its main theme was unveiled for preview on YouTube. The next day, a 3-track EP by Einar Selvik titled Blood, Fire, Tears was also released for download. Its songs were based on various Old Norse texts, and in late April, their official lyric and translation videos were uploaded to YouTube.

In April 2022, Lakeshore Records announced that they would be making a limited-run production of the main album and the EP together on two vinyl records with printed sleeves, promotional art prints, and the 3-minute exclusive track "The Seeker" not included on the main album. The set was priced for March pre-order at $35 USD and regular April release at almost $50 USD. It shipped out at the end of September 2022.

Composition

In a podcast episode with Lakeshore Records, Economou explained that as someone who had played games like Halo and Max Payne long before she was composing, she knew from experience that players were incredibly attuned to the music of their games. In contrast to a film, where the score is maybe a few hours with a set start and end point, video games have cues that repeat many times when someone plays, allowing them to pick up small details every time they turn on their game system. When she wrote the album, she wanted to make it just as memorable for listeners as other scores by Jesper Kyd and Sarah Schachner that were regularly praised in YouTube comments sections.

Unlike when Economou wrote the soundtrack for The Siege of Paris, which required her to research medieval Frankish instruments and how to play them, Dawn of Ragnarök returned to Valhalla's more mythical element that had no reality to base it in aside from Old Norse texts. However, she said in an interview that the writing revealed a different side of herself and her artistic processes. While Economou still made use of her experience with the tagelharpa from when she wrote Valhalla's albums, the creative team had discussed with her the idea of using the Norwegian style of black metal for the cues.

In Economou's view, Dawn of Ragnarök's story was emotional in its core as Odin's journey of vengeance against those who captured Baldr paired with his yearning to find his son. To convey it through music, the album weaved between the black metal and neofolk genres, with the metal's rough, often-distorted, and fast songs about destruction and rebirth balancing out with neofolk's grating, mechanical sounds backing unexpected lyrical references to archaic literature. Contrary to her initial impressions, she found that traditional Nordic music and black metal were not entirely dissimilar. Both styles relied on raw production sound from live performances rather than clean results made in recording studios, and while the folk music used fewer acoustic instruments, black metal also had its share of ambient melodies and harmonies.

The exploration cues had neofolk influences from when Economou would improvise on a mandolin or cigar box guitar. From there, she would use more stringed instruments, specifically the lap harp, viola da gamba, the Finnish kantele, vielle, and cello, to add harmonies and counter-lines. In contrast, the combat themes took from the black metal genre, with percussion, glaring guitar, bass sounds, and tremolo picking, but still had to meld into the exploration music for when players entered Muspel or jötnar-held territories even if they were not fighting. To Economou, this genre also blended well with the unrefined sound from all the old strings she experimented with regardless her proficiency in what she described as her own "clumsily fumbling around while discovering these amazing instruments".

When working in collaboration with Wilderun, their lead guitarist Wayne Ingram introduced Economou to the black metal music by the groups Bathory from Sweden and Wolves in the Throne Room from America, as well as the folk music from the Norse Heilung to get a better idea of what sounds she wanted the album to emulate. Wilderun's members then sent her clips of different tempo drum beats, riffs, loops, and vocals like metal growls and screams to draw from a "bank" when composing or modifying with synths. Another influence used for the album but that was not as prominent included the American heavy metal group System of a Down's 1998 eponymous debut album and Einar's 2016 album Skuggsjá made in collaboration with Ivar Bjørnson from the Norwegian extreme metal group Enslaved.

By her own admission, Economou says she too often tends to "hide things in reverb and drown them in very wet spaces", resulting in pieces acquiring an airy, dream-like quality that is not always intended. When writing the track "In Memory of a Very Fine Smithy" that plays during Sindri's funeral in the memory "Forging Bonds", the production team told her she could use reverb as much as she wanted. To her, this cue was the perfect place for that echoing effect since it was about mournfully reminiscing one of the dwarves' great craftsmen rather than indicating that players had entered a dream world to roam. Fittingly, the cue takes the dwarves' theme from the track "Svartalfheim", representing their homeland, and cycles it through different instruments, particularly the ram's horn that plays solo. Initially, though, this track was too fast and "informative", requiring a few re-writes until she was happy that it eased listeners into the sadness instead of musically telling them this was supposed to be emotional.

