Innocence: The Amaranth
When we are born, we’re completely innocent. We haven’t been exposed to anything bad, we haven’t done anything wrong. No evil thoughts enter our minds. We’re pure and untainted. As children, we retain some of that innocence, but as we grow up and we’re exposed to the ways of the world, we lose more and 
more of that purity. As Chelsea Wakefield, PhD, puts it, “Every child is born innocent and all of us left parts of ourselves behind, like orphans by the side of the road” (89). Sometimes, we lose so much of it that we start to disconnect with who we really are. According to Wakefield, the only way for people to be happy is to recover that innocence by remembering who we really are. This is what the song “Amaranth” by Nightwish is about. With this song, they’re trying to show that we’re losing our innocence, which in this song is represented as an amaranth. In Greek folklore, the amaranth is a magical flower that never fades and never dies. What they’re saying by using this flower is that it’s never too late to reconnect with our innocence, no matter how far behind we left the orphan child. In the music video, an angel with its eyes ripped out represents the person in the song. It’s an angel to represent that she used to be pure, but she’s been blinded by the world.
“Baptized with a perfect name. The doubting one by heart. Alone without himself” (Nightwish). In 
Christianity, when a person is baptized, he is washed clean of all of his sins. Baptizing here is representing birth. When the boy in the song was born, he was perfect. He hadn’t done anything wrong and nothing had corrupted him yet. He was clean of all sins. Over time, he’s been tainted. He’s alone, and because he’s been corrupted, he’s lost himself. His innocence is gone, left on the side of the road. Who he really was before has been replaced by an impure version of himself.
“War between him and the day. Need someone to blame. In the end, little he can do alone” (Nightwish). The boy is struggling between himself and his innocence. His innocence is “the day,” his desire to do the right things and be a good person. His innocence fights to keep him from doing things he shouldn’t while
the corrupted version tries to do evil. He wants to blame someone for the way he’s become, but he can’t figure out who’s responsible. In the end, if the boy doesn’t get help from someone else, he won’t be able to suppress his urges and he’ll end up doing something really bad. The video begins with two boys finding the angel by the river and deciding to take her home to take care of her. This is the angel getting help to find her innocence again, just like the boy in the song.
“Caress the one, the never-fading. Rain in your heart- the tears of snow-white sorrow. Caress the one, the hiding amaranth. In a land of the daybreak” (Nightwish). The “never-fading” is the amaranth, our innocence. Everybody has it, but sometimes you can’t see it because the person has been corrupted so much that their innocence is hidden. By caressing it, Nightwish means for you to go back and find your amaranth. Reconnect with your innocence and remember who you really are. When I first heard this song and I heard the words “rain in your heart” it immediately made me sad. The rain in your heart is despair. White is associated with purity and cleanliness, so the tears of snow-white sorrow represents your innocence’s sadness. It cries because you’ve been corrupted.
“Apart from the wandering pack. In this brief flight of time we reach for the ones, whoever dare” (Nightwish). This is the band speaking. They’re reaching out in the time length of the song to anybody who will listen to them. They’re sending out a message to their listeners saying that they need to find their innocence. The band is apart from the wandering pack because they’re self-aware. The wandering pack is the masses of people who never become aware of their corruption. They wander away from their own innocence. Nightwish is trying to get people to go back and find the orphan they left behind. In the video, as the boys are carrying the angel home, they pass through
a town filled with old people. These people represent the wandering pack, the people who do not wish to reclaim their innocence. When the boys get her back to their house, the townspeople come and drag the two boys away and then burn down the house with the angel still inside. The people burning down the house represents the world trying to destroy her amaranth completely. However, as the angel dies, a light starts to burst from her chest and she escapes by flying away. Her death sets her free from the evils of the world and she’s finally safe.
“Reaching, searching for something untouched. Hearing voices of the never-fading calling” (Nightwish). The boy in the song hears the voice of his amaranth, his innocence, calling out to him and he’s trying to reach out to it. He’s trying to be a good person, regardless of his corruption.
In an interview posted on Metal Symphony.com, Tuomas Holopainen shares that the video was actually inspired by the painting “The wounded angel” by Hugo Simberg. The painting depicts an angel who has bandaged eyes and blood on her wing. She’s being carried by two boys on a makeshift stretcher. The colors are all dark, except for the angel. The boys’ clothes, the sky, and the background are all muddy, dark colors. The angel, however, is all white. The bandages, her wings, and her dress are all white and her hair is blonde. White represents purity, so the fact that she’s covered in white means that she is Innocence in this painting. However, she’s hurt and she looks sad and downcast. Innocence has been beaten down by the world and without the help of the two boys carrying her away, she would probably die.
Every person is born with an amaranth which never fades and never actually goes away. Over time, as they’re exposed to the evil in the world, they leave that amaranth and start walking away from it. The amaranth is always there and it always calls out to the person, but the further he walks, the less he can hear the voice of the amaranth telling him to be good. This song is the band’s efforts to reach out to people and tell them that they can still find their innocence again if they really want to, just like Wakefield writes in her book.
Musical Minds 