zoso812 February 20th, 2006 04:53PM  

The lyrics penned by Plant are allegorical in nature.. While Norsemen are identified, it's really Zeppelin, Plant is referring to. Like Viking warriors, Zeppelin had accomplished unabashed success selling out stadiums in hours. The tours were bedlam and often dangerous and Plant was comparing Zeppelin's 'overlord' status and power to that of Celtic warriors conquering a new land. It became a great stadium anthem and remained the opening song for most of the 72-73 tours.

i.win July 2nd, 2008 09:54PM  

The song is definitely about the Vikings. Norway, Finland, Denmark, etc. all have hotsprings and they're far enough north to have "midnight sun". The whole "hammer of the gods" thing is definitely Vikings. They have a thing with hammers... So is Valhalla. It's some realm or something where the souls of warriors killed in battle are kept by the norse god Odin.. or something. The western shore could refer to Iceland, Greenland, Britain, or North America. I would have to say North America the because of the song saying "to fight the horde". A definition for horde is: a people or tribe of nomadic life. Now, doesn't that sound an awful lot like the Native Americans?

farrello July 24th, 2008 01:03AM  

This song is about Iceland. The Ice and Snow (obviously). In summer the sun doesn't set and at Midnight it is bright orange and is referred to as the midnight sun.

The hot springs are the hot water pools that come from the earth and they blow in Geysirs. The hammer of Gods is Thor's hammer, one of the Viking Gods and he is the god of Iceland and the Vikings who landed on Iceland. The Western Shore is Iceland, situated west of Norway, and the Vikings sailed to Iceland from Norway

anonymous August 15th, 2008 11:26PM  

I've never read any Led Zeppelin biographies or anything, but just by listening to the song I think that they are using the idea of invading Norsemen as a metaphor. Led Zeppelin basically invaded America and conquered the music scene, like a boatload of vikings crossing the Atlantic and taking land from other civilizations.