Text written by WikiBrother Gabriel Brandino , from @moshinhell
Today we'll explain where the idea for the song "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" by the band Iron Maiden
from
. The song, a masterclass in technique and mastery, lasting over 13 minutes, takes its entire lyrical idea from a poem written by the Englishman Samuel Coleridge between 1797 and 1798. This is one of the most important poems of its time and marks the beginning of Romantic literature in England.
The poem begins with a sailor stopping a person on their way to a wedding ceremony, and then he begins to recount his adventures from an old voyage, with a series of supernatural and entirely reflective events alongside his crew.
"Hear the old sailor's tale /
See his eyes as he stops one in three /
Hypnotizes one of the wedding guests
/ Stand here and hear about the nightmares of the seas!"
The sailor is on his boat when, due to a storm, the boat deviates from its course and arrives in Antarctica.
"Heading south to the land of snow and ice
To a place where no one has been
Through the fog flies an albatross
Acclaimed in the name of God, hoping for the good fortune it brings"
⠀
An albatross appears and guides the crew out of Antarctica and the storm. The crew is happy to see the bird, however, despite its help, the sailor shoots and kills the animal.
"And the ship sails, back north
Through the fog and ice and the albatross follows
The sailor kills the bird of good omen
His companions complain against what he did
But when the fog disappears, they forgive him
And end up taking part in the crime"
⠀
The crime awakens a tide of bad luck for the crew, who blame the sailor for killing that albatross, even tying the dead bird around his neck as a way to make him regret his act.
"The albatross begins its revenge.
A terrible curse, a thirst has begun.
Its companions blame the sailor for the bad luck.
Hanging from its neck is the dead bird."
They end up stranded for days, without wind, and their supplies dwindling with each passing day. Then they encounter a ghost ship along the way.
“Look, she has no crew
She has no life, wait… but there are two!”
On
board are Death (a skeleton) and The Nightmare of Life in Death
,
betting the souls of the crew. Death wins the lives of the crew, and Life in Death wins the life of the sailor.
One by one, the entire crew dies, leaving only the sailor, who for seven days and nights sees the curse in the eyes of his crew's corpses.
“Death, and she life in death.
They cast the dice for the crew.
She won the sailor.
And he belongs to her now.
Then, the crew one by one
fell dead, two hundred men…
Each turned his tormented face
and cursed me with his gaze.”
The
sailor's fate is to have a life worse than death, as punishment for killing the albatross when it had helped them.
Completely distraught by his curse, the sailor prays and begins to see the beautiful animals swimming around the boat, realizing how beautiful nature is.
Soon after, the dead albatross that was around his neck falls, as does his curse.
And the bodies of the dead crew members are possessed by good spirits, who guide the boat home again, sinking in a whirlpool.
“Now at last the curse is over
And the sailor sees his home
Spirits emerge from the bodies long dead
Form their own light and the sailor is left […]
And the ship sinks like lead into the sea”
The
citizen
on land, who goes to meet him in a boat and saves him. As punishment for shooting the albatross, the sailor is forced to wander the world to tell his story and impart his lesson to whomever he meets along the way.
“The sailor is destined to tell his story […]
To teach the word of God through his own example
That we should love all things that God has made
And the wedding guest is a sad and wiser man
And the story goes on, on and on”
READ ALSO: Cannibalism, murder, lots of blood and a touch of Rammstein
