A lady with a violin playing to the seals
Hearken to the sound of calling

Who tied my hands to the wheel?
The zodiac turns over me
(Come to me)
Somewhere there my fate revealed
I hear but how will I see

I tied myself to the wheel
The winds talk to my sails, not me
(Come to me)
Somewhere there my fate revealed
I hear but how will I see



Lyrics submitted by Equilan

Track duration: 03:48

"The Siren" as written by Tuomas Lauri Johannes Holopainen, Erno Matti Juhani Vuorinen, Marco Hietala

Lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.

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The Siren song meanings
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21 Comments

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  • 0
    My Opinion:I think the people who saw a connection between this and The Odyssey are right. It's possible that Tuomas could be using the story of Odysseus and the sirens as a metaphor for a romantic relationship. Odysseus knows that the sirens will cause him to crash on the rocks and die if he turns toward their enchanting song, so he tells his men to tie him to the ship. He gets his men to put wax in their ears, but he doesn't do the same. It could be a story of a man who wants to be with a woman even though he knows she will hurt him. He refuses to avoid her influence completely, though, because he thinks he will be strong enough to resist her.
    Flag DixieJon September 25, 2009   Link
  • 0
    My Interpretation:hey guys! i don't mean to undermind anyone's meaning here, and you guys are most likely right, i just have a weird way of interpretation things. from what i get out of this - and this is strictly on a personal, "what the song means to me" level, is somebody going through something without really realizing it.

    A lady with a violin playing to the seals
    -to me, the lady "playing to the seals" - a seductive woman, beautiful beyond comparison, just as a siren.

    Hearken to the sound of calling
    -this woman is beckoning him to come; be it a wink in a bar, a second look while walking down the sidewalk, one way or another she is practically begging him to "harken to her call."

    who tied my hand to the wheel?
    -she has him in her allure now, and perhaps some time has passed. he is reflecting as the beginning stages of her "siren"-like behaviour are starting to come through. "who tied my hands to the wheel" meaning permanence - he knows the best thing to do would be to turn from her and leave her, yet he can't. why? who has made this so?

    the zodiac turns over me
    (come to me)
    -i'm not too sure about this line. "the zodiac turns over me," - perhaps he is beginning to realize his fate is beginning to turn, and is starting to see that everything this woman has promised him was merely an act to "turn on him" once she knows he can not escape. he is realizing this slowly.

    somewhere there my fate revealed i hear but how will i see?
    -perhaps he believes, dare i say knows, that somewhere "there," with the woman, his fate will be revealed, just as your fate is sealed once under the lure of a siren. he knows he is being used, taken advantage of, yet no matter how hard he tries and knows he must leave, he can not turn away from this woman. he knows this, but he can't accept it. she has such a hold on him that his true self is beginning to become non-existant, and he feels he lives to make her happy.

    i tied myself to the wheel
    -he is in a stage of acceptance. he was the one who allowed himself to fall for this seductress, and he realizes this now. he is the reason he can't leave as no matter how hard he may try, he can not escape. he has tied himself to the wheel.

    the winds talk to my sails not me (come to me)
    -i am not sure how to take this; perhaps the real him, the one who knows and is completely aware of what is happening to him, are his sails, and "he" is merely a shell, under the spell of this woman. she, the "wind," talks to him, but it is not to his true self, which must have been lost by now.

    somewhere there my fate revealed
    -same as before.

    i hear but how will i see?
    -same as before, but perhaps this time around, he is too fargone for there to be any hope of him breaking away from this woman.

    now as i said, i understand your guys' views to be truer overall, this is merely my interpretation on a personal level. :)
    Flag l0vemetalon September 20, 2009   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:Oh, I LOVE Tarja's voice in this one. The meaning should be pretty obvious, it's Odysseyus and the Sirens done to a nicity.
    Flag elvin_wizardon June 10, 2009   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:*contradict

    Sorry about that
    Flag catsiricoon January 25, 2009   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:Beautiful song. I love the combination of Marco and Tarja's vocals on this song. It just makes it that much prettier.
    Flag Gothic Divineon August 23, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:I think perhaps upon seeing the documentary, Tuomas said "what if she was one of the sirens, having still survived, and all she had left was playing for the seals?" That makes for an interesting fantasy plot. I think Tuomas is really a novelist who hasn't written a book.
    Flag indianajimon December 31, 2007   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:This song strikes a note with me (BAD PUN ALERT!!!), because I've been in a situation with my hands tied to the wheel, and only after asking who tied them did I realize it was me.
    Flag NeoNatakuon August 31, 2007   Link
  • +1
    General Comment:In this song Marco is Odysseyus and Tarja is the Siren. She sings the beginning part describing the siren and saying: "Hearken to the sound of calling".

    Then Marco sings the rest and says stuff like "who tied my hand to the wheel?" and all while he's singing, Tarja is singing in this luring, seductive voice and saying "come to me". It's pretty cool.
    Flag lalabunnon April 29, 2007   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:erik, just a random comment, someone already did that, kind of. symphony x has an album called the odyssey, in which they chronicle some if not all of homer's illiad.

    brilliant song; my fave off the once album at any rate. yes there are illiad overtones.
    Flag Feytaliston March 25, 2007   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:this is my favorite nightwish song. i think that if anyone ever wrote some sort of Odyssey: The Musical, nightwish should be considered to write the music.
    Flag erikskitty91on December 05, 2006   Link

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