Savage Daughter

Just a rant about a popular song. My wife likes it (the song, not the rant).

Tik Tok tells: "Explore the powerful lyrics of 'I Am My Mother's Savage Daughter', a Viking song embodying strength and defiance."

OK, strength and defiance. Powerful lyrics. Viking song (written around 2000). Well...

"I will not cut my hair, I will not lower my voice."

Ooo, how savage! She and my honor-student granddaughter.

If you really listen to the song and read the lyrics, you might realize that the young girl is hardly "savage" because she runs barefoot and curses sharp stones - who doesn't? And all the rest actually seems rather tame, like any young girl today or yesterday. Kind of dreamy, looks at stars, renames planets (my little sister decided one day to rename every animal with totally made-up names, she even compiled a dictionary of sorts - her "Animactionary" - she was 7. Elephant = Snozzaclump, etc.). Dreams she can fly on a broom (like a cartoon witch - Kiki's Delivery Service?). Nothing in the song suggests wildness or savagery in the least.

Nope, no savagery here, folks. You can go home now...

In fact, for a "Viking", she sounds kinda wimpy. Not sure of actual history, but the image I have of a "Viking woman" is of someone tough, resilient, strong, loyal to her clan, and dangerously capable of using weapons at need. I could be wrong.

Of course, the upside is the primitive beat, Ekaterina Shelehova's beautiful voice, and even her name which evokes images of ancient "savage" Russia or some Nordic country. The tones of her singing are both soothing and stirring at the same time...

Well, here's a "Savage Daughter":

I am my mother's savage daughter,
The one who hunts deer, with a knife and her teeth.
I am my mother's savage daughter,
I will eat the meat raw, and I will drink the blood warm.

My mother's daughter's battle-scars are many,
She hunts down her foes, with an axe and a spear.
She seeks for the beast that threatens her family,
She tracks it at night, she is a stranger to fear.