smolronan:

At the beginning, it sounds like a guy is trying to get his girlfriend to secretly meet up with him at midnight. But it’s an odd place for a tryst, a hanging tree, where a man was hung for murder. The murderer’s lover must have had something to do with the killing, or maybe they were just going to punish her anyway, because his corpse called out for her to flee. That’s weird obviously, the talking-corpse bit, but it’s not until the third verse that “The Hanging Tree” begins to get unnerving. You realize the singer of the song is the dead murderer. He’s still in the hanging tree. And even though he told his lover to flee, he keeps asking if she’s coming to meet him. The phrase ’Where I told you to run, so we’d both be free’ is the most troubling because at first you think he’s talking about when he told her to flee, presumably to safety. But then you wonder if he meant for her to run to him. To death.In the final stanza, it’s clear what he’s waiting for. His lover, with her rope necklace, hanging dead next to him in the tree.

  1. hutchhitched reblogged this from rosegardeninwinter
  2. everlarkholidaystyle reblogged this from rosegardeninwinter
  3. everlurked reblogged this from katnissmeowverdeen
  4. flamingo-cregg reblogged this from rosegardeninwinter
  5. a-new-past reblogged this from rosegardeninwinter
  6. rosegardeninwinter reblogged this from katnissmeowverdeen
  7. technolilly reblogged this from katnissmeowverdeen
  8. katnissmeowverdeen reblogged this from thegirlonpeetamellark
  9. anonymousleech reblogged this from smolronan
  10. ronjar reblogged this from louezem
  11. allfortheloveofabook reblogged this from elizabetbennet
  12. violaeadde reblogged this from smolronan
  13. thoughts-of-a-wild-flower20 reblogged this from ombradellaluna
  14. smolronan posted this
QS