Rhiannon

To me personally, this song is about a women or girl who runs away from love because she is afraid of getting hurt or she has trust issues (or perhaps both.) Stevie is the narrator talking about two lovers (she's speaking about the girl to the boy)

"Rhiannon rings like a bell through the night and Wouldn't you love to love her? Takes to the sky like a bird in flight and Who will be her lover? All your life you've never seen A woman taken by the wind. Would you stay if she promised you heaven? Will you ever win?"

This is saying that she got close to him and then decided to leave the relationship before he would have a chance to hurt her. He'd love to love her but she isn't letting him-trust issues or fears keep getting in her way of fully showing her full love to him and letting him do that to her. She "takes off" like a bird (leaving the relationship) and the boy is wondering if she's ever going to let anyone love her. He's never seen someone before who just leaves like that and he sees her as a challenge. He wonders if he will ever win her love and be able to get her to open up and break down her walls.

"She is like a cat in the dark and then She is the darkness. She rules her life like a fine skylark and when The sky is starless"

Either they are comparing her to a cat because cats are mysterious, or they are saying that you never thought you would love this girl but then her love just creeps up on you and you end up loving her and finding out that she's better than you ever thought she would be. On the "skylark" part, I'm a bit confused. Skylark has two meanings. One is like a songbird-the other is someone who plays practical jokes on someone. I think in this context it's referring to the previous lyric "takes off like a bird in flight," it's saying that she never stays in a relationship too long and she flees before she can be hurt. It could also mean that she plays with people's minds just to see how many people can fall in love with her and then she leaves them heartbroken??

I could be wrong but that's my interpretation.

It is really weird...I have this friend named Rhiannon (Her Mum loves Fleetwood Mac and I'm just guessing that she was named after this song)...But It's like this song was written about her I swear (obviously it is impossible because she wasn't even born then) but just listening to the lyrics about a mysterious girl who you can never really know or hold down for any length of time (thats my interpretation anyway it really is like the song was written about her. LOL, Rin if you ever read this then yes I am slightly obsessed with you (in a noncreepy way) XD

I think this song is about someone that wants to love but has very little faith in love. Therefore, as some suggest "a drifter". She doesn't trust enough to stay. This is how the song speaks to me. Of course, I've been hurt & everytime I get close to someone; I have a tendancy to drift. Wouldn't you love to love her....if only she would let you.

This is also my favourite fleetwood mac song. mostly cos I know it was written and sung by stevie nicks. Why do you like it so much snypsy?

I personally think that this song also applies to a promiscuous woman. I think the speaker is directly questioning both Rhiannon, and whoever her lover might be, in the line "will you ever win?" It addresses how, even if "heaven" is promised, the man will never truly have her commit to him, and how Rhiannon will never find the satisfaction she so desperately searches for. I don't know why, but I can never escape that idea when I hear this song.

I met her tonight. She was always there, yet she wasn't - rather, I just didn't notice her - so in a way I did meet her tonight, the real her. On this very night, she came like a cat, out of nowhere, yet out of everywhere.

Always there.

What was wrong with me? Sooner? Why didn't I see it?

This song is about nothing. Pure emotion. No explanation needed, just our calling - however we see that for how it is.

Sometimes we think it's for a singular purpose, sometimes we see it as limitless. Regardless, when it creeps up on us, we know. You can't help but know.

Rhiannon. Rhiannon.

Rhiannon is the story of a lady that is from another world ~ called the Bright world ~ and she leaves her kingdom to become the wife of a king ~ a mortal king ~ but goddesses really can't marry mortal kings, if they do they lose their powers ~ their magic powers. And they don't lose the knowledge of them they just ~they know everything that's going to happen they just can'tdo anything about it. Which is a much more difficult way to live than not having magic powers is to not be able to use them and know exactly what's coming and to not be able to tell anybody. So she comes down and does her whole trip, and it's just a whole story ~ it's a wonderful story.