While Economou prefers to keep changing the tempos and meters in every track in order to not be stagnant, writing the final cue "Odin vs. the Elderstahl" proved difficult for her and was also re-written many times. She was at first uncertain how much intensity to put in it, especially after players would have already finished two major fight sequences, one with Calder in the memory "The Vault of the Ancients" and the other with Sinmara in "Pride of the Aesir". Its first draft had a fast tempo, but she found that rather than musically evoking action, it instead lacked impact for a final battle to decide the fate of the realm Svartalfheim. She re-wrote it into three sub-parts and drastically slowed it down to a more lumbering, domineering quality at 90 beats-per-minute instead of 140, reasoning that Surtr would not be nimble but large and terrifying as a representation of Ragnarök's inevitability. Indeed, throughout the expansion, a descending black metal riff by Wilderun on distorted guitar with accompanying vocals can be heard and is used to represent Surtr's commanding and terrifying presence, whether metaphorically in his plans for Svartalfheim or when he actually appeared.

Track listing

1. Assassin's Creed Dawn of Ragnarök (Main Theme) [feat. Einar Selvik] - 3:19
2. Old Friends and Gentle Jailers (feat. Ari Mason) - 2:27
3. Wrath of Muspelheim - 2:14
4. Ghost in the Shadows - 1:19
5. Dark Fields - 2:38
6. The Blade of Surtr (feat. Wilderun) - 2:53
7. Svartalfheim - 2:42
8. Through the Embers - 1:45
9. Forsaken - 2:12
10. The Hunting Ground - 3:20
11. Cracking the Vault (feat. Wilderun) - 1:59
12. Bound Warrior - 1:43
13. Stranger in a Strange Land - 2:08
14. The Adversary - 2:06
15. Sanctuary - 3:02
16. In Memory of a Very Fine Smithy - 2:17
17. The Snare Tightens - 1:10
18. The Eitri Crater - 1:40
19. Sinmara - 1:45
20. The Salakar - 1:37
21. Not Fated to Die - 1:07
22. Jötunheim - 1:10
23. Bitter Fruits (feat. Ari Mason) - 1:58
24. Odin vs. The Elderstahl - 1:38
25. The Seeker (Bonus Track) - 3:02

Assassin's Creed Valhalla: Dawn of Ragnarök: Blood, Fire, Tears

Assassin's Creed Valhalla:Dawn of Ragnarök:Blood, Fire, Tears
Composer(s)	Einar Selvik
Arranger(s)	Einar Selvik
Producer	Einar Selvik
Release date	11 March 2022
No. of discs	1
No. of tracks	3
Length	13:08
Link	iTunes Spotify Amazon

1. Frigg Wept - 4:05
2. Grieving Baldr - 5:39
3. Surtr - 3:24

Lyrics

• Frigg Wept
• Grieving Baldr
• Surtr

Old Norse

English

En Frigg of grét í Fensölum. Ek sá Baldri, blóðgom tívur, Óðins barni, ørlög fólgin: stóð um vaxinn völlum hærri mjór ok mjök fagr mistilteinn. Varð af þeim meiði, er mær sýndisk, harmflaug hættlig, Höðr nam skjóta. Baldrs bróðir var of borinn snemma, sá nam, Óðins sonr, einnættr vega. Þó hann æva hendr né höfuð kembði, áðr á bál um bar Baldrs andskota. En Frigg um grét í Fensölum vá Valhallar. vá Valhallar.

And in Fen-halls Frigg wept. I saw for Baldr, for the bloody god, Odin's child, his fate in store: There stood grown, higher than the plain, Slender and very fair, the mistletoe. From that stem which seemed so slender, There came a dangerous grief-dart: Höðr started to shoot; Baldr's brother was born quickly, Odin's son started killing at one night old. He never washed his hands nor combed his hair, Until he brought Baldr's adversary to the funeral pyre. And in Fen-halls Frigg wept For Valhall's woe. For Valhall's woe.

