Alpenglow

There are a couple of references in these lyrics, that give a hint about what the song is about.

• Jub Jub Bird

This is a creature that appears in Lewis Carol's 'Alice in Wonderland: Through the Looking Glass'. It refers to a creature that lives in a dark and depressive valley and is described as desperate and endlessly passionate. In the context of the song, it is used to describe a childhood fright.

• Walden

This is a reference to a literature classic by Henry Thoreau, namely 'Walden' or 'Life in the Woods' that deals with escaping into the woods to experience a sort of pure life. In the context of the song, it is most likely used to describe a sort of hideaway from the troubles and worries of the world.

Tuomas Holopainen revealed in a finnish interview, that 'Alpenglow' is a love song. He explained, that there are enough terrible songs like for a example 'Always' by Bon Jovi and the secret is, to approach universal themes like love or death from a different perspective and to translate this into music.

Here my notes for every line:

Once upon a time a song was heard Giving birth to a child of earth and verse

Earth – reality, here and now Verse – poetry, expression of emotions and thoughts child – innocence, connects earth and verse within Once upon a time – phrase usually at the beginning of a fairytale

Together we slay another fright Every Jubjub Bird*, spooks of the past Close your eyes and take a peek The truth is easy to see

Protagonist and loved one agressively kill frights These are fairytale creatures like a Jub Jub Bird who haunted the protagonists childhood Close your eyes – dreaming → take a peek beyond the veil of reality This reveals a simple truth

We were here Roaming on the endless prairie Writing an endless story Building a walden* of our own

We were here → Events happened in the past Endless prairie → They were within an endless seeming world and went on with exploring an infinite and unknown area without guide Story → The story of their love Walden → Place to hide from the troubles of the world

We were here Grieving the saddened faces Conquering the darkest places Time to rest now and to finish the show And become the music one with alpenglow

We were here → In bad times as well Grieving the saddened faces → They felt a lot of empathy for suffering Conquering the darkest places → They overcame bad times in the relationship

Time to rest now and to finish the show → Time to finish the story and prepare for death Show → Life Music → Beautiful. graceful. nostalgic, something to listen and dream to, timeless Alpenglow → Natural phenomenon, special sentiment, Sunrise and sundown (→Life)

Hand in hand guiding me into light You, the fairytale guise in blue and white

Hand in hand – Together Fairytale guise → unreal, beautiful, special, protagonist of a story Blue → Graceful, royal, powerful, beautiful White→ Innocent, gentle ref. to the child mentioned in the second verse → graceful, special, yet gentle and innocent, thus a fairytale guide, because those terms are usually used as opposites

You are my path my home my star A beautiful tale within the tale And when the dust needs to move on

My path, my home, my star → The only thing protagonist thinks about Where the loved one is, there the protagonist feels at home Beautiful tale within the tale Life → Story Love → beautiful tale, is written within a lifetime When the dust needs to move on → When the time comes, this could be a hint to a coming death

I will tuck us in on a bed of snow Painting white, silencing the valley we built Together we'll sleep Devoured by life Bed of snow → Cold, frosty, natural Painting white → Invisible, imagination Silencing the valley we built → Finish the story Together we'll sleep → Dreaming, dying Devoured by life → Overwhelmed, shaped by life

Roughly summarized:

The song tells the story of two lovers who spent a lifetime together. As both are about to leave this world, they take a look back at the beautiful times they shared, beginning with the time they fell in love with each other and concluding how they prepare for death. They experienced awe at the face of the vastness and beauty of the world and were happy only being with each other and thus they escaped from the world to come closer to the pure life. They felt a lot of empathy if someone suffered, realizing that this is a terrible emotion to have and even though they had hard times they always overcame them together, never losing their love for each other. As they decide to leave it be, they prepare to die, realizing how beautiful it is, that they got to experience life and that they got to share their stories together.

This is how I experience the song coupled with the lyrics. Obviously, there probably are other perspectives to approach the song from so don't take this like it's written in stone; especially since this is far from being a professional interpretation.

This song is definitely about humanity's time in the sun.

What is the very first line she sings, softly? 'We were here...' ?

The song is about more gracefully accepting the eventual extinction of humanity.

"We were here" is past tense. "We" can only refer to all of humanity, given how the whole album discusses evolution, not fantasy, relationships, etc. Ergo, humanity is extinct by the time of the song.

It's a "love song" to humanity in that it celebrates what humanity achieved during its limited time.

Also, the song never says why humanity goes extinct, because why isn't the topic being discussed. I suppose transhumanists would envision us being replaced by some post-human successor here. We know however that roughly modern humans existed for 300k years before the abnormally stable holocene 11k years go enabled civilization, so I think the best simplest verrsion would be that climat change makes civilization no longer viable, and then evolutionary drif turns us into something else, not necessarily something smarter. This interpretation meshes best with everything else on the album.