Rhiannon

Fleetwood MAc's song...Rhiannon..the original version

Rhiannon rings like a bell through the night
And wouldn't you love to love her
She rules her life like a bird in flight
And who will be her lover...

All your life you've never seen
A woman--taken by the wind
Would you stay if she promised you heaven
Will you ever win...

She is like a cat in the dark
And then she is the darkness
She rules her life like a fine skylark--
And when the sky is starless--

All your life you've never seen--
A woman--taken by the wind
Would you stay if she promised you heaven
Will you ever win...

Dreams unwind.
Love's a state of mind.

Stevie Nicks wrote the song after this book called Triad by Mary Leader. Nicks had not heard of the Celtic myth really before she read the book. The novel is about a woman named Branwen who is possessed by another woman called Rhiannon. Although there is some mention of the myth in the book, Leader does not seem to have alluded to it too heavily. I think Nicks did not have the myth in mind while writing the song, but later when she read up on Rhiannon she found that somehow she had managed to fit the celtic myth into her song.

Rain

Rain

silence speaks of tragedy.
a chameleon breathes dust.
at a distance the dry bed of a river
sighs. speaks of a thousand deaths.
a black shaman chants and faints.
crickets screech the impending death of water.
the shaman rises.
calls to the adder are made.
the serpent appears reluctantly
and curls around the demi-god's hide,
sinks his fangs in the black ebony of skin.
red rain sinks into the dry earth and disappears.
drop after drop is shed till the last.
and then, the first drop of nectar touches the barren soil,
soaks the cold skin of the bloodless emperor
and golden dust gives way
to the ceaselss tears of heaven.