The Crow, The Owl And The Dove

I find it interesting that the first verses end with "needed nothing it had" but with the swan "needed nothing she could give" implying that she had something needed but wasn't able to give it. I wonder what it could be?

And the fact that those 2 lines are sung in Cumbrian language might suggest that they are a sort of magic words. I like to think of them being pronounced by a Celtic druid in the middle of a forest. :-) their repetition strengthens this idea, in my opinion.

If what I've found on the Internet is right, the two verses sung by Troy are in Cumbrian language and they mean something like "go to the river, you'll find a fairyland".

Then the song is structured like a ballad, with repeated verses and a protagonist who comes across different characters, that are the 4 birds represented in the song: the crow, symbol of pride (in Mr. Holopainen's opinion, at least); the owl, symbol of wisdom; the dove, symbol of peace and love (especially in Christian culture); the swan (which doesn't appear on the CD and whose lines are sung in a different way), symbol of beauty. All these elements are in the chorus, too, among the characteristics that Tuomas refuses, preferring innocence and truth (which are universal themes in his works).

I won't try to guess whether the 4 birds represent kinds of human beings.

"I think the meaning of the song is very clear without need for extra interpretation"

Are you kidding me? This song probably has more possible hidden meanings than any other on the album. Maybe you would like to share your 'very clear meaning' with us?

I was going over this song with a friend today and I think we came up with a pretty good conclusion.

The song is about a kid who meets all of these amazing people with different traits. It also goes about saying how the child is aware of how amazing each creature is and that he would like to be like them. He envied the crows pride, the owls sense, and the dove's love. However, although the child envied all of this, he didn't want to take it upon himself to learn all of the traits the animals had to offer. He just "wanted" innocence. As in the type of innocence that a baby has because he doesn't know anything. So I think that the main message of this song is to not throw away amazing opportunities by not wanting to take it upon yourself to learn new things because you have enough already.

I may be looking at this with the wrong eyes (listening with the wrong ears*) because I heard this song after their new album, Endless forms most beautiful. In that album there are many parts that seem to be disparaging religion. A quote by richard dawkins, a staunch ("militant") atheist, a quote by Darwin, who is often (wrongly, imho) put into a camp of naturalism, and an entire song seemingly disparaging religion. If Tuomas and Marco have been finding themselves more secular since Imaginarium, this song seems to be rejecting religion in many forms for truth. The crow could represent the devil, hedonism, or other proud religions. the owl could represent secular humanism, or pure rationalism, and the dove could represent Christianity.

The rejection of what the various religions have to offer in exchange for "truth" and innocence could demonstrate the start of a journey towards a religion of the self, where what they have is enough for them, and they don't need to reach into religions to find it, even though they find things appealing in the religions, because they value the truth over what religion can do for them.

"don't give me faith" seems to support this as well.. maybe the swan "mirrored" in the river refers to the self, such that the story teller wouldn't need anything they could give because the story teller has everything that the swan could give, since it represents herself.

Buuuuuuut maybe I totally read into it in ways the author didn't mean me to.

The part chanted by Troy is actually as follows:

Gar tuht river Ger te rheged

I think the meaning of the song is very clear without need for extra interpretation; the lyrics supply their own meaning. We will get extra context when the film comes out, however, in terms of the part played by the various birds in the story. After all, the three birds can be seen in the Imaginaerum symbol, so they must be important. ;-)

My favorite song from their new album i think. :D

I think this is about someone (well, probably the old composer) who looks back on his love life. He realizes that he didn't look for a woman that would just give him love, or pride etc, but truth and innocence. I think that each bird mentioned here is one love of his life. Each of them was lovely in her own way, but in the end he refused them all, because they couldn't give him truth or innocence, but only love. I'm not entirely sure, though.

So I researched a bit and I found a forum where somebody said they spoken to somebody that knows a bit of Cumbrain. According to them "Gar tuht river" could! mean "Go to the river". Also I found that "rheged" was an of celtic kingdom. So the lyrics could! mean something like this "Go to the river, get to rheged".