Alan Walker: Lily Meaning
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Lily Lyrics
Afraid of the big, wide world
She grew up within her castle walls
Now and then she tried to run
And then on the night with the setting sun
She went in the woods away
So afraid, all alone
They warned her, don't go...
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1TOP RATED
#1 top rated interpretation:Elements to Interpret:
A: Lily
B: Big Wide World
C: Castle Walls
D: the Woods
E: Creatures hiding in the dark
F: the things Lily has been dreaming of, the magic story
G: The Mountain high and valley low
H: Letting the creature in / creature controlling lily / hypnosis
I: Ice breaking breaks G (hypnosis)
J: Lilys flight and call for help
Literal
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Lily (A) is a Princess living in a castle (C) being protected by her parents from the harsh world (B). Nearby there is a magical forest (D) populated by ill meaning creatures (E). Lily sometimes sneaks out of the castle (C) having heard stories (F) of adventure and magic. One day she stays out too late and gets enchanted by a magical creature (E). Lily (probably unwillingly) accepts this enchantment (H) the creature promising her safety and adventures (G). Lily succumbs to the enchantment but when walking over a frozen body of water the ice breaks, breaking the spell (I). She now realizes that the creature lead her far away from home and in danger and no longer wants to go with, and tries to run away (J) but the creature catches up and tries to enchant her again. Whether she gets enchanted again is unclear.
Political
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Lily(A) is the American People. The big wide world (B) is the worlds complexity and abundance of ways to go wrong / to interpret the world. Castle walls (C) are the pre-internet era national consensus on what is right or wrong / how the world should be viewed e.g. that newspapers and big TV stations are generally reliable, the president and politicians want the best for the country, terrorists, communists fascists are bad, USA good ... The woods(D) are non-mainstream media / people telling stories different from what is generally accepted as true. Creatures hiding in the dark (E) are populists, conspiracy theorists, communists, whoever main stream /the public deemed as unsavory, not fit to be seen with. The magic stories (F) are what populists tell. Easy solutions to complex problems. Lily wandering out too long is modern society where the internet has undermined the old fabric of national consensus making former fringe opinions electable. The creature is Trump who promises what if you give him power (H) and let him do whatever he wants (G) his stories will come true: Coal comes back, the border wall will solve anything, ... Ice breaking (I) is the next election. People again have to decide whether to elect him (H). Everyone looks for another candidate but Trumps style has lead American society far away from its old safe walls having an unclear way to go.
Religious (Christian)
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Lily (A) is a fallible human. The big wide world (B) is the world of flesh tempting humans to sin. Castle walls (C) are commandments / religious rules for proper behavior intended to keep us on the right path and safe from damnation. Humans are tempted by sin and leave the right path, being tempted by their desires and sin (D). Creatures in the dark are demons forever tempting us, promising is worldly bliss (F) that can be achieved through sinning (doing drugs, getting rich through immoral means, ...)(G) . This human gives in to temptation (H) and becomes depraved. Deep inside he knows that he is on the wrong way and in a moment of clarity and remorse (I) he tries to get back on the right path (J) but once you lived a life of sin it is hard to get righteous again.
Historical
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Lily (A) is Europe between before 1914 and 1945. Before WW1, the Great powers had their system of alliances (C) supposedly protecting Europe from a big war (B). The woods and the creatures hiding in it (D&E) are nationalism, racism, imperialism, militarism, communism which unseen threaten the entire continent to be thrown into chaos and war. The stories (F) are the myth of the glorious battlefield, heroism in war, that a master race must prevail over lesser humans. The creature (E) are people telling the war can easily be won, industrialists speaking of national honor but hoping to profit from the war. (G&H) Letting the creatures take over is going into the war which supposedly is easy to win. Ice breaking (I) is the inter war period where the seed for the new war was already sowed. The creature newly trying to enchant is Hitler and the Nazis promising to return German honor and glory (F). Going to Mountain High and valley low (G) is the total war effort. In this interpretation Lily succumbs again to the creature after awakening.
Sexual
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Lily(A) is a girl growing up, becoming a woman an sexually active. The castle (C) is the youthful innocence which she starts losing once she comes into puberty. The big wide world is the big wide world of sexuality. The woods (D) represents the hiding / suppression of sexuality in our society making its exploration a hidden / shady thing. Creatures hiding in the dark are (E) her own desires for sexual experience, telling her to explore this area of herself. The story / dream (F) is her hopes / dreams of a fulfilled sex life. The magic represents the romanticization of the topic. Mountain High and valley low are the full spectrum of sexual experience / practice that she desires to experience. Letting the creature in(H), is giving in to her desire. The hypnosis(H) is the losing of her innocence. The ice breaking (I) is the realization that she has now become a woman. Her flight and call for help (J) is her fear of the future and the unfulfillable wish to become a child again. This interpretation is not to say that sexual development is bad. It just shows that it is a scary thing and often people wish back the time of innocence.
