A medieval English wassail song for the winter season.
Bouzouki, oud, frame drum, alto recorder, and vocal tracks.

Bring Us In Good Ale

This is something I've wanted to do for a long time: to make a song of verses rendered into a balladic metre from the Havamal. Visit this song on my youtube-channel for lyrics and more details!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ua9h_M8bTjU

The Wayfarer's Song

My latest song, straight out the studio!.. It was written as to be "performed" midst festivities for the Norse God, Freyr. 
The term "blót" (pl. blótar) refers to an occasion of ritual sacrifice (I.e., of an animal or mead or offerings, although the historical context of "blót" signifies more specifically blood-sacrifice of an animal) on a community ritual heathen feastday. But the lyrics of this song more particularly concern the festivities outside of the blot itself, and hailing the glorious Freyr.

 I can say I am very happy with how it turned out. I'm still kind of playing around with how I want to record the lower octave on the Irish-whistle, but it still turned out good, I think.
 The drum is very bassy, so it might get kind of lost in your built-in computer speakers, but they come out clearly in a stereo or regular speakers of course.

 Similar to my other most recent tune, "The Wayfarer's Song", the recording style is a bit different from older Hymir's Kettle tracks, in that a more "up-close" and/or "live" sound is striven for, which also tends to give it a more "rustic" feel, in my opinion.
 The music and lyrics are all original.. And, as is usually the case, all the instruments and tracks are recorded by myself..
For more songs, lyrics, discussions, etc -- check out the Hymir's Kettle YouTube channel! 

https://www.youtube.com/user/OdinIsMyGuide


Freysblót

This is a demo-recording of playing Braveheart's "Outlawed Tunes" on the Irish-whistle. Its certainly a "demo"..  Yet it turned out quite good and is enjoyable to hear on the whistle. 
The mic was positioned hastily, etc., nor did I play too carefully so you hear a bit of the air-flow (namely in the high octave), and the C came out kind of raspy.
But, I plan on making a "real" version sometime later. Just something little to enjoy for now..

Outlawed Tunes On Outlawed Pipes (Demo)

A medieval dance tune arranged for mandolin, bouzouki, classical-guitar, and drum.
This piece was taken from Allan Alexander's collection.

A Medieval Dance (Anon)

A "villanella" which I picked up from Allan Alexander's collection, a good hoard for medieval songs and tunes already arranged and ready for Mandolin -- and done well. I enjoy this tune very much, the instruments here go together exceptionally well -- the Eastman, Irish-Bouzouki, and a nylon-string ("classical") guitar.

 A villanella is a type of old Italian rustic song written for voice, and was most popular in, I believe, the 16th century.. So, there's a good chance this one is from at least then (yet it is a part of his Medieval selection, so he may have more info on it as to its earlier composition), but Alexander lists it as a piece of an unknown composer so our information on this particular song is limited. If anyone has more insight on this melody, be sure to share.


A Villanella -- (Medieval or early-Renaissance Tune)

In trad, I mostly work with Irish, Welsh, and Scottish -- and some Scandinavian stuff here and there.
I've been wanting to get heavier into playing alot more Scottish trad, which I've begun to now. Here is a set of three reels, chosen by myself:
1. The Ale is Dear
2. Roll Her on the Hill
3. The Barrowbourn Reel

You can find me playing a better version of this with guitar accompaniment here https://soundcloud.com/hymirs-kettle/the-ale-is-dear-let-for-mandolin-and-guitar-accomp
As said in the title... this was just a quick demo recording. Not perfect in a handful of ways. Apologies for the little bit of noise in the background in the first part.. ;)

Three Scottish Reels for Mandolin: The Ale Is Dear Set (Demo-recording)

This is a recording of me playing a set of 3 Scottish reels on mandolin with guitar accompaniment. The reels are, in order:
1. The Ale is Dear
2. Roll Her on the Hill
3. Barrowbourn Reel

Tis "good demo" status as I see it; it was wholly recorded with my Snowball USB microphone.

There is also a good video of my playing this on mandolin on the HK youtube channel.

The Ale is Dear Set (3 Scottish Reels for Mandolin and Guitar accomp.)

Here is an instrumental demo of my latest (original) medievalist-folk song for Hymir's Kettle. 
The song concerns Tolkien's prequel to the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, "The Hobbit". The lyrical content recounts the dwarves, Thorin Oakenshield's Company, coming to the Shire to Bilbo's house, and convincing him to go adventuring with them on the great Quest to Erebor.

The instruments in this demo are mandolin, Irish bouzouki, and nylon-string/classical guitar.
The full version will also include drum and tambourine, vocals, and possible whistle or flute.

