This is an illustration I did for my friend, Dai’s, PhD thesis. A part of his thesis involved a study around how some gay men (particularly those of a minority status) negotiate being gay outside of mainstream gay culture. One story that really stood out to me as being quite unique and touching involved a middle-aged fellow who has never been intimate with another man, doesn’t necessarily identify as being gay, but spends his days knitting baby socks on park benches and on the train as a way to perform his ‘gayness’. As he still lives at home with an extremely conservative family this is essentially the only way he knows to express his sexuality.
The more I listen to his music the more I am convinced hozier’s oft-referenced baby is a necromancer
so to start this theory, she’s obv some kind of supernatural being:
in the lyrics in “from eden”, Babe, there’s something tragic about you // Something so magic about you
in “nfwmb”, the whole song is about how she’s not even phased by the apocalypse, “When I first saw you // The end was soon //To Bethlehem // It slouched and then //
Must’ve caught a good look at you“
i hesitate to put too fine a point on it with “the angel of small death and the codeine scene”, but i’m also thinking small death refers to the euphemistic “la petit mort”, french for orgasm, and therefore she’s not actually an angel of death, but feel free to interpret that differently
to go on, he keeps referencing how she dug him up out of the ground:
in the song ‘shrike’, And I had no idea on what ground I was found in”, and a bit later he mentions being reborn “Remember me love, when I’m reborn”
in “nfwmb”, “
Ain’t it a gentle sound, the rolling in the graves?
”
then again in “like real people do” (which begs the question, is one of them not a real person? hozier are you some kind of undead?) : I had a thought, dear // However scary // About that night //The bugs and the dirt // Why were you digging? // What did you bury // Before those hands pulled me // From the earth?
so not only is she a necromancer, he’s like a zombie or something.
and for some extra crack theory perhaps she is not a necromancer but a vampire and he’s her ghoul, from shrike
“Bites on above // But never would form // Like a cry at the final breath that is drawn “ hmmmmmmmmmm
more straightforward, “ I was hatched by your warmth /And I was transformed”
and like if you really want to get into the symbolism of it, “
and just from “angel of death and the codeine scene” “
Feeling more human and hooked on her flesh I // Lay my heart down with the rest at her feet // Fresh from the fields, all feeder and fur tires //Bloody and raw, but I swear it is sweet”
anyway thanks for coming to my ted talk
she’s a witch and also probably an archaeologist, he’s an old druid bog body that she reanimated. simple
suggestions that they are from separate time periods
“from eden”: “Honey, you’re familiar, like my mirror years ago // Idealism sits in prison, chivalry fell on his sword // Innocence died screaming” suggesting these ideas that used to be commonplace aren’t any longer, but that she is familiar to him in some way
“foreigner’s god”: “The perfect creature rarely seen // Since some liar brought the thunder // When the land was godless and free” suggesting that he is from a time when the land, probably referring to Ireland, was pagan, which tl;dr was a long time ago, and that she is like creatures that were seen before the conversion of the land–but the “like” implies that she is not, in fact, from that godless time, but from a time that is more recent
“foreigner’s god”: “I’ve no language left to say it” and “All that I’ve been taught // And every word I’ve got // Is foreign to me” could suggest quite literally that the language he used in life is no longer in use
“foreigner’s god”: “Screaming the name // Of a foreigner’s God” perhaps a suggestion that she has used old magic, or magic not of her time or place, to reanimate him. it at least suggests that she has meddled in, or done research on, other cultures, and feels invested in them to the point that she would appeal to them in times of struggle or grief
suggestions that there is something unnatural about their relationship, specifically that he is bound to her
“from eden”: “Babe, there’s something wretched about this // Something so precious about this … // Oh, what a sin” suggesting that their relationship, which wonderful, is also wrong, perhaps specifically from the point of view of the church (as suggested by sin), which would suggest some form of witchcraft or paganism
“movement”: “And when you move, I’m moved” the wording of this suggests not only that he is tied to her, but that he is tied by some force that “moves him”–he does not move himself. this suggests that some sort of magic or higher power is involved
“movement”: “Honey, you, you’re Atlas in his sleepin’” suggesting that even when sleeping, even when not trying, she is the thing that keeps his world going
suggestions that tie him to being undead, but bog bodies specifically
“from eden”: “A rope in hand for your other man to hang from a tree” which could be generic, but people sacrificed and preserved in bogs were often hung and then slit by the throat before being thrown into the earth
“sedated”: “Something isn’t right, babe // I keep catching little words but the meaning’s thin // I’m somewhere outside my life, babe // I keep scratching but somehow I can’t get in” a lot of mythology surrounding reanimation suggests that those who return are never fully back, never fully alive again
“like real people do”: “Why were you digging // What did you bury // Before those hands pulled me from the earth?” this suggests she was digging–either she buried something, or maybe she was already digging something up. also might be connected to the “empty crib” in “work song”. anyhow, hozier explained that this song used bog bodies as a metaphor at a concert in 2014 so…. yeah ok “metaphor” mhm
“it will come back”: “Don’t give it a hand, offer it a soul // Honey, make this easy // Leave it to the land, this is what it knows // Honey, that’s how it sleeps” this song is about how he’d rather cut the ties than keep coming back, fed with crumbs–perhaps a rumination on the “wrongness” of their relationship–“Don’t let it in with with no intention to keep it // Jesus Christ, don’t be kind to it”, musing about how difficult this has made things for him, how this has disturbed his sleep, how it is “unnatural”, perhaps also suggesting how dependant, he is on her–perhaps his very existence is tied to her will
“run”: “Like how she twisted the bog man // After she married him” the bog man. he’s not even trying to hide anymore smh
“run”: “He still shatters always on her earth // The cause of every tear she’d ever weep // Rushing to shore to meet her // Foaming with loneliness” these lyrics suggest two things: they are drawn together just as they are drawn apart, perhaps due to his status as half-living. it also suggests a connection to water as well as earth, which are the elements that mix to create the bog environment
The entirety of In A Week is about them being buried in the winter and as the weather warms up their bodies become visible for the animals to feast on them.
A thousand teeth//And yours among them, I know//Our hungers appeased//Our heartbeats becoming slow
And
We lay here for years or for hours//Your hand in my hand//So still and discreet//So long we become the flowers///We’d feed well the land//And worry the sheep
but also jackie and wilson!!!!!
every version of me dead and buried in the yard outside
Robes are stupid. My sorcerer dresses like Petyr Baelish.
To expand: if you are a mage, dress like a noble. Do not dress like a wizard. Pointy conical hat and sky-blue robes is medieval semaphore for “kill first and with extreme prejudice.” Tailored black silk over cloth-of-gold and studded with rubies says “Harmless, but valuable; ransom if possible or kill last.”
If you dress like a noble, they’re not going to pay attention as you take a turn or two to back away from the melee and prepare yourself. The ruse is only broken when you reveal yourself, at which point 8d6 fire damage is screaming toward them at Mach Fuck anyway, so no big.
counterpoint: if you don’t get to dress like someone ran a magical thrift shop through a rototiller and frankensteined the pieces back together what’s the god-damned point of being a wizard
The sartorial differences between wizards and sorcerers are on display, I think.
That makes perfect sense, really, since sorcerers don’t generally get a choice about gaining spellcasting abilities and might not want to advertise them 24/7 whereas wizards put a lot of effort into becoming wizards and didn’t spend years in Wizard Grad School just to be low-key about it.
Oh, I am gonna make a sorcerer for this and obnoxiously remind my DM about it at the beginning of every encounter until he gets fed up and goes all “rocks fall; everybody dies”
wupacing 