Psychological
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Lily (A) is your conscious mind, that castle(C) is your self deception telling you that you are in control of things. The big wide world is your subconscious which actually steers your behavior much more than your conscious mind. The woods (D) is part of that subconscious where your suppressed desires (=the creatures E) lie. The magic story (F) is you believing you are a rational being and you have no dark subconscious. The creature taking over control of Lily (H) is when subconscious desire actually takes over your actions. Ice breaking (I) is the realization that you are actually not in control. The flight is your futile effort to suppress your subconscious. -
2TOP RATED
#2 top rated interpretation:Lily was a shy young girl and was protected from the outside world for all her life. She wanted to be free though and left home. The setting sun is symbolic of the beauty and mystery of life. She left to the woods. The woods are not literal it is a metaphor for something mysterious, Such as the outside world and we know all know that the outside world is mysterious to her. So by the woods they mean society. Her parents warned her not to leave. Creatures hiding in the dark are meant to be the bad people in the world. She met another person. He told her not to worry and follow everywhere I go. either meaning he's kidnapping her or He means it in a romantic relationship kinda way. I think its the romantic relationship though because He then says later in the song," you'll be safe under my control." Witch a abusive partner would possibly say to make them feel comfortable but still being able to slip in the fact that they are superior. He is coming off as a nice guy and she goes along with it because she does know any better because she has not been in the outside world long enough to know the "wrong" crowd from the "good" crowd to be with. nobody knows when they are hypnotized so when that line came up I think it meant she knew she was so obsessed with him it almost felt like she was hypnotized to liking him. She realizes that He was making her obsessed with him in any way because He wanted to stay in the abusive relationship. when the cold thin ice broke meaning the last straw for her. She then ran out looking for help.
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3TOP RATED
#3 top rated interpretation:I think that if you see figurative then it could be about depression and the creature is actually death and it is trying to convince Lily to kill herself which I think she does that's why the song ends do abruptly. Also notice the use of "was" in the first stanza: Lily was a little girl.
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I think Lily was a fairy tale princess that wanted to escape her castle home and explore the forest. The creature, most likely a demon, had been obsessed with Lily for a long time and when she entered it’s forest, it took a chance to try to kidnap her and bring her to the demon world, where he could have her all to himself. Before she enters the world with him, she finds out what is happening and tries desperately to escape him, and before she escaped, he kills her, and takes her soul to the underworld, erasing her memory from everyone she knew.
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Lily was a little girl where afraid of the big wide world means afraid of the mysterious and harmful human beings she tried to runaway from all these she trusted a person who she thought would give her love it might be a lover or might be a kidnapper then she understood everything
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Am I the only one who read this song as to be about a girl who fell victim to an addiction of some sort? I feel this is about a girl who grew up alone probably as an only child and was protected by her parents from the evils of the world. And the line "afraid of the big wide world" suggests how inexperienced and unaware she was about the world's real nature. But one day she escapes the parents' grip no matter how much they warn her, she decides to try going out and experience the world but then "something came creeping". I see this "something" as probably some substance/drug that promised to give her all the happiness and escape from loneliness she was dreaming of. She repeatedly takes it in and becomes addicted but now and then she realizes she needs help to get rid of it she cries out for help but again the desire whispers and she loses this cycle repeats until she is completely swallowed by it and shuts her down...
This is just my personal view no harm, no offence intended in any way.. -
Lily was a young lady who was protected in "the castle walls" and attempted to run away to make her own life then she met a demon, and fell in love with him when he tried to hypnotize her. i feel like since the song didn't say anything about him hurting her, i feel like they loved each other whether hypnotized her not, but then she found out he was a demon and didn't want to be with him anymore or something and tried to run away.
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So lily was a girl sheltered by her parents and ran away when they didn't know I think that the line (they warned her don't go there there's creatures who are hiding in the dark) means that there could possibly be demons and when she was Hypnotized she walked in thin ice and when it broke she realized she had to get out of there she ran and yelled for help but no one was there so the "creature" but her under the spell forever and she was never seen again
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My intupertaion is that lily was always sheltered and when she was Hypnotized when the ice broke she knew she had to get away and started to scream for help but no one came so she was stuck with the demon forever and her parents never saw her again
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i honestly think that it's about a princess named Lily, and when it says, "She grew up inside a castle" means that her parents protected her. But she was probably tired of it so she sneaked out when the sun was setting, and wandered the woods. She then met a creature that said she can trust them, kinda like a kidnapper, and when it hypnotises her, it probably means that she was so interested in them that she couldn't see the bad in them. Then, when the thin ice broke, it could represent her finally seeing the creature's real colors, and she ran, seeking for help, but nobody was there to help her, and so she's running of that monster..