Another Come Wending (Original Medievalist Music: Instrumental Demo)

This is an original tune which I composed last week -- it is a "trad" reel, leaning more towards the Irish style, though there is a tad of Scottish vein as well. The instruments are mandolin, acoustic-guitar, and irish bouzouki (a second mandolin duos along as well, jumping in on the first B-Section). It is something of a "studio-demo", though the performance is plenty good in itself to be considered a "final" version more or less (though of course, trad-tunes played over time usually get only better! ;) )

The Drunken Huntsman Reel

A tune from John Playford's "Dancing Master", a great source for a variety of old English tunes; instruments included here are Irish-bouzouki, mandolin, and whistle (i.e., the "Irish-whistle"). 
I made one or two variations of my own, particularly at the latter parts of each phrase.

Millison's Jig (Demo)- from John Playford

Another popular Hymir's Kettle song - Feel free to download ! -
recounting the adventure of the great Germanic-god, Thor, with Loki, into the realm of the giants in Jotunheim - specifically this case unto Utgard, an important centre of the jotuns. On this travel they meet a certain giant that along the way tests Thor's strengths in different ways

https://www.youtube.com/user/OdinIsMyGuide - is the YouTube homepage for Hymir's Kettle, a good place to find more songs, go check out lyrics etc ;)


http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006Z1W9G6/ref=dm_dp_trk12?ie=UTF8&qid=1353616384&sr=8-1 - to purchase this song (all profit goes to the Odinic Rite)

Journey To Utgard

This is a -Hymir's Kettle- song inspired a certain medieval-fantasy realm - that of the Midlands to be exact. terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth books (which were the inspiration for the Legend of the Seeker tv-series) were the basis of this song. The Wizard's Keep in Aydindril is an immense and intimidating fortress of sorcery dark and light.. etc etc.. read the books yourself ;)
Feel free to download - 
https://www.youtube.com/user/OdinIsMyGuide - the YouTube homepage for Hymir's Kettle; music, lyrics, details and videos and whatever else finds its way on there

The Wizard's Keep

This is Part Two of the Hymiskviða-set by Hymir's Kettle - feel free to download - 
what makes this set stand out from the other songs, is that all of the singing is in Old Norse - specifically, the Hymiskviða set is just that - each part features a third of the original 10th century poem in the Old Norse.
Part Two presented here, is about Thor eating an obscene amount of food at Hymir's hall - and thus Hymir's tells Thor they should go out the next day to either hunt or fish. So, they go fishing on the open sea, and Thor catches the Midgard Serpent (Jormungandr) and a short/small battle takes place where he smacks the snake on the head with Mjollnir, and the foe sinks back into the water midst much colossal commotion.. 
All parts of the Hymiskviða-set are on the YouTube channel

http://www.youtube.com/user/OdinIsMyGuide  -  is the YouTube homepage for Hymir's Kettle

Hymiskviða - Part II: Fishing with Frost Giants

Here's Part III of the 'Hymiskviða-set'; featuring stanzas 26-36 of the original Old Norse poem. This part of the poem portrays how the jotunn Hymir tests the strength of Thor, which comes to him smashing a fantastical crystal-goblet upon the jotunn's head, from which the jotunn in a last trial asks Thor to see if he can lift his mighty 'Ölkjól' (ale-cauldron) - which Thor does after Tyr's failed attempts, and they make off with Hymir's Kettle. A band of jotunn's chase after them, who all meet their demise at the indomitable swing of Mjolnir, the great hammer of Thor.
I've more or less tried to incorporate a style of 'chant-like' singing, though its not too different from my voice in other Hymir's Kettle songs. Be sure to check out other Hymir's Kettle tracks here on Soundcloud and on the YouTube homepage if you enjoy, a link is below 

http://www.youtube.com/user/OdinIsMyGuide/featured - the YouTube homepage for Hymir's Kettle, with lots of songs old and new, including lyrics and thorough descriptions of track-content

Hymiskviða - Part III: Ölkjól

Another old song!

Signý was the granddaughter of Othin (Odin), and a direct predeccesor of Sigurd the great Viking Hero, whom my song "Andvari's Gold" is based on in large part. A cool fact about this song, is that I was inspired to make it while reading Tolkien's great alliterative work, "The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun", and the Chorus of this song is actually a stanza taken from that poem.
Be sure to swing by the Hymir's Kettle Youtube channel for more songs in the medievalist spirit.
 This song was featured on an Odinist-compilation album (link through Amazon. I do not get profits from the songs through those compilation-albums)
However, if you wish to support the artist, you can purchase Hymir's Kettle's debut album from iTunes:https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/journey-to-utgard/id860795753

http://www.youtube.com/user/OdinIsMyGuide - the Hymir's Kettle homepage

Signý

The sung lyric of this song is an Old Irish poem from around the 11th century (or rather, the manuscript it is in is from the 11th century); the music is original Hymir's Kettle, and the singing is in the original poem's Old Irish language. I had this song on the waiting-list for a long time, feeling like I wanted to do more with it. But I've realised this mix was done quite well despite the fact I wanted more vocals in, but I think it is good; honestly its one of personal favourites.

http://www.youtube.com/user/OdinIsMyGuide  - be sure to swing by the Hymir's Kettle YouTube channel, lots of great songs in the spirit of medievalist acoustic/folk music

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