Harlequin Forest Analysis

"'What' Forest?" Harlequin Forest is my current favorite song by Opeth, and in this post, I want to figure out what the song actually means, much like I did in "American Bands Have Become Boring Pt II." The meaning of the song is not immediately obvious, and only in the second half of the song do we get any indication of what's really going on.

Without further ado, Harlequin Forest:

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1
Into the trees
Past meadow grounds
And further away from my home
Baying behind me
I hear the hounds
Flock's chasing to find me alone

2
A trail of sickness
Leading to me
If I am haunted
Then you will see

3
Searching the darkness
And emptiness
I'm hiding away from the sun
Will never rest
Will never be at ease
All my matter's expired so I run

4
There falls another
Vapor hands released the blade
Insane regrets at the drop
Instruments of death before me

5
Lose all to save a little
At your peril it's justified
And dismiss your demons
As death becomes a jest
You are the laughing stock
Of the absinthe minded
Confessions stuck in your mouth
And long gone fevers reappear

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It's not until this stanza where things start to get interesting, when it might be that the song really isn't talking about any literal forest. This stanza is the first hint that the song is about religious belief, as was the theme in Still Life (1999), which featured Face of Melinda. "Lose all to save a little" and "Dismiss your demons" makes me think of how one may not be living fully, discarding this life in favor of the next, and this hypothesis seems to be backed up by "As death becomes a jest". I'm not entirely sure at all, however, where the next two lines fit in to this notion, however, for absinthe is a hallucinogenic, and the point of the song--if I'm right--would be that he is hallucinating, then why would others with the same ideas be laughing at him? "Confessions stuck in your mouth / And long gone fevers reappear" would indicate, continuing with my hypothesis, that our narrator has strayed somehow from his religious doctrine...

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6
Nocturnally helpless
And weak in the light
Depending on a prayer
Pacing deserted roads to find
A seed of hope

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This is where it begins to fall apart. Why would our narrator hide from the sun (light), as in Stanza 3? Something has gone seriously wrong. He's terrified of the truth: "Depending on a prayer / Pacing deserted roads to find / A seed of hope" is fairly straightforward in my view. Praying may save his faith, but he finds it deserted; he may not receive any sign that could save him.

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7
They are the trees
Rotten pulp inside and never well
Roots sucking, thieving from my source
Tired boughs reaching for the light

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Who are the trees? Wake up! It is worth noting that the song is completely different between stanzas 5 and 6, with a beautiful, slow bridge lasting about 1-2 minutes between them. Our narrator has awoken, and he sees the forest for the [rotting] trees. He sees the truth now, and the song is calm. The trees are the people with whom he believed, who tried to keep him in darkness, siphoning from his life. I am unsure, however, whether the final line is talking about him or his parasitic community.

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8
It is all false pretension
Harlequin forest
Awaiting redemption for a lifetime
As they die alone
With no one by their side
Are they forgiven?

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Jackpot! The word Harlequin may either mean a foolish yet nimble character, or may be rooted into "Hellequin", which means, "a black-faced emissary of the devil, is said to have roamed the countryside with a group of demons chasing the damned souls of evil people to Hell."1 If we choose the root Hellequin, it puts us in for quite a ride. Consider the possibility, then, that all of these people are damned as emissaries of Satan, then it would follow that our narrator is vindicated in a far worse manner than he could have possibly imagined. He was being led by some collective evil, and now he sees it for what it is.

Even without Hellequin, the meaning of the stanza is fairly obvious, and it refers back to what I said about Stanza 5. Forgiven may not even refer to any specific god(s), or even merely some Karmic metaphysic. Later on in the song, our narrator himself passes judgment upon his oppressors...

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9
Stark determination
Poisoning the soul
Unfettered beast inside
Claiming sovereign control

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I'm not sure about "Poisoning the soul" because up to now, it has been for good that the narrator has broken free of his binds, but "unfettered beast" may refer to his anger at having been kept in ignorance for so long, as we will see in the final stanza...

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10
And now the woods are burning
Tearing life crops asunder
Useless blackened remains
Still pyre smoldering

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Here is where "Poisoning the soul" and the Unfettered Beast may have negative consequences, as would it not have been good enough for him to simply flee the Harlequin Forest? There is reason to believe that he is responsible for its destruction, much like The Moor went berserk in Still Life after Melinda was executed. Here, however, the narrator had considered the possibility of forgiveness (Stanza 8), and ruled against it with "stark determination."

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I like doing these, and you can expect more of them, as news these days is quite slow. I'm considering doing Fandango by Pain of Salvation next, but I also fear that I may be giving myself away. Still, it is a lovely song.

1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlequin#cite_note-Grantham-2