Lyrics
[Intro]
[Verse 1]
The morning I woke, I gave myself a name,
looked out at the world and I whispered, "How strange."
My brothers wanted thrones, my sister wanted war,
I only ever wanted to know what living's for.
So I folded up my wings into a coat of plain skin,
hung my thunder in a closet, walked the markets, slipped in.
[Pre-Chorus]
They never look twice at a quiet little man,
and that is the only safety a dragon ever can.
[Chorus]
I am the giant who chose to be small,
a god in a thin grey coat in the hall.
Don't be afraid — I came here to hide,
I shed all my fire so you'd let me inside.
Call me a stranger, a nobody, a name in the crowd,
better a whisper than a wing in the cloud.
[Verse 2]
There's a hill where my sister sleeps under stone,
and I sing her to silence so she dreams alone.
Every dawn I climb up and I hum the same air,
for the day that I stop is the day they're not spared.
I loved her too much to be the one who struck her down,
so I trade my whole forever to keep her in the ground.
[Pre-Chorus]
You'd call it a kindness, I call it my chain,
the lullaby I'm bound to till I forget my own name.
[Chorus]
I am the giant who chose to be small,
a god in a thin grey coat in the hall.
Don't be afraid — I came here to hide,
I shed all my fire so you'd let me inside.
Call me a stranger, a nobody, a name in the crowd,
better a whisper than a wing in the cloud.
[Bridge]
There was one who knew my real face in the dark,
who flew the high cold air and left it warmer than the stars.
They took her from the sky, and I could not even mourn —
a dragon's grief would shatter every roof in every town.
So I swallowed all that sorrow, wore a borrowed human eye,
and the woman who loved the man never knew the beast was why.
[Bridge build]
You can't be slain if no one knows you're there,
so I'll vanish through your fingers like a prayer through the air.
[Final Chorus]
I am the giant who chose to be small,
the last gentle thing my family left at all.
Don't be afraid — I never came to reign,
I shed all my fire so I'd feel a little human pain.
And when they come to end me by the cold dead moon,
let them say he was kind, let them say it too soon.
[Outro]
Sleep now, sister. Sleep now, love.
A quiet little man is enough.
