New Vid: My Lagan Love
My Lagan Love by mresundance
Song and Artist: "My Lagan Love" by Sinead O'Connor
Fandom: Braveheart (1994)
Formats: wmv and avi (xvid)
Warnings: Violence, nudity, sex, spoilers.
Summary: "No life have I / No liberty / For love is lord of all." It's not about freedom or nationalism; it's ever, and always, about Murron.
Betas: Many thanks to ladymajavader and chellziez for betaing :D. Extra thanks to both ladymajavader, for her usual nitpickery and eye for detail and proofpudding for technical advice and coloring suggestions.
Comments are appreciated, please and thank you! :D
Streaming: Vimeo (Password: murron) | Bam Video | Youtube
Downloads (zipped files):
Please use the 4shared and mediafire links before the permanent link.
Permanent link: 36 MB avi (xvid)
36 MB avi (xvid) @ 4shared
36 MB avi (xvid) @ mediafire
18 MB avi (xvid) @ mediafire
30 MB wmv @ mediafire
You can watch this video on www.livejournal.com
Password: murron
My Lagan Love is actually an Irish song, written during a time in Irish history when it was forbidden to write openly about Ireland, or express love, devotion, or nationalism towards the country. The Irish, being amongst the best and craftiest writers, period, decided to write songs that indirectly would reference their love for their mother country. They would refer to Ireland as a beautiful woman.
Thence, "My Lagan Love" speaks erotically and poetically about a beloved woman which is also a beloved homeland. This idea is crucial to the vid and my ideas behind it. I don't know that I communicated it effectively as I had hoped.
Murron is Wallace's homeland. Wallace's life after her death is an expression of his love and devotion to her. She is "lord of all" and he is not a slave to the English as much as he is a slave to her memory and possibly guilt over his part in her death.
As the character Hamish says to Wallace near the end of the film: "It's about Murron. You're doing this because of her, because you think she sees you."
Lyrics
adapted from the original by Joseph Campbell aka Seosamh MacCathmhaoil
Where lagan streams sing lullabies
There blows a lily fair.
The twilight gleam is in her eye
The night is on her hair.
And like a love sick leannan si
She hath my heart in thrall;
No life have I, no liberty
For love is lord of all.
And often when the beetle's horn
Has lulled the eve to sleep
I steal into her shieling lorn
And through the doorway creep.
There on the cricket's singing stone
She makes the bogwood fire
And sings in sweet and undertone
The song of heart's desire.
"Lagan" means something one throws away in hopes that it will return. From what I remember it seems people would offer gifts to gods or supernatural beings and toss them in the "lagan stream", hoping these items would come back.
"Leannan si" is a beautiful, but deadly spirit who appeared (conviently) in the guise of a woman. She lured young men to their doom, bascially. Similar to a siren in Greek mythology.
I have no freakin' clue what a "beetle's horn" is, except in the song is sounds kinda phallic. Hence, the sword references. And then sex. And death. Of course.
"Shieling lorn" is just a little hut. Like Princess Isabella's Sooper Sekret Hideway and Sexin' Spot (tm) in the film.
Also: the thistle, especially as used in the film, is a symbol of Scotland. Just FYI.
Winner: Broken Road Video Awards Themed Round 3 Love Stories, "Story of Undying Love"
If you'd like to watch dancingvader for updates, feel free. The more the merrier.