Two For Tragedy

I really didn't have any idea of what this song was about at first, but after a few listens I had an idea it was about Adam and Eve, and the whole creation of human life. It's told from God's point of view. There is also a reference to the garden of Eden in the first line, so that helps back up my point. I'm guessing he's refering to Adam with "My Fallen Son" because he took the forbidden fruit and therefore betrayed God. It also goes on to say "Even in your pride, I never blamed you" so God was forgiving. The reference to the two saddened angels is of course Adam and Eve. And and the end with the "Beneath the candle bed, two souls with everything yet to be said" is saying that humankind has only just began, and everything is still to come. There are a few things I'm still trying to figure out, but that's my interpretation of the song :)

Tuomas on this song: "The biggest tragedies always require two..."

@Londonn: to me your interpretation is quite in a bad taste. :-s I don't think Tuomas would ever write such a thing.

I think its about just how sad and worth nothing life is...there is no meaning to live it

The first time I heard this song I thought it was about a Mother losing a son, and Binni's quote clarifies that.

"My fallen son Slumber in peace Cease the pain Life's just in vain "

The pain of life has ended, and now her dead son can sleep in peace

"A mother's love Is a sacrifice"

Pretty self-explanitory - a mother makes a sacrifice by having children, as her children are so much a part of her that her heart is broken if anything happens to them, and she sacrifices a part of her own life because her children become the center or her universe

"One light for each underserved tear"

Her son shouldn't have died, so her tears are undeserved.

I might have get that completely wrong, but that's what I see in it. This is a really beautiful song, and a great album.

This song makes me think of the Virgin Mary and Jesus.The song sounds like its about the grief a mother goes through after she loses a son.Well, I bet she went through alot of grief when Jesus was crucified.

This might also tie in with Bless The Child and the theory of that song also being about someone who is terminally ill and wants to die and be able to go back in time to bless the child. "Soon to be freed from care and human pain"

Black Angel's idea is also a really good one about the child being Jesus and the mother being Virgin Mary.

I think this is about a mother that had a somewhat bad, evil, or maybe just incomprehended son. They never got to understand each other, they both suffered much, he was scorned by the rest of the people, that made the mother totally unhappy, because no matter how proud or stubborn or different he was, still remained her son for all eternity. The son is now dead, finally in peace, and the woman is somewhat relieved that it's all over and he suffers no more. She recognizes maybe she shouldn't be crying for him for it was the best, but cannot avoid it, being a mother is a sacrifice after all; and she regrets she never reached him. Now she just wants to mourn him and think of nothing else, keeping the memories of what was really important: the love she had for him; not thinking about what is good, what is bad, or even what is beyond death.

In most of his songs, Tuomas don't know if he/we is/are lost or not, the result of the great game of life is uncertain; this one might be one of the few, if not the unique where the end of the movie is sad, bad and yet waited. It appears to me as a flash of pessimism in the constantly uncertain mind of Tuomas. Not to listen to depressive people.

I think it's possible this song is about abortion or miscarriage. She's mourning that life, but also acknowledges that in his death, he's free. Tuomas often writes about feeling lost and desolate, and longing to die or return to a state of unconsciousness, such as with the song Nemo. It could be that he's commenting on a possible positive side to losing your child when they're still so young or even unborn - they will never have to feel that way.

--'Sleep Eden Sleep My fallen son Slumber in peace Cease the pain' -- She wants to preserve the good and the innocence, without the pain of consciousness. 'Eden' could mean innocence.

---'Life's just in vain For us to gain Nothing but all the same' --- Speaks for itself, really. We're all going to die anyway, that is the destiny of everything and everyone, and life is superficial at the end of it.

--- 'No healing hand For your disease Drinking scorn like water Cascading with my tears' --- She has no choice, but they share the pain. Especially if this song is about abortion, it could be saying that even though she's made that choice, it doesn't mean she doesn't love her child (Perhaps the scorn is toward her), she feels as if she couldn't do anything else.

--- 'Beneath the candle bed Two saddened angels - in heaven, in death Now let us lie Sad we lived, sad we die Even in your pride I never blamed you' --- She's not blaming her child.

---'A mother's love Is a sacrifice' --- Again, perhaps she did it out of compassion because she didn't want him to suffer, or if it was a miscarriage, she is saying the sadness of loss is the risk we take when we love.

That's my interpretation of it. As well as the fact that it's called 'two for tragedy', which is a clear subversion of the magpie song:

One for sorrow Two for mirth Three for a wedding Four for a birth