Castlevania Dungeon Forums
Off Topic => Off Topic => Topic started by: Mooning Freddy on October 20, 2007, 04:49:10 AM
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Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep;
And if I die before I wake,
I pray the Lord my soul to take.
I heard that quote for the first time in the Metallica song "Enter Sandman". I thought there was nothing special about it that time. Then I recently heard it in the Silent Hill movie, there's a scene in the orphanage where the children are saying this quote before going to sleep.
So I got interested and looked it up on Wikipedia. It only says that it is a classic children's (Christian) prayer from the 18th century.
Turns out it's a rather famous prayer. It was quoted in many songs, in the soundtrack of Silent Hill 2, and even in the first Nightmare on Elm street movie.
I don't know what, but something about that prayer sounds wrong to me. It freaks me out. For a children's prayer, it's not normal. Its sounds dark. Even evil. Especially the part of "if I die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take". Sounds very wrong, IMO. What do you think?
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They tought me this when I was in CCD, and it creeped the hell out of me even then. I was afraid to recite the thing just because of the way it sounded...I was like 8 at the time, though...11 years ago...
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In Reply To #1
I've been saying that prayer every night before I go to bed for as long as I can remember.
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In Reply To #2
I doubt it that as a child, if I'm about to die in my sleep, I would give my soul to take to anyone. Even not the Lord.
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In Reply To #1
Personally, I like Tupac's version better:
Now I lay me down to sleep
I pray the Lord my guns to keep
If I die before I wake
I pray the Lord my soul to take
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In Reply To #4
Yeah, that's pretty much what scared the hell out of me...
...I'm not very religious these days, though.
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Ive heard this as long as I can remember too. Its always been known as a kids prayer around here too.
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Yeah it is pretty creepy. If you look at a lot of old fairy tales and traditional childrens songs, there seems to be this underlying sinister tone to them.
"Ring Around the Rosey" being about the Bubonic plague, The nursery rhyme "Six a Song of Sixpence" was a coded message used by Blackbeard to recruit new crew members, and so on so forth.
dig this site http://www.rhymes.org.uk
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I've never found it creepy.
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In Reply To #1
Grim as it sounds, though, it actually made a lot of sense given the time. Remember, even in the eighteenth century, diseases and other maladies were quite common in Europe, and many, many kids never lived past ten. The prayer was just a blunt, realistic acknowledgement of that fact--for many children, dying in sleep for whatever reason, from disease or whatever, was a legitimate concern.
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In Reply To #10
Yes, that is obvious that was legitimate for the time.
Still, something about that particular prayer sounds culty. "I pray the lord my soul to take"- like self sacrifice.
To tell the truth, I have been in quite a few places holy to several religions, and out of the religions I am familiar with, Christianity (Catholic and Orthodox) scares me the most.
From a modern point of view, when you go inside the huge Cathedrals and Churches that are many in Europe, it makes your blood freeze. The architecture in the more impressive of the European Cathedrals makes the small person shiver uncomfortably when facing the gigantic volume and structure of the buildings. It is only logical, since the Church during the middle-ages was maintaining control over Europe's population trough fear of the life beyond and insecurity about one's future.
Everything about the church awakened a person's fantasy, I must say, not all a non-mythological kind. Even Christianity's symbol- the holy cross, if you think about it, draws people's fear. The figure of Christ, dying in the most terrible form of execution the Romans could come up with, represents according to Christianity salvation, sacrifice and resurrection, but it also represents terrible suffering and death: what no person in his mind would be willing to go through.
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In Reply To #11
You are surrounded by radical Islamists and Christianity scares you the most?
anyway...
Yeah, the size of the churches was meant to show that the man, no matter how powerful, still is tiny before God. That's not exactly what a church is supposed to do but at least the art is nice.
It sucks that Catholicism is synonymous with Christianity to so many because it is among the most twisted and misguided denominations. Their Mary obsession, their reliance on ceremony and non-biblical traditions...is superfluous.
