Thirteen Autumns And A Widow

My interpretation of the literal meaning of the song, after listening to it over a hundred times since 1998:

• The countess gives birth to a deformed child ("On that eve when the Countess' own came deformed") and her men go out ("a black carriage was drawn … Gilded in crests of Carpathian breed") to get the infant Elizabeth as a replacement baby, meanwhile murdering her biological mother ("Bled white and dead, her true mother was fed to the ravenous wolves").

(Admittedly this is not explicitly said, but I don't think the "came deformed" part makes sense otherwise given that the rest of the song and album makes the case that Elizabeth is supernaturally perfect and beautiful.)

• Elizabeth grows up "under austere, puritanical rule" but even from young age she has violent sexual fantasies, e.g., she is turned on by seeing prisoners being whipped (after whipangels licked prisoners, thralled, never were her dreams so maniacally cruel and possessed of such delights).

• A priest lusts after the thirteen-year-old Elizabeth ("For She swore the Priest sighed when She knelt down to atone" - "this wolf of the cloth pouncing to haunt Her confessional box"). The priest sexually abuses Elizabeth ("When Her sins were washed off by rebaptism in white") although it is implied that she was in some sense a willing participant ("She sacrificed Her decorum as chaste" - "She kissed the Devil's phallus by Her own decree", which I don't think means the literal Devil at this point but rather either the priest or the concept of embracing sin).

• Note that the next song on the album (Cruelty Brought Thee Orchids) also refers to Elizabeth being "raped of faith" by "Her confessor, whose caress she'd know".

• After the act ("Stigmata still wept between Her legs") Elizabeth then seeks out a sorceress/witch. Perhaps the "nine twisted fates" gamble ("threw hewn bone die for the throat of Elizabeth") which one is to be hers, and Damnation wins, and shows her a path to the witch who teaches her black magic ("the witch scholared Her in even darker themes"). (It is not clear whether this happens physically or in a dream/vision, but it doesn't really matter since the end result for Elizabeth is the same.)

• The following morning "She awoke from a fable" (the fairytale with witches, which she likes) to "mourning" (~morning): the priest had cut off his own genitals and committed suicide by hanging himself from the church bells: "Church bells … tolled by a priest, self-castrated and hung". (It is not clear whether this event is directly related to the black magic: the priest could just have felt guilty about the sin he has committed, which would also explain the self-castration. The next song on the album does, however, say that "the dark had marked its dominion, spaying the confessor".)

• Everyone else was shocked by this ("the biblical prattled their mantras") "but Elizabeth laughed": at age thirteen ("thirteen Autumns had passed") she now felt free from the oppressive and hypocritical faith: "She was a widow from god and His wrath, finally".

• Of course there is plenty of symbolism and provocative imagery in the lyrics overall, but in context to the entire concept album (Cruelty and the Beast) about Elizabeth's life, I think taking the above as having literally happened in the album's story makes sense. Note that I make no commentary about the historical accuracy of any of this – the song is obviously a work of fiction so I don't think that's relevant.

[Edit: Corrected release year, added notes about the next song on the album referring to events in this one]

i always called them cradle of piss... they're as fake as the every other "goth" out there

eat shit and die.. who gives a fuck if they're "goth".. cradle of filth is real. see them live and you'll know.

Cradle Of Filth are the best band going! vpipkt can suck these nuts!!!

Brilliance...

fuck you vpipkt you're nothing if you could say that about COF , they fuckin rule!!!

i feel that this song is about elizabeth bathory and her transform into a "vampire." and as for vpipkt, that moron obviously doesnt know real music if it kicked him in the ass!!!he probably thinks orgy and marilyn manson is real goth music.

nope, your wrong. it's about a girl (elizabeth) who is 13 (13 autumns) who goes to confession one day and gets raped by the preist but she likes it. so now it her until she goes out to find the nastiest sex ever, the sodomy lair isn't even good enough for her and she ends up giving the devil a blow job. the next day she is waken by church bells and she has the preist who reped her hung and casterated "and she was widowed from god and his wrath finally." it drove her mad enough that the preist who raped her made her hate god for what he did, she was raped in his own house and is with the devil now

I would say daithe has it right. Brilliant lyrics, gotta love the old english poetic style.

Following in the tale of Elizabeth Bathory, this song is about Elizabeth finally freed of her husband's bondage. She is now free to begin her horriffic killing spree.