Are you sure that it is 'elves' and trees? When I first listened to this song, I heard 'owls' and now listening again, I can't tell, could be either... I think 'owls' works better.
Anyway as far as the song meaning goes, I think it is straightforward with no symbolism. Its a fairytale about an orphan boy who grows up in the forest apart from other humans, similar to The Jungle Book or Tarzan. There are slightly more suble points: "He was the only human being
Who lived in harmony", in other words the rest of the human race is not. As a race, we are constantly at war with nature, most of our actions damage it, we feel the need to destroy, subdue, push away, or bend it to our own design. (Deforestation, damming and levying of rivers, killing of preditory aminals because they compete with us in hunting game or they might happen to kill the occational livestock... etc, etc)
While I find the lyrics interesting, this is actually one of my least favorite WT songs, I guess it is too slow, and something about the sound or rhythm annoys me. It does fit in with the "mother earth" theme though.
Are you sure that it is 'elves' and trees? When I first listened to this song, I heard 'owls' and now listening again, I can't tell, could be either... I think 'owls' works better. Anyway as far as the song meaning goes, I think it is straightforward with no symbolism. Its a fairytale about an orphan boy who grows up in the forest apart from other humans, similar to The Jungle Book or Tarzan. There are slightly more suble points: "He was the only human being Who lived in harmony", in other words the rest of the human race is not. As a race, we are constantly at war with nature, most of our actions damage it, we feel the need to destroy, subdue, push away, or bend it to our own design. (Deforestation, damming and levying of rivers, killing of preditory aminals because they compete with us in hunting game or they might happen to kill the occational livestock... etc, etc) While I find the lyrics interesting, this is actually one of my least favorite WT songs, I guess it is too slow, and something about the sound or rhythm annoys me. It does fit in with the "mother earth" theme though.