Zeppelin & Tolkien

Here are two things I've been obsessed with (yet again):

1. "The Lord of the Rings" by J.R.R. Tolkien, &

2. Led Zeppelin

And, really, the two go hand-in-hand. Turns out that half of Led Zeppelin--singer Robert Plant and guitarist Jimmy Page--were super into J.R.R. Tolkien. It's not surprising that Page enjoyed Tolkien, what with his head-over-heels fascination with mythology and magic. And Robert Plant even named his dog Strider (Aragorn's "common name"). Many of their songs are influenced--or downright littered--by "Lord of the Rings" mythology and lore. Most famous of all is "Ramble On," mentioning Gollum and Mordor; the lyrics seem to retell Frodo's leaving of the heavenly Lothlorien to continue his perilous journey east to the Land of Mordor. Another one is "The Battle of Evermore," which mentions the Nazgul Ring-wraiths; the song's all about the Battle of the Pelennor Fields. There are other songs that, while not inspired by "Lord of the Rings," nonetheless have bits-&-pieces of the lore and language thrown in. "Stairway to Heaven" and "Misty Mountain Hop" are two of these: the first quotes a poem about Aragorn ("Not all that glitters is gold") and the title of the second echoes the infamous Misty Mountains in West Middle-Earth. The band denied that these songs were inspired by "Lord of the Rings," but any idea that the tidbits were forged in a vacuum away from Tolkien is just ludicrous. "Over the Hills and Far Away" may or may not be inspired by the tale, and some have speculated that it's Samwise Gamgee's reflections of his adventures at little Frodo Baggins' side. 

All the songs listed above are pretty awesome, but "The Battle for Evermore" is my favorite. And that's why I'm going to add a video of it (because adding videos to blogs makes you both hip and cool). Let's just pretend I'm doing all this on an IPAD and I'm about as awesome as you can get.





Basically, the point of all this is that by virtue of A being cool, B is cool.

So if you like "Lord of the Rings," you're cool, because Plant and Page liked it, too.

And if you like Led Zeppelin, then you're cool, because they liked "Lord of the Rings."

And if you happen to like both (like me), then you're quintessentially a bad-ass.