Assassin's Creed: Valhalla: Dawn of Ragnarök soundtrack

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 group Wilderun. It released digitally on 10 March 2022.
At the on 5 February 2023, the album won the first for ,↑ an entirely new category created by the to recognize the impact of music in video games and other interactive media. Later at the Fourth 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 , a Netflix show based on the comic series of . 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 by Einar Selvik titled Blood, Fire, Tears was also released for download. Its songs were based on various 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 and 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 Valhallas 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 from when she wrote Valhallas albums, the creative team had discussed with her the idea of using the of for the cues.
In Economou's view, Dawn of Ragnaröks 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 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 or . From there, she would use more stringed instruments, specifically the lap harp, , the Finnish , , 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 , 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 from Sweden and from America, as well as the folk music from the Norse 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 and 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 group 's 1998 and Einar's 2016 album Skuggsjá made in collaboration with from the Norwegian group .
By her own admission, Economou says she too often tends to "hide things in 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 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 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==
#Assassin's Creed Dawn of Ragnarök (Main Theme) [feat. Einar Selvik] - 3:19
#Old Friends and Gentle Jailers (feat. Ari Mason) - 2:27
#Wrath of Muspelheim - 2:14
#Ghost in the Shadows - 1:19
#Dark Fields - 2:38
#The Blade of Surtr (feat. Wilderun) - 2:53
#Svartalfheim - 2:42
#Through the Embers - 1:45
#Forsaken - 2:12
#The Hunting Ground - 3:20
#Cracking the Vault (feat. Wilderun) - 1:59
#Bound Warrior - 1:43
#Stranger in a Strange Land - 2:08
#The Adversary - 2:06
#Sanctuary - 3:02
#In Memory of a Very Fine Smithy - 2:17
#The Snare Tightens - 1:10
#The Eitri Crater - 1:40
#Sinmara - 1:45
#The Salakar - 1:37
#Not Fated to Die - 1:07
#Jötunheim - 1:10
#Bitter Fruits (feat. Ari Mason) - 1:58
#Odin vs. The Elderstahl - 1:38
#The Seeker (Bonus Track) - 3:02
==Assassin's Creed Valhalla: Dawn of Ragnarök: Blood, Fire, Tears==
#Frigg Wept - 4:05
#Grieving Baldr - 5:39
#Surtr - 3:24
;Lyrics
<tabber>
|-|Frigg Wept=
Old Norse	English
En Frigg of grét í Fensölum.
Ek sá Baldri, blóðgom tívur,Óðins barni, ørlög fólgin:stóð um vaxinn völlum hærrimjór ok mjök fagr mistilteinn.
Varð af þeim meiði, er mær sýndisk,harmflaug hættlig, 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 Fensölumvá Valhallar.
vá Valhallar.	And in 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 weptFor Valhall's woe.
For Valhall's woe.
|-|Grieving Baldr=
Old Norse	English
Mjǫk erum tregttungu at hrœrameð loptvætt ljóðpundara;esa nú væntof þýfi,né hógdrœgtór hugar fylgsni.
Era karskr maðrsá er kǫgla berrfrænda hrørsaf fletjum niðr.
Þökk mun grátaþurrum tárumBaldrs bálfararkyks né dauðsnautk-a ek Karls sonar,haldi Hel því, er hefir.
Nú er méf torvelt,Tveggja báganjǫrvanipt á nesi stendr,skal ek þó glaðrmeð góðan viljaok óhryggrheljar bíða.
skal ek þó glaðrmeð góðan viljaok óhryggrheljar bíða.
Þökk mun grátaþurrum tárumBaldrs bálfarar;kyks né dauðsnautk-a ek Karls sonar,haldi Hel því, er hefir.
haldi Hel því, er hefir.
Þökk mun grátaþurrum tárumBaldrs bálfarar;kyks né dauðsnautk-a ek Karls sonar,haldi Hel því, er hefir.	I can hardly movemy tongueor lift up the steelyard of song;now there is little hopeof Viðurs theft,nor is it easy to draw it outof the hiding place of the mind.
No man is gladwho carries the bonesof his dead kinsmanout of the bed.
Thökk shall weepwaterless tearsover Baldr's pyre;In death nor in lifedid I love Odin's son,Let Hel hold what she has.
Now my course is tough;Death, close sisterof Odin's enemy stands on the ness:with resolutionand without remorseI shall gladlyawait my own.
With resolutionand without remorseI shall gladlyawait my own.
Thökk shall weepwaterless tearsover Baldr's pyre;In death nor in lifedid I love Odin's son,Let Hel hold what she has.
Let Hel hold what she has.
Thökk shall weepwaterless tearsover Baldr's pyre;In death nor in lifedid I love Odin's son,Let Hel hold what she has.
|-|Surtr=
Old Norse	English
Surtr ríðr fyrst, ok fyrir honumok eftir eldr brennandi.Sverð hans er gott mjök,af því skínn bjartara en af sólu.
Surtr ríðr fyrst, ok fyrir honumok 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 himand after him burning firehis sword is exceeding goodfrom it radiance shines brighter than from the sun.
Surtr shall ride first, and both before himand after him burning fire
Surtr fares from southward with switch-eating flame.On his sword shimmers he sun of the war-godsThe 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.
</tabber>
==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 film Thor: Tales of Asgard that was part of the series by and . In the movie, the character 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 poem in the anonymously-written . 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 , 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 poems in Snorri Sturluson's 13th century text, the . 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 s. The first verse and its repeated fragment are an excerpt from chapter 51 of the Prose Eddas Gylfaginning, while the second verse and its fragment are stanza 52 from the Poetic Eddas Völuspá, which is also cross-referenced in the Gylfaginning.
==References==
Category:Soundtracks
Category:Assassin's Creed: Valhalla