Ethel Cain sings entirely in Middle English on “Wynter Waxeth,” the original song for Robert Eggers’ werewolf film Werwulf, and she learned the pronunciation with Eggers’ help in practically a single session.
Eggers worked with two Oxford professors on the Middle English dialogue in Werwulf, then with a dialect coach on tempering the pronunciation so modern audiences could understand it. The song, sung entirely in Middle English, was released Nov. 13, and Werwulf opens in U.S. theaters Dec. 25.
The track was co-written by Cain, Eggers and composer Robin Carolan, who produced it with Cain. Carolan also scored Eggers’ The Northman and Nosferatu, and after hearing Cain’s Perverts, he began imagining her voice in the werewolf film.
Cain started writing with an instrument she’d just discovered. “Robin sent me a bunch of old medieval music at the beginning and was very into the psaltery, which introduced me to the traditional instrument. I bought one online and wound up plucking out this simple little harp line on it and that’s where the song began,” she said.
That psaltery line became a harp part as Carolan expanded her demo. He and Cain consulted Eggers on the language so the words would fit both the period and the story. Eggers has said Werwulf takes place in England around 1300.
Aaron Taylor-Johnson plays a cursed farmer seeking salvation through love, with Lily-Rose Depp as his wife. The song’s lyrics dwell on lost grace, sin, kin and blood. Carolan said he shaped its sound around “the family bond, the curse and the mysticism.”
“It’s always been my dream to score a horror film in some way, and I couldn’t think of a more perfect first opportunity than getting to work with Rob and Robin on a song for Werwulf,” Cain said.
The song ends: “My soule / My kin / My blod / My worlde.”
