From what I understand this song is about Lord of The Rings. The song is very cryptic though, Led Zeppelin apparently were big fans of the books. Any other meanings?

you are right, it is about the final battle in the third book. the queen of light is Arwen, the prince of peace is Aragorn. the magic runes is either a reference to the ring or to Sam's sword, both of which have runes on them, and both are pivotal in that final battle.

actually, this song makes quite a bit of sense...
you guys are correct, except...
the queen of light is galadriel. "queen of light took her bow, then she turned to go" passing the last test of the ring, galadriel knows that now that she hasnt taken the ring for her own power, all elves' time in numenor is coming to and end and the last stronghold of elves in middle-earth, lothlorien, must decay and move back to the gray havens (not a bad place to live;]) ... anyway, arwen is a princess if anything, being the daughter of elrond. her part in the movie was augmented greatly. but damn liv tyler was hot in the part... phew... shrug

The "Battle of Evermore" is between Tolkien fans and anyone with a life.

you're a wanker, bite_me. If you had the mental capacity to appreciate the books, you might agree with Tolkien fans. Its great stuff.

deffinitly lord of the rings. zeppelin knew who was better at telling a story than them. not many, but tolkien was a better story teller with deeper meanings and plant knew that, so they idolized and acknowledged him in a lot of their songs, and devoted a few songs to him as well. in the beginning of the song they mention avalon, the mystic island in the tale of king arthur, not in lotr, just thought id point that out.

bite me is definetely a moron i have followed a couple of his idiotic replys.. one of his most mature replies he tells someone to have relations with a camel.. a real classy guy

i got into lord of the rings a few years ago, and now i that im way into led zeppelin, its so awsome, led zeppelin really is the best rock band ever, and from what music looks like today for the most part, i dont think anyone is gonna take that title from them anytime soon.

this song has very litle to do with the tolkienn books. it is about amargeddon. the angels of avalon are the fallen angels. look int some celtic mythology. the morning light is lucifer the morning star. christ will come from the east. this song is a demonic prophecy. being luciferians, zeppelin see lucifer as the sun. and christ as the dragon.

well i dont really agree with the very last comment... but i do agree with the other ones.. realplastictrees you may have to read tolkien's books and that might change your point of view here..

well i dont really agree with the very last comment... but i do agree with the other ones.. realplastictrees you may have to read tolkien's books and that might change your point of view here..

fiver is correct, galadriel is the queen of light, this is obvious, you dont even have to read the book, watch the first movie, Frodo offers her the ring, she declines, and leaves, the prince of peace refference is more complicated. Now reelplastictrees is not completely wrong, the song is about celtic mythology as well, read up on the band members, because if Lord of the Rings, and the occult, were there two favorite things, celtic mythology was the third, and it can also be argued that lord of the rings is based on celtic mythology, with a little WW2 spliced in, anyway, back to battle of evermore, The prince of peace is reavealed at the end of the third book as FRODO, read about the battle for the shire and you will understand, but more obviously he faces night alone when he sets off without the company to finish his task, of course directly after galadriel turns down his request for her to take the ring. Frodo as the prince of peace, parallels the legends of king arthur, the great king, this is further addressed in LOTR, because Frodo goes off to the grey havens, the home of the immortals, who will help out the troubled human race in times of need, just as the gandalf did, this happens in a way much like Arthur is taken to avalon, the legend of arthur states that he is the once and future king, and will come back in mens time of need. Of couse, avalon is addressed in this song, though I have not completey broken down its usage. Anyway, to put things simply, THIS IS BASED ON LORD OF THE RINGS, LORD OF THE RINGS IS BASED ON CELTIC MYTHOLOGY AND WORLD WAR 2, SO THIS SONG WILL HAVE REFERENCES TO CELTIC MYTHOLOGY, FRODO IS THE PRINCE OF PEACE, HE IS REVEALED AS A SYMBOL OF KIKG ARTHUR WHEN HE GOES OFF TO THE GREY HAVENS, AND TINKIWINKI THE BIG PURPLE TELLETUBBIE IS GAY

OH BY THE WAY THIS SONG ROCKS, DEFINITLY ONE OF ZEPS TOP 3

I'm going with the LOTR idea. This follows the end of the books perfectly. The queen of light is Galadrial, and the Prince of peace is either Frodo or maybe Aragorn. I'm not going to get into the rest. anyone who has read the books can figure that out. Very cool song, though. On the weird side, and incredibly hard to hum correctly (i've had it stuck in my head before... trust me.) but that does nothing to it's brilliance.

