| The New Pornographers – Valkyrie in the Roller Disco Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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But you don't hear the word "Valkyrie" come up all that often, and it has a very specific meaning -- one of twelve maidens that accompanied souls of warriors to Valhalla. So there's some overtone of death -- if not of a person, then of something -- a relationship, time with a person, etc. So the singers are pleading with the Valkyrie not to go back home, because when she does, whatever it is goes with her and is over. But I think part of the story of the song -- if you'll excuse me for getting this heavy -- might actually be in the story of the most famous of Valkyrie of all time -- Brunnhilde, from Wagner's ring cycle. (The one usually portrayed as a fat woman wearing a hat with horns on her head.) The cycle -- four operas in total -- circles around mythological Gold in the Rhine river, which can be made into a magic Ring that will let its bearer rule the world -- but only by someone who first renounces love. (Hence the stuff about "you're a gold mine" -- as in, you don't need the river gold.) The opera cycle goes through everything -- questioning faith in the gods, potential end of heaven and earth...Wagner didn't mess around. But in the second opera of the cycle, Brunnhilde is sent down from Valhalla, ordered by the Wotan, the leader of the gods, to take Sieglinde away from Siegmund (both his human kids...read the wikipedia summary). But Brunnhilde's too moved their love to do it -- and ends up losing her divinity and being sent to live in a ring of fire for it (kind of like a roller disco ring, maybe, in a whimsically modern view). However, I looked online, and there also appears to be a drag queen out there named Valkyrie Valentine. So...go figure. |
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