Old Norse

English

Mjǫk erum tregt tungu at hrœra með loptvætt ljóðpundara; esa nú vænt of Viðurs þýfi, né hógdrœgt ór hugar fylgsni. Era karskr maðr sá er kǫgla berr frænda hrørs af fletjum niðr. Þökk mun gráta þurrum tárum Baldrs bálfarar kyks né dauðs nautk-a ek Karls sonar, haldi Hel því, er hefir. Nú er méf torvelt, Tveggja bága njǫrvanipt á nesi stendr, skal ek þó glaðr með góðan vilja ok óhryggr heljar bíða. skal ek þó glaðr með góðan vilja ok óhryggr heljar bíða. Þökk mun gráta þurrum tárum Baldrs bálfarar; kyks né dauðs nautk-a ek Karls sonar, haldi Hel því, er hefir. haldi Hel því, er hefir. Þökk mun gráta þurrum tárum Baldrs bálfarar; kyks né dauðs nautk-a ek Karls sonar, haldi Hel því, er hefir.

I can hardly move my tongue or lift up the steelyard of song; now there is little hope of Viðurs theft, nor is it easy to draw it out of the hiding place of the mind. No man is glad who carries the bones of his dead kinsman out of the bed. Thökk shall weep waterless tears over Baldr's pyre; In death nor in life did I love Odin's son, Let Hel hold what she has. Now my course is tough; Death, close sister of Odin's enemy stands on the ness: with resolution and without remorse I shall gladly await my own. With resolution and without remorse I shall gladly await my own. Thökk shall weep waterless tears over Baldr's pyre; In death nor in life did I love Odin's son, Let Hel hold what she has. Let Hel hold what she has. Thökk shall weep waterless tears over Baldr's pyre; In death nor in life did I love Odin's son, Let Hel hold what she has.

Old Norse

English

Surtr ríðr fyrst, ok fyrir honum ok eftir eldr brennandi. Sverð hans er gott mjök, af því skínn bjartara en af sólu. Surtr ríðr fyrst, ok fyrir honum ok eftir eldr brennandi. Surtr ferr sunnan með sviga lævi. Skínn af sverði, sól valtíva. Grjótbjörg gnata, en gífr rata, troða halir Helveg, en himinn klofnar. Grjótbjörg gnata, en gífr rata, troða halir Helveg, en himinn klofnar

Surtr shall ride first, and both before him and after him burning fire his sword is exceeding good from it radiance shines brighter than from the sun. Surtr shall ride first, and both before him and after him burning fire Surtr fares from southward with switch-eating flame. On his sword shimmers he sun of the war-gods The rocks are falling, and fiends are reeling, Heroes tread Hel-way, heaven is cloven. The rocks are falling, and fiends are reeling, Heroes tread Hel-way, heaven is cloven.

Behind the scenes

The "Elderstahl" referenced in the final track is presumably the name of Surtr's sword, even though no such name exists in Norse literature and Hyrrokin refers to the blade as "the Twilight Sword" in the memory "The Reckoning". Instead, it comes from the 2011 direct-to-video film Thor: Tales of Asgard that was part of the Marvel Animated Features series by Marvel Animation and Lions Gate Entertainment. In the movie, the character Surtur wielded the blade Elderstahl in a fatal duel with Odin for the fate of the Nine Realms. After the All-Father slew him with his spear Gungnir, the sword was lost to time and became a legendary item sought for by young heroes like Thor to prove their worth.

The lyrics for "Frigg Wept" come from stanzas 31–33 of the introductory Völuspá poem in the anonymously-written Poetic Edda. The dwarven bard in Hodda Shelter can occasionally be heard singing it aloud.

Most of the lyrics for "Grieving Baldr" are from the 10th century skaldic poem Sonatorrek, which laments the deaths of the Viking Egil Skallagrimsson's two sons. The verses here use stanza 1, the second half of stanza 4, and stanza 25. The chorus parts are verse 49 of the Gylfaginning poems in Snorri Sturluson's 13th century text, the Prose Edda. The piece plays distantly in the background when Odin fights phantasms of Glöð, Calder, Malvigr, and Sinmara in the memory "Pride of the Aesir".

The lyrics for "Surtr" come from two different passages in the Eddas. The first verse and its repeated fragment are an excerpt from chapter 51 of the Prose Edda's Gylfaginning, while the second verse and its fragment are stanza 52 from the Poetic Edda's Völuspá, which is also cross-referenced in the Gylfaginning.