Led Zeppelin: Immigrant Song Meaning

Song Released: 1970

Covered By: Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (2011), Jamie N Commons (2014)

Immigrant Song Lyrics

Ah-ah, ah
Ah-ah, ah

We come from the land of the ice and snow
From the midnight sun where the hot springs flow

The hammer of the gods
Will drive our ships to new lands
To fight the horde and sing and cry
Valhalla, I am coming

On we...

1. anonymous

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   Aug 15th 2008 !⃝

   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.
2. anonymous

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   Jul 30th 2008 !⃝

   You Americans always assume that everything is referenced to you...
   I would definitely say that the 'western shore' refers to the British Isles.
3. i.win

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   Jul 2nd 2008 !⃝

   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?
4. anonymous

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   Jun 27th 2008 !⃝

   Yep- I agree with you on the Viking theory!- I have been singing this song on stage for years and a few weeks back on the History Channel was a VIKING SPECIAL and a lot of the same words were used! hmmmm Cheers, KK Ryder

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
5. anonymous

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   Feb 2nd 2008 !⃝

   This song may sound like the most self-explanatory song you may think, but you never know. So many songs are rich in figurative language, so you never know the true meaning. This song may be one of them. You never know... but personally I think it's about the vikings.

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6. joeshmo

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   Oct 8th 2007 !⃝

   The land of the ice and snow from the midnight sun.
   
   Top of the sky.
   
   There's a layer of ice. The 'midnight' sun is the hidden sun.
   
   The hammer of the gods is the ice chunks falling to the ground.
   
   google megacryometeors.
   
   Immigrate to Chicago. The western shore of Lake Michigan.
   
   The moon will protect you there.

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
7. anonymous

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   Sep 18th 2006 !⃝

   This song is about robert plant's fascination with old celtic legends and so on and so forth. It was written while the band was recording led zeppelin iii at an old retreat in england. Richard cole the band's tour manager describes it as plant and page would go out for walks with an acoustic guitar and a tape recorder and come back with songs and this was one of those songs. All of this can be read in "stairway to heaven: led zeppelin uncensored" written by richard cole
8. LedZeppFreak

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   Mar 4th 2006 !⃝

   I think Plant was bored & wrote about the immagrants, except he for got to put that they landed n Ellis Island

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9. zoso812

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   Feb 20th 2006 !⃝

   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.
10. anonymous

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    Nov 1st 2005 !⃝

    A song by Led Zeppelin with a tongue-in-cheek element. They'd become very popular by then and did a song to show the stereotype of the music, lyrics meaning to be more comical than anything but has turned to be one of the most famous songs by Led Zeppelin.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
11. anonymous

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    Oct 18th 2005 !⃝

    I think this song is about when Vikings reached North American soil, and engaged in many violent battles with the various Native American tribes that occupied the land.

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