Birna

A Journey Through Strength and Transformation

With Birna, we continue our exploration of Nordic traditions and the timeless interplay between sound and storytelling. The album’s title, meaning "She-Bear," embodies the duality of strength and vulnerability, symbolizing protection, instinct, and renewal.

In Nordic mythology and folklore, the bear is regarded as a sacred animal, a guardian of the wilderness, and a force of both gentle nurture and fierce determination. These themes are woven throughout the album, reflecting cycles of life, the bond between past and present, and the primal wisdom that guides us forward.

Musically, Birna expands upon Wardruna’s signature sonic landscape, incorporating traditional Nordic instruments such as the taglharpa, kraviklyra, and frame drum alongside rich vocal harmonies and immersive field recordings. The album captures the raw beauty of nature’s rhythms, creating an evocative and deeply atmospheric experience.

Lyrically, the songs on Birna draw from ancient texts, oral traditions, and personal reflections, forming a tapestry of stories that honor both ancestral wisdom and the changing world around us. Themes of survival, solitude, and transformation are central, inviting listeners to embrace the power within and around them.

Birna is not merely an album—it is an invitation to journey into the heart of nature, to reconnect with forgotten wisdom, and to find meaning in the ever-changing cycles of life. It is a call to listen, reflect, and walk the path between the past and the future.

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Einar Selvik comments:

The more I thought, read, and researched, the more I realized that this album should mainly have a contemporary focus. Unraveling the long and entangled history of the relationship between man and Bear and contemplating the present state of how we humans relate to the wild in general. The bear doesn’t need my help or any human traditional ornamentation to be its own powerful self. It is quite the opposite if one looks to past bear-traditions worth remembering. We learn, we dream of borrowing its traits and abilities. We fear, revere, and try to walk alongside but on separate paths. Respectfully, claim space and give space. However inconvenient it may be, further taming of the wild can never be the fruitful way forward. For me, it profoundly felt like the right time to give voice to the Birna, mother and shepherd of the vanishing woods.