The Yawning Grave

**"The Yawning Grave"** is a song on Strange Trails listed as traditional and does not currently have a known associated character. It is written like the narrator is a force of nature who will come for the listener who did not follow the rules, and in doing so, opened the yawning grave.

This force is at once benevolent and malevolent. It "tried to warn you when you were a child," "told you not to get lost in the wild," and "sent omens and all kinds of signs" but now says "Oh, you fool, there are rules, I am coming for you, you can run but you can't escape, darkness brings evil things, oh, the reckoning begins."

It is unclear exactly what rules were broken, but the themes of the album explore individuals coming back from the dead or being immortal, which goes outside the natural order of what humans experience.

## Background and influences

Postcard X features music that was developed into "The Yawning Grave" and shows what looks like a girl in a blue dress running on a trail through a green wooded area.

The art for "The Yawning Grave" single is a landscape with a figure reaching out of a grave towards another figure. This may be a reference to "Dead Man's Hand," another song on the album where Buck Vernon digs a grave for the seemingly dead Johnnie Redmayne, but Redmayne grabs his arm and requests he lift him out.

## Trivia

The cards in the World Ender music video have "The Yawning Grave" on them in Chinese, one of a number of Easter Eggs in the set.

## Annotated lyrics

The lyrics for *Strange Trails* were never officially released, these lyrics are a transcript:

I know the rain like the clouds know the sky

I speak to birds and tell them where to fly

I sing the songs that you hear on the breeze

I write the names of the rocks and the trees

Oh you fool, there are rules I am coming for you

Darkness brings evil things, oh, the reckoning begins

I tried to warn you when you were a child

I told you not to get lost in the wild

I sent omens and all kinds of signs

I taught you melodies, poems and rhymes

Oh you fool, there are rules, I am coming for you

(You can run but you can't escape)

Darkness brings evil things, oh, the reckoning begins

(You will open the yawning grave)

Oh you fool, there are rules, I am coming for you

(You can run but you can't escape)

Darkness brings evil things, oh, the reckoning begins

(You will open the yawning grave)

## Potential lyrical references

Frequently, Lord Huron's songs explore similar themes, sometimes they have stories that are covered by more than one song. These lyrical connections are merely for reference:

1. ↑ The Birds Are Singing At Night - "We go walking together/Toward the yawning grave"

## Questions and fan theories

* Is there a character this song is performed by or associated with? What rules have been broken?
	+ Leigh Green, who is not present as an artist on the Strange Trails tracklist, started out singing standards, and is associated with folk music and nature imagery. She also struggled with drug addiction, which could perhaps be construed as getting "lost in the wild." Could "Yawning Grave" have any connection with her story?
	+ The narrator could also simply be a representation of Death or the passage of time.
* Is whatever force narrates this song somehow connected to Cobb Avery and his role as The World Ender?
	+ The lyrics to Secret of Life makes reference to The Ender in its first verse, while the second states "But then something escaped when you opened the gate // You cheated death and sealed your fate", could this gate between this life and the afterlife be the titular yawning grave? When Cobb Avery returned from beyond the grave did he perhaps allow something ancient and terrifying to slip through with him from the other side?

## Sources

1. ↑ Kim Beren's website: contains various graphic design props for the music video.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Discogs

"Love Like Ghosts" (Francine Lu)
"Until the Night Turns" (The Phantom Riders)
"Dead Man's Hand" (Buck Vernon)
"Hurricane (Johnnie's Theme)" (The Phantom Riders)

"La Belle Fleur Sauvage" (Remy Fusil)
"**Fool for Love**" (Buck Vernon)
"**The World Ender**" (The Phantom Riders)
"Meet Me in the Woods" (Francine Lu and Claude Fox)
"**The Yawning Grave**"

"Frozen Pines" (H.W. Justine)
"Cursed" (Buck Vernon)
"Way Out There"
"Louisa" (Buck Vernon)
"**The Night We Met**" (Francine Lu)