And she has these birds that sing and that is the legend of the song of the birds of Rhiannon. And they sing this song that is uh, said takes away pain and suffering and if you hear the song you just sort of blank out and go away and then when you wake up everthing's all right. And it is a wonderful, wonderful story which I use a lot, because there's a lot of ~ there seems to be a lot of need for the story of Rhiannon around lately, because if people are sad or have lost anybody or something the story really makes a lot of sense. ~Stevie Nicks, Starsound Special RKO Radio, December 21, 1981

I didn't want them to release Rhiannon as a single [in 1975] because I thought, 'What if she doesn't make it? What if my Rhiannon falls flat on her face? Then, it's not my choice to release her as a single, she is a mythological goddess of horses and steeds and maker of birds and she's a brilliant, brilliant character...what if she falls flat on her face?'

I didn't write Rhiannon for commerciality. I wrote Rhiannon because I loved her name and I loved her story. I didn't write her to be sold, she simply is not for sale and has never been. ~Stevie Nicks, BBC One to One, 1989

That song [Rhiannon (Will You Ever Win)] is really straight out of the old Welsh mythology. Rhiannon is the Goddess of Steeds and the Maker of Birds, and her song is a song that takes away pain. When you hear her song, you close your eyes and fall asleep, and when you wake up the pain is gone or the danger is gone and you'll see her three birds flying away. That's the legend. So, whenever I sing the song, I always think of that... ~Stevie Nicks, Music Connection, 1994

I got the name from a novel, I think I bought in an airport just before a long flight; it was called Triad, and it was about a girl named Rhiannon and her sister and mother, or something like that. I just thought the name was so pretty that I wanted to write something about a girl named Rhiannon. I wrote it about three months before I joined Fleetwood Mac, in about 1974. And then to find out that Rhiannon was a real mythical character! I went and read the four books of Rhiannon, and visited the lady who'd translated them.

Rhiannon is the maker of birds, and the goddess of steeds; she's the protector of horses. Her music is like a pain pill. When you wake up and hear her birds singing her little song, the danger will have passed. I realized that somehow I had managed to pen a song that went very much along with the mythical tale of Rhiannon. That's when everybody started saying Stevie must be a black witch or something. ~Stevie Nicks, Songs in the Rough by Stephen Bishop, 1996

There is one more thing I can send you [the Gulf War troops], and that is the story of a Welsh mythological goddess, named RHIANNON. I once, a very long time ago, wrote a song about her. It is called 'the legend of the song of the birds of Rhiannon.'

Rhiannon was a queen in a world far above us called the bright world, where all the colors were brighter, and everyone had a special sort of glow around them. It was a beautiful world, and she loved her world, but she fell in love with a mortal king from OUR world...and she left her world to come to ours to be with him. Rhiannon had three birds, one white, one emerald green, and one golden. It is said that in time of war, or strife, or pain, that her song can be heard.

"And down the glorious pathway, came the three singing birds, straight into the middle of the trouble and hardship ..." but that when you heard her song, your eyes would softly close and you would slip away. When you awoke the trouble would be gone, the sky would be the most wondrous blue, and far in the back of your mind you would hear that little song,, like a delicate little music box. If you were lucky, you might even see the three beautiful birds slowly flying away from you, and if you were very very lucky, you might even see Rhiannon .... slowly turning around to you to say, everything is fine,- She is smiling, and you see her disappear into the fine white clouds.

It is said that the legend is true...so I send you the energy from my golden cross and the three singing birds of Rhiannon to comfort you and to keep you safe. . ~Stevie Nicks, in a letter to the Gulf War Troops, Stars & Stripes, 1991

Rhiannon has been my most favorite song in the world ever since I first heard it in 1976 at the age of 14, there's been a lot of great music written over the years, but leave it to Stevie Nicks to write my most favorite. Stevie is the most beautiful, talented, coolest woman of all time, a true goddess, I love her so much. You should see the most amazing performance of Rhiannon, go to YouTube and type in "Rhiannon - ( Awesome performance ) 1976" (it's from The Old Grey Whistle Test), this tiny little woman explodes on stage at the end, and she even out sings the Lindsey Buckingham guitar solo! It's the most amazing thing to see and hear, check it out.

Google Rhiannon and go to Wikipedia. It is based on a Welsh witch that Stevie read about.

i got into fleetwood mac actually by my mom. yaa stevie! great song.