The Queen
I'm made of bones of the branches the boughs and the bough beating light
Well my feet are the trunks, my head is the canopy
And my fingers extend to the leaves in the eves
And a bright, brighter shine
It's my shine
And he
Was a baby abandoned
Entombed in a cradle of clay
And I was a soul who took pity and stole him away
And gave him the form of a faun to inhabit
And a day, brightest day
It's my day
And you
Have removed this temptation that's troubled my innocent child
To abduct and abuse
And to render ? and defiled
But the river is deep to the base of the water
And I
I will fly you
To the far side
I'm made of bones of the branches the boughs and the bough beating light
Well my feet are the trunks, my head is the canopy
And my fingers extend to the leaves in the eves
And a bright, brighter shine
It's my shine
And he
Was a baby abandoned
Entombed in a cradle of clay
And I was a soul who took pity and stole him away
And gave him the form of a faun to inhabit
And a day, brightest day
It's my day
And you
Have removed this temptation that's troubled my innocent child
To abduct and abuse
And to render ? and defiled
But the river is deep to the base of the water
And I
I will fly you
To the far side
Lyrics submitted by MarcelLionheart, edited by chelonianmobile
Queen's Rebuke/The Crossing Lyrics as written by Colin Meloy
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Granted, all, it would have added a lovely bit of coherency to an already great album, but the support for it just isn't there.
Anyway, it's the song of the slightly crazy mother figure that wants her son all to herself...
Question though: Is she literally a tree, or does she have a human form, or is it all a metaphor?
Oh, and isn't it kind of funny she says 'Brightest shine, it's my shine', and she [Shara Worden] is in a band called My Brightest Diamond?
She isn't a tree. She's all of the trees. She's the spirit of the forest. Most folk tales will have her in some sort of human form when interacting with mortals, but her introduction is both metaphor and literal. She -is- the forest.
The Decemberists + Shara Worden of My Brightest Diamond= One of the best collaborations yet.
The timeline seems all wrong, if Isiah was able to fight the rake, he must have been at least a preteen, or even a young man.
I believe that this song is the key to the entire story. First: the queen talks of herself with "bones of branches" and "feet are trunks" a canopy. This leads me to think that she's more than just a queen elf or whatnot, but rather the human form of the entire forest that the story takes place in.
Which brings me to my theory of William: there wass never a human baby. Rather, william is a SEED; an infant TREE. The queen is his actual mother, rather than his adoptive mother. She saw him, unable to grow due to being surrounded (entombed) by Clay rather than soil, took pity, and chose to give him an animal form. In "the Wanting comes in waves/repaid", the queen says that she gave him "motion" - an animal/human form.
In The Hazard of Love 4 (Drowned), there is a lyric that says "a forest's son/a river's daughter". I think that means that Margaret is in fact a daughter of the Annan Water, and both the Queen and Annan Water are trying to keep them apart. This also gives the song 'The Wanting Comes in Waves" new meaning: the wave is a literal wave of water: Margaret.
After the rake abducted Margaret, she queen game him the ability to cross the River so that William would be unable to resue margaret
Thereby removing the object of his desires.
I also think that the entire Hazards of Love story makes more sense if you take a step back and consider it from a Meta point of view: as a kind of play or musical. The entire story is very Shakespearean, and if you consider the characters from the point of view as plaayers on a stage, some of the odd bits start making sense: the reason all the characters are human, for example, is because it's impossible to have singing and dancing trees and water.
That's what I think anyway, feel free to prove me laughably wrong
As for the Annan water interpretation is makes perfect sense. and this explains why Annan would let the beast through only to save Margaret then take her back along with him on their return
I aagree that the Queen is rather ambiguous as to her form, but I believe that she must have at least some corporeal form (a la the ability for William, and later the Rake, to communicate with in Repaid and The Crossing. If one also looks at the title the Queen's Approach she must have some form rather than the forest, "Mother I can hear your foot fall now, soft disturbance in the dead fall how." The beginnings to the Queen's Rebuke seem to be boasting to me, she is claiming her power, how strong she is. At least, to me. At least, that's what it seems to be saying for me.
It is hard to believe that William was never a human child, given the lines in The Queen's Rebuke. She found him 'entombed in a cradle of clay' and 'swore to save [him] from the world of men.' She states pretty clearly that she found him, not created him, or bore him. She gave him life, as William is pretty clear in stating during The Wanting Comes in Wave/Repaid. The Queen also claims to have found him abandoned, which to me suggests that he once belonged to a person (parents).
In the Hazards of Love part 1, and then A Bower Scene it seems pretty clear that Margaret is simply a human girl from a sort of nunnery or school, perhaps. I took the line 'a forest's son, a river's daughter' as to be a question of the child's sex, rather than saying she is in fact the River's daughter. Of course, I could be wrong, as Annan Water seems to be quite clearly seperated from the forest, since the Queen seems to have little power over it.
The Rake abducted Margaret, and the Queen made a deal with him, giving him permission to do whatever he wanted to her, 'to render her rift and defiled.' Pretty cold, honestly. However, the Queen didn't believe William would make his own deal with Annan Water, saying that the River could kill him as long as he was allowed to rescue his true love.
Anyway, just don't agree with a couple of the things discussed. I think it's possible that Isiaah is William, given that the Queen found a child entombed and abandoned in a cradle of clay, possibly suggesting an Urn. It would be more clear if it were clearly William's voice playing Isiaah at that point. Anyway, just my thoughts.
Also, I'm fairly sure it's "cradle of clay" and "I will fly YOU [the Rake] to the far side."