Darkest Depths of Mordor — Led Zeppelin

Listening to the radio yesterday while puttering around my office, I discovered something surprising. “Ramble On” by Led Zeppelin was playing — a song I’ve heard a dozen times over the decades — and I noticed a line that sounded like, “in the depths of Mordor.”

“Mordor,” I thought, “like in Lord of the Rings? In a Led Zeppelin song?”

So I looked up the lyrics online. What I found surprised me. I even checked three different lyrics sites to be sure.

How years ago in days of old, when magic filled the air.
T’was in the darkest depths of Mordor, I met a girl so fair.
But Gollum, and the evil one crept up and slipped away with her…

Well, color me impressed. I don’t know what surprises me more, that Led Zeppelin so obviously referenced LotR in one of their songs, or that I never noticed it or knew it despite how many times I’ve heard the song.

Bullgrit