# Led Zeppelin Tolkien references **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 18, 2001, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/led-zeppelin-tolkien-references/69228 "2001-06-18T15:29:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ChiefScott](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/58f4c7/32.png) [@ChiefScott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChiefScott)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2001, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/led-zeppelin-tolkien-references/69228/1 "2001-06-18T15:29:39Z")
I did a lyrics search and was un-able to come up with an answer to this… probably 'cause I can’t remember the song’s name. I know there is a Zeppelin lyric which goes something like: “From the darkests depths of Mordor, lived a girl so fair. And Gollum and the evil woman, swept away with her, her, her hair.” Or something like that. What tune is this? Do you have a link to the lyrics? And are there any other LotR references in oter Zep tunes? ---
**Author:** ![Sofa\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58956e/32.png) [@Sofa\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofa_King)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2001, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/led-zeppelin-tolkien-references/69228/2 "2001-06-18T16:33:36Z")
[Ramble On](http://mozcom.com/~carloraf/lyrics.htm#ag), from Led Zeppelin II. [The Led Zeppelin and Tolkien Relations Page](http://www.geocities.com/Athens/2406/). [http://www.google.com](http://www.google.com) ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2001, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/led-zeppelin-tolkien-references/69228/3 "2001-06-18T16:50:10Z")
And the phrase is: > [@](#): > > \*\* > T’was in the darkest depths of Mordor > Mm-I met a girl so fair, > But Gollum and the evil one > Crept up an’ slipped away with her-her, her-her,her-yeah. > \*\* I always heard the phrase as “Gollum and the evil warg” ---
**Author:** ![Sofa\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58956e/32.png) [@Sofa\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofa_King)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2001, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/led-zeppelin-tolkien-references/69228/4 "2001-06-18T16:51:27Z")
Oops. Didn’t mean to sound like a smartass there, **Chief**. What I was _going_ to say about Google is the trick is to put the multiple-word key terms in quotes. My two searches were: ‘“Ramble On” lyrics’ and ‘“Led Zeppelin” Tolkien’ Anyway, hope that helps. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2001, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/led-zeppelin-tolkien-references/69228/5 "2001-06-18T16:53:05Z")
I’ve heard that _Stairway to Heaven_ is supposedly full of Tolkien references, but most of them rather more subtle than that. For instance, he “looks to the West” as a place of hope, or longing. If there is a song that has the lines you quoted, then I’m seriously wondering what Zep was smoking. Nothing fair ever came out of Mordor (although Luthien Tinuviel did go into Angband, which was much worse), and Tolkien’s stories are notable for a shortage of evil women: The only evil female of any sort in the _Hobbit_ and the _Lord of the Rings_ was Shelob, and she’s about as far from human as you can get. ---
**Author:** ![ChiefScott](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/58f4c7/32.png) [@ChiefScott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChiefScott)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2001, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/led-zeppelin-tolkien-references/69228/6 "2001-06-18T17:01:02Z")
Great sites, _ **Recliner Rex** _! Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Sofa\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58956e/32.png) [@Sofa\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofa_King)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2001, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/led-zeppelin-tolkien-references/69228/7 "2001-06-18T17:04:31Z")
_ **Chronos** said:_ > [@](#): > > If there is a song that has the lines you quoted, then I’m seriously wondering what Zep was smoking. Well, at least with regard to “Stairway to Heaven”, _Hammer of the Gods_ claims that Jimmy Page and Robert Plant were smoking a particularly potent strain of red-haired sinse while writing it. I don’t see why the same shouldn’t apply to many of the other Zeppelin songs, those that Zeppelin actually wrote, anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2001, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/led-zeppelin-tolkien-references/69228/8 "2001-06-18T17:08:20Z")
**Chronos** , ChiefScott had the lyrics a little wrong - he only _met_ the girl in Mordor. “Hey, what’s a nice girl like you doing in a place like this?” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2001, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/led-zeppelin-tolkien-references/69228/9 "2001-06-18T18:17:46Z")
Yeah, I posted before I saw **Sofa King** ’s links. Way cool, by the way: I obviously need to listen to more Zeppelin. Even with the correct lyrics, though, I must say that that song still has me seriously scratching my head. ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2001, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/led-zeppelin-tolkien-references/69228/10 "2001-06-18T21:36:31Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Sofa King \* > \*\* > [The Led Zeppelin and Tolkien Relations Page](http://www.geocities.com/Athens/2406/). > > \*\* Hmph. Despite what the authors of that site think, I’ve always felt that Stairway was Tolkien-related; specifically, that it was about Galadriel. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2001, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/led-zeppelin-tolkien-references/69228/11 "2001-06-19T00:54:27Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Chronos \* > Tolkien’s stories are notable for a shortage of evil women: The only evil female of any sort in the _Hobbit_ and the _Lord of the Rings_ was Shelob, and she’s about as far from human as you can get. Hey, what about Queen Beruthiel? _She_ sounded like a real bitch in History of Middle Earth Series! And Aredhel, Turgon’s sister, was certainly a classic bad girl, breaking the rules of the king, just 'cuz she was the king’s sister, and getting into inappropriate relationships with \*dark \* elves! ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2001, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/led-zeppelin-tolkien-references/69228/12 "2001-06-19T02:12:16Z")
I just knew that some wise guy was going to mention Beruthiel, but she’s not in the stories, just mentioned. At that, from the mention in _Fellowship of the Ring_, there’s not even any indication that she’s bad, just that her pet cats had good night vision. Ungoliant is given as much mention as Beruthiel, but of course, she’s even less like a human than Shelob is. Aredhel isn’t even mentioned in _The Hobbit_ or _LotR_. And before you mention her, I suppose that you could consider Lobelia S-B to be slightly evil, but compared to folks like Sauron, Saruman, and the Witch-King, she’s hardly even noticeable. **jsc1953** , I have a hard time picturing Galadriel as a spoiled rich bitch who thinks that money is everything, and a similarly hard time imagining that _Stairway to Heaven_ isn’t about same. Maybe the song has Tolkien references in it, but that doesn’t mean that the whole thing is about Tolkien. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2001, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/led-zeppelin-tolkien-references/69228/13 "2001-06-19T02:46:16Z")
Lobelia\* Sackville-Baggins was a bitch all right, but she reformed by the end of the tale. She was even cheered by the hobbits. [sub]\*You all know the medicinal properties of _Lobelia inflata_, don’t you? It’s an emetic.[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2001, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/led-zeppelin-tolkien-references/69228/14 "2001-06-19T13:18:06Z")
sheesh there’s tons of references and I haven’t listened to zep in 20 years. For what it’s worth, Robert Plant wore a t-shirt that said “nurses do it better” when I saw 'em in '77