Into the West

When Jody asked us to pick out a song about love and share it with others, I was, I’ll admit, a little scared.  By asking us, she was essentially asking us to reveal something deeply personal to other people.  Music is extremely personal by itself – it can tell you so much about a person – and to add love on top of it is enough to make anyone balk. 

I know I’ve mentioned it before (and will definitely mention it again), but I was in Professor Salés’ Eros class last semester, where we actually read Plato’s Symposium.  But Professor Salés took it one step further and had us all write our own symposium on what we think love is, and speak it to the class.  If that wasn’t revealing oneself, I don’t know what is.  What was incredibly cool was that everyone had a different idea as to the nature of love.  It was truly personal and genuinely amazing to hear. 

While not quite on the same level of openness, sharing a song about love is definitely up there.  (I will pause here and applaud the people who shared their songs with the whole class, especially Alyssa who got pressured into it by our group).  Since I didn’t share my song (and am quite glad I didn’t), I wanted to talk about it here in this much less personal medium. 

I thought a lot about it.  There are plenty of songs that are about love – Far too many to count.  There are some I listen to and vibe with and others I don’t.  However, I actually went with a song that doesn’t use the word love at all.  The song I chose was “Into the West” by Annie Lennox.  It is most commonly known as the end song for Lord of the Rings: Return of the King.  Rather nerdy, I know.  The song has the singer telling the unseen listener to sleep now and not be sad, for though the two are parting ways, they shall see each other again.  Wonderfully depressing (there’s literally a line about hope fading.) 

Quick lore dump.  I promise I will not get too far into the weeds.  In Lord of the Rings, Frodo and Gandalf, along with all the elves, are leaving Middle Earth forever to return to Valinor, which is where the elves originally came from.  It is the closing of the adventure, and the end of the elves.  Lord of the Rings is filled with a sense of sadness and loss, as the power and magic of the elves fades away, until it disappears forever with the elves leaving.  The song is thus filled with that same sense of loss.  Like I said, pretty depressing.  Though the lyrics do say that they shall meet again someday, it doesn’t exactly end on a high note. 

As for why this song sticks out to me for love, that has to do with my father.  He is a big Tolkien fan, actually taught himself elvish, and is overall quite geeky.  When I was a child, he sang this song to me as a lullaby.  (He also would sing me “Castle on a Cloud” from Les Misérables, so you can tell he wasn’t a fan of upbeat lullabies.)  Despite the crying and sadness in the song, it now is comforts me.  It reminds me of my father’s love and helps me relax from whatever stress as piled on in my life.  This song is what I think of when I think of love – caring, comforting, and, if a bit sad, holds the hope that another day will come.