Over the Hills and Far Away

definitely a song about the frustration a man has about his relationships with women and now he has found a woman he loves.

a romantic statement of the frustration of underachievement of women, dream fulfillmentl awareness and finding meaning in it all

I think it's about this man who realizes he's made alot of mistakes as he looks along the open road as he's ramblin'. He misses his girl and see's other people get hurt to on the open road. Other men can't see what's in front of them.

ok, i just read through the 3 pages of posts, and don't feel as though enough's been said. a lot of it was bickering, and not really worth reading. so here you go, the ZepHead's explaination. A little sappy, a little serious, a little lighthearted.

This song is about Love and Life, and more.

The first part is about finding that girl you just can't stop thinking about. When you think about her, your thoughts just drift away. "Over the hills and far away," so to speak. The words and sound of this part just make you think of being with that girl, on a beautiful day, not a care in the world. To relate to another Zep song, Achilles Last Stand: "Oh to sail away, to sandy lands and other days. Oh to touch the dream, hides inside is never seen." This is a common theme of escaping our mundane lives.

Before the next two lines, the sound changes, and it's not all fluffy anymore. The lines talk about broken relationships, and when the cycle of "tears of loves lost in the days gone by" (if you've heard Thank You, which is incredible) will end. Roads are an archetype in many forms of art for wonder, the unknown, and journeys(often through life).

After wondering about Love, the next logical progression of though would be Life in general. As someone said, there's a lot of stuff that we don't understand. "Many" things we don't know. Many people don't even stop to think about life; they just keep on trucking through this life we live.

And when you try to comprehend "many," it "only leaves you guessing." "Guessing about a thing." What are we doing? Where are we going? Why can't I stop thinking about her?

Now that's my main interpretation, but there's a couple more things: "Many dreams come true and some have silver linings I live for my dream and a pocketful of gold." Ok, firstly, yeah, that gold's pot. I think the live versions pretty much nail that down. That doesn't mean the whole song's about drugs though. Secondly, these two lines together basically mean, "ya know, I can't make much out of this life thing, but i do know that some dreams do come true. That's worth livin' for." and the gold is something that this particular person needs to keep going. Maybe even to help him go "over the hills and far away" for a little while.

As for Tolkien's poem, yes, there is a poem called "Over Old Hills and Far Away," but i just looked it up, and am pretty sure it isn't about Aragorn/Arwen. I'm pretty sure it's name is what Zep took, unless it's a coincidence and they didn't even notice the connection. Bear in mind, multiple Zep songs had titles that didn't appear in the lyrics, or sometimes weren't related at all (e.g. Black Dog).

And Anti-lotr people need to chill; just because someone mentions a connection doesn't mean the whole song's about lotr, and doesn't mean the person that made the connection is a fanboy jumping all over everything. Note to lotr fans: don't start looking for connections in every song, because that is kinda stupid/annoying, and if anything, you shouldn't do it b/c it makes the ppl that hate you right.

I think that about sums it up. Please tell me what u think of my interpretation, praise or rage.

Cut the crap with the Tolkien shit .... not everything got to do with that ... !!! ....that goes for ya '' Ramthar '' ... !!! ... really, i can't picture Aragorn with a guitar singing to Arwen ...

i think it cant be right for me to like this song as much as i do, i just dont think its healthy.

Imagine, you're wrong. It is a fact that Plant was a huge fan of Tolkien. His dog was named "Strider". You're also wrong that they wrote ALL the songs together because they didnt. Plant wrote "thank you" on LZ2 and then on LZ3 they wrote more songs together. As for Stairway all lyrics were written by Plant and from that point on Page handed the lyrical reigns over to Plant because he was so impressed by Stairway. Babe im gonna leave you, for example, was already a song before they re-did it. Last thing, whether you're talking abotu Stairway or OTHFA, neither one is acoustic.

Anyways the main point i was arguing was the acoustic thing. I realize they wrote most songs together and lots of LZ1 songs were from the Yardbird days so Plant never really had a chance to participate in those. I dunno thats all i really gotta say now. Also i think you should give some thought to the LOTR theory and the acapulco gold theory. both make sense and a song can have more than one meaning. It could be about loving a woman, LOTR or buds... its anyones opinion but in mine i think it has different meanings.

I cant beleive that nobody has nailed the meaning of this song yet! It was obvious to me the first time I heard this song that it was about sleeping around!

The first four lines are about his desire for women.

Then - "Many times I've gazed along the open road." He keeps looking for more women

"Many times I've wondered how much there is to know" (about women)

"You really ought to know..." -(You really ought to sleep around)

I know I havent explained myself well but I cant be bothered doing a better job. Just think about it, it all fits.

-Know

for what it's worth, in the version on "how the west was won" he says "pocket full of gold/acupulco gold/acupulco gold"

I think (in keeping with the tolkien conspiracy theorists here) it's aragorn for sure...and arwen would, as has been stated, be a natural extension...