Actually toolucky, I believe there would be more influence from Norse mythology than Celtic, at least in LOTR. Tolkien was very heavily influenced by both cultures, but Norse took more prevalance than Celtic. If I remeber correctly, the elvish language was based on a mixture of Finnish and other languages. But back to the song, It doens't neccessarily have to be exclusively about the lord of the rings, it could just be any battle between good and evil. The vocals are extremely good, but I can't figure out who the other voice is (is it plant or jones?). By the end of the song, I just get this tingly feeling for listening to such a great song.

this just might be my favorite led zeppelin song. the guitar is amazing. can anyone count how many vocal tracks there are? three? more?

the lyrics are so good, i don't care what they mean. in the middle/end part of the song, when you get track over track of robert plant, that is the best part of the song.

the great voice in this song belongs to Sandy Dennis, the singer from fairport convention

id have to stick the to the lord of the rings theory too because he mentions ringwraiths in the song (The drums will shake the castle wall, the ringwraiths ride in black, Ride on.) the ringwraiths are a major part of lord of the rings

i discovered this song while i was really high one day and i literally had tears in my eyes...ever since then its been one of my fav zeppelin songs...

I wonder if this song could be an allegory to the endtimes of Christian prophecy. The title seems like a good giveaway: "The Battle of Evermore". Evermore, as in forever, eternity and, hence, the suspicion for it being about the "endtimes". From what I understand, the prophecy of the end from the Book of Revelations catalogs the steps toward the ultimate victory of good over evil. In the first line of the song, the lyrics reference the "Prince of Peace" - a title given to Christ. In various books of the Bible, Jesus describes his return riding on the clouds with a train of angels. I don't know what the "embraced the gloom" part may be about. Maybe it's to describe Jesus mood for the task he must do which is, namely, to judge the souls of humanity. Probably not a very uplifting job because it means that people will perish. The song repeatedly refers to the "darkness" and the "dark of night" (wait for the eastern glow). I think there is some line in at least one of the books of the Bible about the sun being shrouded in darkness during the last days. Also, the lyrics refer to the "Dark Lord" in riding in force and the "tyrant's face is red". Could this be a reference to the devil? The devil is often depicted as a red-skinned satyr-like creature, and he is often reffered to as the "Prince of Darkness". Satan is supposed to gain control of the whole world through agents in high places (ten kings) and, subsequently, through the embodiment of the antichrist. Some of the next lines in the song are: "I hear the horses' thunder down in the valley below,/I'm waiting for the angels of Avalon, waiting for the eastern glow." Could those horses be reffering to the Horses of the Apocalypse, commandeered by the agents of destruction (Pestilence, Famine, War, and Death)? The valley, too, is significant. The valley of Har Meggido, in Israel, has been sighted as the spot of the final showdown between the forces of good and the forces of evil. The name also happens to be where we get the word "Armageddon". The valley of the song apparently has apples growing in it, apples which "hold the seeds of happiness". This line of lyrics made me think of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, an apple, which Adam and Eve ate and which got them kicked out of the Garden of Eden. From Milton's "Paradise Lost", the act of eating that apple is treated as an almost gleefully wicked thing to do relating it to the "seeds of happiness". The next line, "The ground is rich from tender care, repay, do not forget, no, no," seems like further biblical allegory as Adam was assigned to "care" for the Garden of Eden and tend it. Also, the phrase repay is significant. Because of Adam's trespasses like eating the sinful apple, he was consigned to die someday. The debt he has incurred, death, must therefore be repayed. That repayment comes in the form of the tribulation and redemption of Adam's heirs - the human race - during the last days. The last lines of the song, "At last the sun is shining,/The clouds of blue roll by,/With flames from the dragon of darkness, the sunlight blinds his eyes." could detail the last stroke of the battle between God's forces and the devil's. In Revelations 12:9, the devil and his forces are cast from heaven and it is described this way: ""and the great Dragon was cast out, that old Serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world." The sunlight which "blinds his eye" (the devil's) could be God himself as Milton describes God as a pure white shining light in his poem "Paradise Lost". Not to discount the clear reference to the Ringwraiths in the song, and the possiblity that the "Queen of Light" could be the character Arwen or Eowyn and the "Prince of Peace" Aragorn, there is more biblical allegory here than Tolkien's works.

Wow, that was a long one Mattius. Is the dragon of darkness Sauron?

Just to elaborate on the LOTR idea...
"The sky is filled with good and bad that mortals never know."
This line is about Aragorn returning, which noone knew would happen.
"Oh, well, the night is long the beads of time pass slow,"
I think this also refers to the slow return of the king.
"Sing as you raise your bow, shoot straighter than before."
Reference to Legolas.
"No comfort has the fire at night that lights the face so cold."
Reference to Gimli ... maybe :)
"The magic runes are writ in gold to bring the balance back. Bring it back."
I'd say this is about the ring coming back to Mordor.

Umm ok....I know nothing about LOTR. I'm sure you guys are right though.

Is the 2nd voice in the 2nd Plant as well? His voice goes high, but it sounds like female. I dunno though.

Great song, the guitar is awesome.

Ugh a big editing mistake their, I wrote '2nd' twice, I meant to say is the 2nd voice in the song also Plant. Sorry.

Mattius82, the entire LOTR trilogy is an allegory to christianity and a christian's life, including the end times. so you are somewhat right, this song is based on LOTR, which is based on the Bible and christianity.