They Hold No Quarter

Listening to one of my all time favourite bands from childhood Led Zepplin. All through the 70's & 80's I listened to this and had no idea what the lyrics meant, nor why I loved them so much. No I do. They hold a piece of my heart.

Led Zeppelin - No Quarter (Live at Madison Square Garden 1973)

[Verse 1]

Close the door, put out the light

You know they won't be home tonight

The snow falls hard and don't you know?

The winds of Thor are blowing cold

They're wearing steel that's bright and true

They carry news that must get through

[Chorus]

They choose the path where no-one goes

They hold no quarter

They hold no quarter

[Guitar Solo]

[Verse 2]

Walking side by side with death

The devil mocks their every step

The snow drives back the foot that's slow

The dogs of doom are howling more

They carry news that must get through

To build a dream for me and you

[Chorus]

They choose the path where no-one goes

They hold no quarter

They ask no quarter

They hold no quarter

They ask no quarter

The pain, the pain without quarter

They ask no quarter

The dogs of doom are howling more!

Ritual and Law in 17th Century Britain - Wife Swapping

How absurd a thought, yet here it is Devonshire Characters and Strange Events.by S. Baring-Gould.

‘There is no myth relative to the manners and customs of the English that in my experience is more tenaciously held by the ordinary Frenchman than that the sale of a wife in the market place is an habitual and an accepted fact in English Life.’ SBG, 1908

If you'll notice in the image, she looks like a pink piggy with a rope around her neck being eyed by three gentleman at the Smithfield Market by Laurie & Whittle 1796.

A more sinister image of the practice depicts women being sold as actual property in the following less colorful image from Harper's magazine, 1876.

The misogyny of women has progressed from comedy to property in under 100 years; and this, more than 100 years ago.

Read more about this origins and direction of this darkly tragic story written deep in the bones of who we are at The Cornish Bird Blog.

~SCC