Einar Selvik of Wardruna wrote all of the songs on “Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: The Weft of Spears.” Courtesy.

One of the best aspect of video game “Assassin’s Creed Valhalla,” besides the realistic game playing experience, storylines and CGI, was the soundtrack. The game, released in 2020, featured original songs composed under the watchful eye of Einar Selvik, the mastermind behind Nordic folk band Wardruna.

With Wardruna, Selvik has composed several albums’ worth of veritable songs inspired by Old Norse culture—historically accurate rather than based on pop culture—and performed them on recreated instruments from those times. Wardruna had been recognized for its creative and educational output even before Selvik signed on to the “Assassin’s Creed Valhalla” project.

“When I told them my visions for it, they shared a lot of those ideas and ambitions to have that authenticity level,” Selvik told RIFF exactly one year ago, adding that he worked with two other composers, but that his job was to write the songs themselves, based on the Skaldic (oral poetic) tradition. “For me it was a really good opportunity to be able to give voice to that part of the culture, which is very often forgotten when Norse culture is being portrayed in popular culture..”

“Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: The Weft of Spears.”

Not all of Selvik’s compositions made it onto the original soundtrack for the game, and game players and Wardruna fans alike have been clamoring for more since then. Friday, he and gamemnaker Ubisoft will release a companion album titled Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: The Weft of Spears. The six-song set includes the remaining original numbers he wrote for the game, along with alternative versions of others.

The album will be released via Lakeshore Records, which has also released the soundtracks for the likes of “Drive,” “Stranger Things,” “The Handmaid’s Tale,” “Black Mirror, “Moonlight,” “Little Miss Sunshine” and “If Beale Street Could Talk.”

Today, RIFF is premiering one of the new songs, “Traust ok Svikráð – Trust and Treachery.”

“The song is based around lyrical excerpts from the Old Norse medieval poem Hávamál (Sayings of the High One),” Selvik told RIFF in a written statement. “The poem presents advice for living, proper conduct and esoteric wisdom, and is considered an important source of Old Norse philosophy. ‘Traust ok Svikráð’ [advises] where NOT to put one’s unabridged trust and how to treat treachery and falseness.”

Listen to “Traust ok Svikráð – Trust and Treachery” below. The entire album is out digitally on Nov. 26. Buy or stream it online.

The full tracklist includes:

1. Traust ok Svikráð – Trust and Treachery
2. Hrafnakall – The Raven’s Call
3. Ár skal Rísa – Warriors Rise Early
4. Söngr Lögsóta – Song Of The Seahorse
5. Rauða spjör – Red Spears
6. Til Vinskapar – To Friendship

Follow editor Roman Gokhman at Twitter.com/RomiTheWriter.