NetNews Usenet Archive 1993 #3/NN_1993_3.iso/spool/alt/fan/tolkien/1992

Text File | 1993-01-22 | 1.6 KB | 37 lines

Newsgroups: alt.fan.tolkien
Path: sparky!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!torn!nott!cunews!watson
From: [e-mail] (Stephen Watson)
Subject: Re: References to Tolkien by Led Zeppelin
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Sender: [e-mail] (News Administrator)
Organization: Carleton University
References: <[e-mail]>
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1993 15:24:08 GMT
Lines: 27

[e-mail] writes:


>However, Zep's most popular song, "Stairway to Heaven", has a reference to
>JRRT in that the lyrics go something like this (and there's a lady who's sure >**all that glitters is gold** and she's
buying a stariway to heaven).
>                --Chard

If Led Zep was indeed quoting Tolkien, then Tolkien was probably
quoting Shakespeare ("All that glisters is not gold" - Merchant of
Venice, 1596) and/or Chaucer ("But al thyng which that shineth as the
gold/ Nis nat gold, as that I have herd it told" - Canterbury Tales,
c.1387).  And *they* were simply repeating an old Latin proverb: "Non
teneas aurum totum quod splendet ut aurum", which seems to be a
translation of something Aristotle said.

In other words: it's an ancient and well-known saying in Western
culture, and there's no reason think that JRRT was the specific source
for the line in the LZ song.

--
| Steve Watson a.k.a. [e-mail] === Carleton University, Ontario |
|  this->opinion = My.opinion;  assert (this->opinion != CarletonU.opinion);  |
"Somebody touched me / Making everything new / Burned through my life / Like a
 bolt from the blue / Somebody touched me / I know it was you" - Bruce Cockburn