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Personally, I can relate to the song. It was times when I was shielded from what I didn't know about. I was sitting in a protective bubble that my parents built.
Eventually, I stepped out without telling them and began to explore what was forbidden. It was thrilling, enchanting and something very different. Eventually, I realized and felt afraid to lose that innocence that I was so used to. I tried running and hiding to preserve whoever I was before I ventured outside.
But what was lost was lost and before I knew it, I was someone very different from who I was. I was someone who knew what the world was about.
The song probably talks about the phase where you try so hard to sit back into the bubble that you no longer fit into. -
So I think Lily is a little girl and she is very scared of something in her house like some monster under her bed or something And her parents don't believe her and tell her she is safe in the house and in danger outside And she wanted to know if they were true so she ran away against the warnings they gave her and ran into a forest and then she met a creature which she could understand like probably a kitsune or kumiho some kind of dark fox creature which is white with blue markings and glow in the dark and it said {"Follow everywhere I go top over the mountains or valleys low give u everythin' you've been dreamin' of"}So lily followed it and it put her in a trap of cold thin ice after a long journey and with her weight And it broke so she started running away from it and Screamed for the creature to help her and it didnt and it expected her to do it and then she knew it was hypnotizing her with evil intentions and fled away from it and survived by running all her life and the line{"Just Let me In"} Was people asking for her trust or other creatures in the forest and she wouldnt thinking about her old "friend" and maybe it was able to shape shift but it was a demon so she couldnt trust anything . Anyway that's what I think it is
~VAL LAN -
I think the meaning of the song is that lily has been protected all through her life by her parents. They warned her about the outside world.
She then decided to flee when her parents were caught unaware. Then she met a stranger who promised her alot
And she believed thinking he loved her and then when she found out the thin ice (her living paradise was broken) probably the guy was an abusive partner. She realized it (ice broke n she awoke) means she woke she realized that she was being tricked n went to look for a way out. Then the guy pleaded for her to stay but she didn't listen -
I love drawing anime and I love making comics about music and just silly stories I make up. I really hope that everyone keeps posting their wonderful thoughts about music and a big thank you to everyone for their great Lily ideas I was planning on making a comic about that song but I barely knew what the lyrics meant and now I completely understand so thank you so much for everything.
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Lily was a young girl who was kept inside by her parents/family. Lily had always wanted to explore the world but her family would not let her, so she would go out/run away on her own. Then she met a (?) stranger(s)/kidnapper(s) who tried to persuade her to accompany them (?) ("follow everywhere I go top over the mountains or valley low") with everything Lily desired ("give you everything you've been dreaming of"). Lily initially believed that they would give her whatever she wanted, but she soon realized what they were doing and fled, calling for help ("she knew she was hypnotized..."). I don't understand what the song meant by "just let me in" but I think it was an add-on to enrich the lyrics.
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I believe Lily is her own safe side and control, hence the castle is her control of the environment. But she gets curious and leaves the safety of the her familiar environment and founds herself in a strange new place (the woods is often viewed as a mysterious and dangerous place). Either herself or her parents tell her not to leave but she peruses the satisfaction of knowing what’s out there. The creature is actually her wild and more dangerous side, a side with less or in this case no control. She falls victim to her own spell and eventually breaks it, like how ice gives suddenly to the immense pressure. She stops herself before doing something reckless and stupid (you can interpret what situation this was. Ex: A risky relationship, jumping off a cliff)This side of her is hidden away and remained unknown from her until this point, but wasn’t able to resist knowing what it could show her. She then literally asks for help in an urgent manner but now she can’t quiet the voice inside her. We don’t know if she falls victim again, but there is still more here. The wild side of her assumed everything would turn out ok and was left unsatisfied when she chickened out. I hope this can broaden your horizons on this song. And remember the artists that wrote this song may have created multiple meanings, so don’t be afraid to experiment with your own ideas
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I think that it's about trying to get away from the monsters that poison your life without becoming the monsters.
Maybe lily has really bad anxiety and she's afraid to make a friend. one day she tries to and the friend she makes is toxic and mean. and for a while Lily just thinks that that's how friendship is but then she realizes that this is not a good friend and she tries to get away and make new friends, but she's already contaminated and no one wants to be her friend because she doesn't know how to be a good one
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