| The Decemberists – The Hazards of Love 2 (Wager All) Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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Two clues should lead us to think the setting for this suite is what is now the United Kingdom. The first reference is to Offa's Wall (also called Offa's Dyke) which is an earthen mound 176 miles long and up to 65 feet wide and 8 feet high constructed by King Offa of Mercia (later Wales) in the 8th century AD to mark the boundry between his kingdom and England to the east. Apparently it was customary for the English to cut off the ears of Mercians who strayed east of the wall and for the Mercians to hang every Englishman who crossed it going west. So, when the lyrics tell us that Margaret went riding out "Past the pale (boundary) of Offa's Wall..." I'm inclined to think that she is leaving her native Wales, and at some risk. The second clue to the setting would be the reference to the crossing of the Annan River ("Annan Water")which lies in the south of Scotland. William seeks to cross the Annan on his own and out of Scotland in order to rescue his love after The Queen has flown Margaret and her captor, The Rake, to the other side back toward Wales (see below). But William makes a bargain with the river in order to get across that later turns fatal to both him and his love when they try to return north across it. ("The Drowned") Although Great Britain would no longer be considered part of the Taiga due to its extensive deforestation, during the time period in which this tale is ostensibly set (probably mid-12th to late 15th century from Meloy's Middle-English references) relatively large expanses of boreal forest still existed, particularly in northern Scotland. From all this I am inclined to think that our heroine, Margaret, hails from Wales and William from the Highlands of Scotland. The Rake, is most probably also from Wales given the name of his ill-fated last daughter, Myfanwy, which is Welsh for "my woman." A further hint that this story does not take place in Scandinavia is the reference to the mistle thrush which, although common in Great Britain and most of the rest of Europe, is not native to the Scandinavian countries. On the other hand, the corncrake, once common in the UK and much of northern and central Europe to Siberia including southern Scandinavia, is now restricted in range in Great Britain to the northern and western islands of Scotland. (note Meloy's earlier reference to corncrakes in "The Bachelor and The Bride" from "Her Majesty") One question that remains in my mind, though, is whether the lyric is meant to be "fawn" as in young deer or "faun" as in the half-man, half-goat mythical creature? The latter would seem more likely in light of the line "Bereft of the weight of our summer clothes" and the fact that the faun was sometimes depicted wearing a loin cloth or little vest. |
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| The Decemberists – The Bachelor and the Bride Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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On the morning of her wedding, the former lover of the young bride appears on her doorstep. The "bachelor," who is working-class and below her social stature, confronts her threatening to reveal to her betrothed, and everyone else, the truth about the woman. She and the man once had an affair in which she became pregnant. In their youthful ignorance and fear of being discovered, the young couple terminated the pregnancy and, in the process, as she alone has since learned, caused the woman to become infertile. With the appearance of her former lover, the bride is thrust back to the icy, wet evening on which they met in the secluded cabin to abort the fetus. She painfully recalls every detail of the tragic day, down to the bird calls and the medallion she clutched as the deed was committed and the lifeless body of their daughter cast away, slipped into the cold, dark water of the nearby farm pond. The bachelor wishes the bride no harm but feels that she owes the potential husband the truth of her history. He doesn't mean to literally "box (her) ears" or leave her “stripped bare” but gives her the option of either telling the groom herself or forcing his hand. If forced to reveal their secret himself the bachelor vows to do it in such a way that she will feel as though she's been slapped 'up side the head' and left naked to the world. As he now approaches and touches her as he once did, she wonders if he knows the truth -- she was rendered barren by what they did. How could he know? They have not been together again after that day until this moment. But, yet, even under these circumstances the touch of his calloused hands still calms her somehow. Perhaps thinking that she can either delay the inevitable or somehow dissuade him altogether, the bride begs the bachelor not to reveal their affair, at least not until that evening after the ceremony. But he insists, wanting her to both publicly acknowledge their past and to admit to him that she, too, regrets what they did. Just seeing her shed a tear over their youthful choice would at least give him some relief from the pain he has borne alone all this time. |
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