The Infanta

First Stanza: The narrator alerts that the infant is coming and then it sets the scene. Here the inf ant comes surrounded by wealth and beauty all far beyond and above (a loose- but accurate- interpretation of the word astride) what her true lineage ("her father's line") could have ever offered.

Second Stanza: This stanza goes into even greater details about the procession. There are five score (20) elephants all carrying royalty on their back in palanquin. The narrator points out "Look, there's the duke's daughters!" And there, right by them on the back of another elephant, is the Baron and Baroness." The Baroness, who cannot bear children herself, is rather angry that the king is putting on this massive grandiose parade for this infant. And perhaps, she's even a bit upset that this child wasn't given to her... (When you are done reading my interpretation, see the post script about the Baroness. It'll only make sense when you've read through the other stanzas first though.)

Third Stanza: After the elephants come 30 ranks of soldiers, all marching in the parade with their banners gleaming in the sunlight. Behind them is a carriage carrying the Moorish King's wives and the Prince's (the Kings soon.) future virginal wife.

Fourth Stanza: The infant looks innocent upon the back of the elephant while, all around her, trumpets are trumpeting and cannons are firing salutes and the crowds are cheering for her.

Fifth Stanza: THIS is the stanza which acts as a key to unlocking the entire song so pay attention! So here we are: the narrator has described this MASSIVE extravagant parade for this child. The narrator says that this entire procession is foolish nonsense because the narrator knows the truth: That infant is no princess or goddess come to earth. She was a commoner's child placed in a basket made from the branches of trees ("a bed made of chaparral") and had a circlet (or possibly even a garland made of flowers or vines) placed upon her head and then set afloat down the river. The basket ended up in a lake where she was pulled out and was then adopted by the royal family... Sound familiar? The trope of setting an unwanted baby (or forbidden baby) down a river has been repeated in mythology over and over: Moses, Karna, Sargon, Telephus and so forth. In most mythologies, the child is ordered to be killed by the king because he believes that, one day, that child will bring him harm or overthrow him. The parents, or sometimes the people sent to murder the infant, not wanting to kill the child instead set it afloat in the river so that its fate is out of their hands. Of course, the child has a great destiny so fate makes it to where the child is rescued. Of course, this then allows for the prophecy to come true. (In this sense, you can look beyond the "baby floating down the river" and draw even more parallels with other children that survived-despite-the-king's-orders such as Oedipus and Jesus!)

At this point, you can now interpret the song in one of two ways: The narrator is related to the child and knows about the hoodwink that was pulled. This is supported by the first stanza: "All astride on her father's line." The narrator knows hat she is being treated well beyond her actual pedigree. The narrator, and possibly even the crowds, are cheering in joy that the plan worked and the child was not only saved but given a better life.

Or, you can interpret the narrator as not being involved. He's just an observer describing everything and we, the listener, have pieced it all together.

This song is about the beginning of a new legend: this child was, probably for some grave reason, set afloat and has been rescued by the royal family. Now she is assured a life of privilege... In fact, she may have even been mistaken as being the child of or the reincarnation of a god! Does it get any better than that? In time, this child may even grow up to save all those commoners that are standing out there and cheering for her... hence why they've all come to praise her. :)

(P.S. About the seething Baroness: she is possibly upset that this kid was not given to her despite the fact she is barren. Or, she could also suspect that this child is not a god's child so she feels this parade is stupid. Or even both... For example: she might be thinking along the lines of "Hey, that infant isn't special and, if you knew it, you'd have left her there to die... but I'd have loved her regardless since I can't bear any kids of my own. But oooh no.... here you go getting all carried away and throwing this f***ing parade... bah humbug.")

im hitting the dictionary on every line it seems

the infanta is a baby...she's not getting married or even betrothed, it's her coronation, a celebration of her birth (or discovery, as the end of the song seems to imply). the "veiled young virgin" is betrothed to the prince, presumably the infanta's brother, and due to her place in this parade we can assume she's the daughter of the king of moors (marrying her to a spanish prince would be a rather strategic political alliance). the baroness is seething because she's childless and everybody's celebrating this lovely little baby.

^^Unfortunately, that's not correct.

Colin has mentioned that it is about a ceremony held in Spain in 1824. This would mean that the Spanish infanta in the song is none other than Luisa de Borbón, Infanta de España. I'd like to do more research on the ceremony and who the Baron and Baroness are. They are not her parents because Luisa de Borbon's parents were The Duke of Cadiz and the Princess of the Two Sicillies

About all the riot regarding the actual Spanish infantas, me, being Spanish, I just have to say that I totally doubt that this is based upon a real event. And it is not just that there aren't any elephants nor camels in Spain, but because there was no coronation of any Infanta in 1824; the two daughters of Ferdinand VII were born in 1830 and 1932. Secondly, the last Islamic Kingdom in the Iberian Peninsula, the Kingdom of Granada was conquered in 1492, so I really doubt that any wive of any Moor king would've been in the picture. And, talking about the situation of Spain in 1824, it was a year after the restoration of absolutism by Ferdinand VII and the armies of the Holly Alliance, and in America, the ongoing wars with the newly independent states that were once colonies. Meaning, it was not the time for partying with pachyderms.

All that being said, I just think the song is a recreation of an stylistic fictional coronation that has nothing to do with Spain, albeit Collin himself had said so. In a way, to me, it even looks to me as if they were talking about a coronation à la indiènne, very clichéd, with the elephants and all the coronation paraphernalia.

At the Denver show at the Gothic Theatre this June, they played this song live and Colin Meloy introduced it by saying that it was about the coronation of a Spanish princess in 1824. It fits in well with their typical historical themes... the song itself is very upbeat, but throughout the lyrics all seem to suggest a sort of inevitable despair to me.

This doesn't have any certain moral, it just describes the personages that would be present at such an event as a coronation. A baron, the Prince, a Moor, the King, etc. It's just that in the end, it hints that she is not biologically related to her parents, and was found in a cradle floating on the water. That suggests an air of foreigness, or mystery, about her.

I believe the liner notes actually say "to the air", but I don't have the CD on me right now. I'll have to check.

Also, this song doesn't necessarily have to be about an actual historical infanta; the child princess could be a character in a fairy tale for all it really matters. I think it's mostly the contrast between the baby girl, who's basically oblivious to all the fanfare and the massive extravagance that surrounds her.

It's always made me think of Oscar Wilde's story "The Birthday of the Infanta"

and I love the double-meaning 'pachyderm'

I definitely agree with sarcasticSmith. I am from India and it instantly reminded me of this religious ceremony I had been to a few years ago. It's cool that even though the song is set in Spain in 1824, it could easily be set in an India village not so long ago.

Awesome Lyrics!!