Skip to playerSkip to main content
“You Owe Me Seven Winters” by Viking Lore Vault is Viking-inspired Nordic folk music with Irish and Scottish influences—a song about a brother returning to the family who thought the sea had taken him.

For seven winters, his sister believed he was gone. Then a familiar voice calls from outside her door.

Around the fire, he tells stories of Dublin’s markets, a whale beside the oars off Orkney, Iceland’s steaming waters, and the years that kept him from coming home. His young niece listens in wonder. Then she reminds him that the family has stories to tell him, too.

“You owe me seven winters.
Pay me back in tales.”

With storytelling at its heart, this song brings together the seafaring spirit of Viking music and the warmth of Nordic and Celtic folk music. A tale of long journeys, lost time, and finding your place at the family table again.

Which moment stayed with you—the knock at the door, the traveller’s stories, or his niece telling her own?

Listen to Viking Lore Vault ⚔️

▶️ YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/@VikingLoreVault

🎧 Spotify
https://open.spotify.com/artist/5mCSzPeRdq0ohK64x58xWn

🍎 Apple Music
https://music.apple.com/ca/artist/viking-lore-vault/1846264566

Subscribe for more Viking-inspired songs of family, voyages, and homecoming.

#VikingMusic #NordicFolkMusic #CelticFolkMusic

Category

🎵
Music
Transcript
00:06He barred the door with my brothers
00:09O'er the night he came back home
00:13They'd found that door among the rocks
00:15They'd found no trace of him
00:19For seven years I slid it back
00:22To let the neighbors in
00:25That night a voice call lift the latch
00:28It sticks when there's been rain
00:31My hands had got the door halfway
00:34Before he gave his name
00:37His beard was grey, his ears stuck out
00:40The way they'd always done
00:43I put both hands against his cheeks
00:46My brother, there was one
00:48You owe me seven winters
00:51Pay me back in tail
00:53Start with how you lost those boots
00:56Then tell me you're the whale
00:58Pull your bench a little closer
01:01Let me see you when you grin
01:03You owe me seven winters, brother
01:07Where shall we begin?
01:13In Dublin there's a cobbler's boy
01:16Who wears my boots today
01:18I lost him racing up the K
01:21He beat me fair, I'd say
01:23Offered me something
01:25Bumped our hull and rolled a great black eye
01:28Six grown men sat still as stones
01:30The whale went swimming by
01:33My girl said, were you frightened?
01:35Then he bent down in his chair
01:38I'd tell you I was brave
01:40My last but five more men were there
01:42You owe me seven winters
01:45Pay me back in tail
01:47Start with how you lost those boots
01:50Then tell me you're the whale
01:52Pull your bench a little closer
01:55Let me see you when you grin
01:57You owe me seven winters, brother
02:01Where shall we begin?
02:05Then with his thumb he traced the crap
02:07Along his wooden cup
02:09The night our ship went on the rocks
02:12A fishing crew pulled me up
02:15They sold me south
02:16I worked an oar and watched the shoreline pass
02:20One foggy dawn we slipped our ropes
02:22I felt my feet on grass
02:24I walked till someone spoke like us
02:27I turned to hear him twice
02:29I worked my passage, gutting fish
02:32I'd gladly pay that price
02:38By then my girl was fast asleep
02:41Her hand inside his own
02:43He asked me, what's this wee one called?
02:46How much has she grown?
02:48She's six, I said she hates the dark
02:51She cheats at throwing stones
02:54He laughed, now tell me all the rest
02:58I've missed some tales of my own
03:00We owe you seven winters
03:04We'll pay you back in tales
03:06I'll tell you how she learned to walk
03:09Tomorrow, there's the whale
03:11Pull your bench a little closer
03:14Let me see you when you grin
03:16We owe you seven winters, brother
03:20Where shall we begin?
03:24He's been home three winters now
03:27My girl still pulls his sleeve
03:33That whale gets longer every year
03:36You ought to hear him tell me
03:51Why he scalloped somebody
03:54That whale gives me
03:54You ought to have to use your own

Recommended