''Runaljod – Gap var ginnunga'' (''Sound of Runes – The gap was vast'') is the first album by Norwegian Nordic folk group

Wardruna Wardruna is a Norwegian music group formed in 2003 by Einar Selvik along with Gaahl and Lindy-Fay Hella. They create musical renditions of Norse cultural and esoteric traditions and make significant use of Nordic historical and traditional instr ...

. It was released 19 January 2009 by Indie Recordings/Fimbulljóð Productions. The album is the first chapter of the ''Runaljod'' trilogy (continued on the next two Wardruna albums), inspired by the 24 ancient runes of the

Elder Futhark The Elder Futhark (or Fuþark, ), also known as the Older Futhark, Old Futhark, or Germanic Futhark, is the oldest form of the runic alphabets. It was a writing system used by Germanic peoples for Northwest Germanic dialects in the Migration Per ...

. The lyrics were composed by Kvitrafn in Norwegian,

Old Norse Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...

and

Proto-Norse Proto-Norse (also called Ancient Nordic; Danish and ; ; ; ) was an Indo-European language spoken in Scandinavia that is thought to have evolved as a northern dialect of Proto-Germanic in the first centuries CE. It is the earliest stage of a c ...

. Nordic traditional instruments such as

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

and strings were used in the recording of the album.

Track listing

All songs written and arranged by Kvitrafn

Personnel

* Kvitrafn – Vocals and instruments *

Gaahl Kristian Eivind Espedal (born 7 August 1975), better known by his stage name Gaahl, is a Norwegian vocalist. He is best known as the former frontman of Norwegian black metal band Gorgoroth. He is also the founder and lead vocalist of Trelldom an ...

– Vocals *

Lindy-Fay Hella Lindy-Fay Hella (born in 1975) is a Norwegian singer, musician and composer, known as a member of Wardruna and Lindy-Fay Hella & Dei Farne. She played electronic music before becoming a founding member of Wardruna, which plays eclectic music influ ...

– Vocals * Hallvard Kleiveland –

Hardanger fiddle A hardanger fiddle () is a traditional stringed instrument considered the national instrument of Norway. In modern designs, this type of fiddle is very similar to the violin, though with eight or nine strings (rather than four as on a standard v ...

References

*http://www.wardruna.com/ {{DEFAULTSORT:Runaljod - Gap Var Ginnunga 2009 debut albums Wardruna albums