You know that feeling when a song just sounds like it’s been unearthed from a 500-year-old stone chest? That’s basically the vibe of The Battle of Evermore. It’s the third track on Led Zeppelin’s untitled fourth album—the one everyone just calls Led Zeppelin IV because we’re too lazy to call it "the runes album"—and honestly, it’s a total anomaly. It’s the only time in the band's entire career that they let a guest vocalist into the studio to share the mic with Robert Plant.
Usually, when people talk about this track, they geek out over the Tolkien references. And yeah, the Ringwraiths and the Dark Lord are all in there, riding in black and causing a general mess of things. But there’s a much weirder, more spontaneous story behind how this folk epic actually happened. It wasn’t some planned-out masterpiece. It was more like a happy accident involving a borrowed mandolin and a freezing cold house in the middle of nowhere.
How Jimmy Page Stumbled Into a Folk Masterpiece
The whole thing started at Headley Grange. If you aren’t a Zep nerd, Headley Grange was this old, damp, slightly miserable 18th-century workhouse in Hampshire. The band loved it because they could just live there and record whenever inspiration hit. Jimmy Page once said there was a "magical current" there, though John Paul Jones mostly remembered it being smelly and cold.
One evening, Page was sitting by the chimney, probably just trying to stay warm. He picked up a mandolin. Now, here’s the kicker: Page wasn’t a mandolin player. It belonged to John Paul Jones. Page just started messing around with it, experimenting with the fingerings, and basically wrote the entire instrumental structure of The Battle of Evermore in one sitting.
He hadn't even played the instrument before, yet he managed to find that frantic, driving rhythm that makes the song feel like a chase. Andy Johns, the engineer, saw what was happening and didn’t waste any time. He threw a mic in front of the mandolin, added some Gibson echo, and captured the spark right there.
Why Robert Plant Needed Sandy Denny
Robert Plant already had his head in the clouds. At the time, he was deep into a book about the Scottish border wars, but he was also obsessed with J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. He started throwing these two worlds together. You get the "Queen of Light" and the "Prince of Peace," which feel very Galadriel and Frodo-esque, mixed with the grit of a real historical skirmish.
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But something was missing.
Plant realized his voice alone wasn't enough to tell this specific story. He felt the song needed a "town crier" or a second narrator to provide a counterpoint. He reached out to Sandy Denny, the lead singer of Fairport Convention. They had shared a bill at the Bath Festival a year earlier, and the band respected her as the literal queen of the British folk scene.
When she showed up at the studio, they created a vocal "call and response" that honestly hasn't been matched since. Denny's voice has this crystalline, ethereal quality that floats right over Plant’s more grounded, desperate wail. It’s a duel. It’s a conversation. Sandy Denny actually joked later that she felt she’d been "outsung" for the first time, but if you listen to those harmonies, it’s a draw.
To thank her, the band gave her her own symbol on the album sleeve—three pyramids joined at the tip. It’s a big deal. She’s the only outsider to ever get that level of "official" Zeppelin status.
The Tolkien Connection: More Than Just Fan Fiction
Let's look at the lyrics for a second. The Battle of Evermore is famous for name-checking the "Ringwraiths," which pretty much confirms the Middle-earth connection. But if you look closer, it’s not just a retelling of the Battle of the Pelennor Fields. It’s more of a mood piece.
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- The Dark Lord: Obviously Sauron.
- The Ringwraiths: The Nazgûl, specifically riding in black.
- The Magic Runes: Likely the inscription on the One Ring, or perhaps the runes they were using for the album artwork itself.
- Angels of Avalon: This is where it gets messy. Avalon is Arthurian, not Tolkien. Plant was mixing his myths.
It's this blend of High Fantasy and Celtic folklore that makes the song feel so heavy. It isn't just a song about a book; it's a song about the feeling of a world ending. The line "The pain of war cannot exceed the woe of aftermath" is a genuinely heavy thought for a rock band to drop in the middle of a mandolin jam. It’s a reminder that Zeppelin wasn't just about loud drums and "squeeze my lemon" lyrics. They were literate, moody, and deeply invested in the "Old England" vibe.
Life After the Studio
Zeppelin didn't play this one live for years. How could they? They didn't have Sandy Denny on tour. It wasn't until 1977 that they finally figured out how to make it work. John Paul Jones would play the mandolin part, and he’d actually sing Denny’s high-pitched vocal parts while Page played the acoustic guitar. Sometimes John Bonham would even chime in on the harmonies, which is a wild image if you think about the man who recorded "Moby Dick" trying to hit Sandy Denny's notes.
Later on, the song found a second life with Heart. Ann and Nancy Wilson’s version is probably the most famous cover, and it makes sense. Their voices are basically built for that kind of folk-rock intensity. Even Robert Plant revisited it years later with Alison Krauss, proving that the song’s DNA is more "traditional folk" than "hard rock."
Breaking Down the Sound
If you’re a musician, you’ve probably noticed there are no drums on this track. Zero. John Bonham just sat this one out.
Instead, the "percussion" comes from the way Page strikes the mandolin strings. It’s percussive and sharp. The absence of a kit gives the song this breathless, airy quality. It feels like you're standing on a cliffside in the wind.
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- Mandolin: Jimmy Page (First time playing it!)
- Acoustic Guitar: Jimmy Page (Overdubbed later)
- Vocals: Robert Plant and Sandy Denny
- Vibe: 100% Haunted Forest
Actionable Steps for the Zep Fan
If you want to go deeper than just hitting "play" on Spotify, there are a few things you should actually do to appreciate the craft here.
Check out the "Mandolin/Guitar Mix"
When the Led Zeppelin IV remasters came out around 2014, they included a companion disc with an unpolished version of The Battle of Evermore. It’s just the instruments. Hearing the mandolin and guitar without the vocals lets you realize just how complex that rhythm part actually is. It’s a masterclass in building tension without a drum beat.
Listen to Fairport Convention’s "Liege & Lief"
To understand why Plant wanted Sandy Denny, you have to hear where she came from. This album is the blueprint for British folk-rock. If you like the "spooky castle" energy of Evermore, this is your next stop.
Read the "Scottish Border Wars" context
While Tolkien gets the glory, the "apples of the valley" and the "tyrant's face is red" parts of the lyrics lean heavily into the historical skirmishes between England and Scotland. It gives the song a bit of "real world" weight that keeps it from being too nerdy.
Honestly, the song is a fluke. If Page hadn't picked up a mandolin he didn't know how to play, or if Sandy Denny hadn't been friends with the band, we wouldn't have it. It’s a perfect snapshot of a moment where the biggest rock band in the world decided to stop being loud and just be weird for five minutes. And 50-plus years later, it still sounds like it's coming from another dimension.