And the image of the cross is one thing. Yes, it symbolizes His torment and death on our behalf, but Catholics LOVE to actually have little bleeding and dead Jesuses on everything. THAT
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In Reply To #12
Islam scares me in a whole different way. Ever heard a Muslim prayer? I can hear the mullah (preacher) from the mosque a mile from my house calling the people to the morning/afternoon/evening prayer every day. If you are not familiar with that, I'll tell you that it sounds similar to a wolf with a sour throat howling... After someone stepped on his nuts.
Well, actually, Catholicism is Christianity. At least historically. For most of time, it was only the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox church, that for some one with little knowledge of the matter like me, are not all that different.
Even though as I remember, they used to be rivals through the ages, where the Catholic church was accepted in Italy, Northern and Western Europe, while the Orthodox church was spread in Greece and Eastern Europe (including Russia).
The only significant difference I've noticed is that Orthodox Christians are over-obsessed with icons (holy pictures of saints, every house had loads of them).
It was later that the Protestant movement was forged in Germany by Martin Luther, and was spread across Europe. Not without wars, of course. Took some serious beatings from the Catholics before they could forge an independent church.
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In Reply To #13
Catholicism came WAY after actual Christianity. Constantine just advocated it, and used as a weapon. He declared that everyone in Rome would be Christian or else. Catholic literally means "universal". It was THE religion to follow under pain of death.
Later Emperors and Popes added more and more to the scriptures (something expectedly commanded against IN the scriptures) and altered the meaning
s.
That's part of the reason the church didn't go out of it's way to teach the commoners how to read in the Middle Ages. They new that if they could read they would notice that all the crap they been told was B.S.
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If I die before I wake
I pray the lord won't take my "Vania away
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clever
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In Reply To #15
Trust me, if by some chance you do...he will...
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In Reply To #11
"The architecture in the more impressive of the European Cathedrals makes the small person shiver uncomfortably when facing the gigantic volume and structure of the buildings. It is only logical, since the Church during the middle-ages was maintaining control over Europe's population trough fear of the life beyond and insecurity about one's future."
That's one way of looking at it. Another, equally justified way of looking at it would be as inspiration--the thought that human beings, even in the middle ages, without the benefit of modern-day technology and girded only by their faith in the Almighty, were able to create such massive, majestic structures is testament to the power of human will and endurance and evidence of the fact that people can accomplish the greatest of feats--and beyond--if they put their minds to it and dedicate themselves to it with all their heart.
By the same token, you could be 'horrified' at the sign of the cross being a symbol of 'suffering,' but when you consider that Jesus rose after being crucified, you could also take the cross of being symbolic of the fact that no matter how much pain and suffering human beings endure over our lives, ever shall we rise again after 3 days, 3 weeks, 3 years, or however long it takes, with the only effect being the strengthening of our determination to make the world a better place and ease the suffering of others, even if we have to sacrifice ourselves.
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In Reply To #18
Nope. While all that sounds good, the whole humanist "man is the bestest" take is fundamentally opposite of Judaeo Christian teaching.
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In Reply To #18
Nope. While all that sounds good, the whole humanist "man is the bestest" take is fundamentally opposite of Judaeo Christian teaching.
... And of Socialistic (call it Communistic if you will) teachings. Communism taught people that religion=bad, it enslaves people and drinks their blood. The three evils according to Socialism were kings, popes and Capitalists.
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In Reply To #20
damn, I guess I'm hated...since I'm the king of awesome!
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I've never found it creepy.
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In Reply To #22
It's funny how Dave Mustaine is a born again Christian, now. He probably won't be singing that song anymore...
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"Now I lay me down to sleep
Blah Blah Blah, my soul to keep
And if I die before I wake
I'll go to hell, for heaven's sake"
Why is it I get the feeling Dave Mustaine said that mostly to piss off Metallica? You know, for using the quote in their probably most famous song. "Blah blah blah, f**k metallica, I own you guys, your lyrics suck"...
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In Reply To #24
That's a good possibility...
Edit:
But, then again, it kinda fits in with the context of the lyrics. The song is called "Go to Hell"
Megadeth - Go To Hell Lyrics
Go To Hell
(Originally appeared on "Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey" soundtrack)
Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the lord my soul to keep.
If I should die before I wake, I pray the lord my soul to take.
I'm not gonna wake up today, They've pulled my plug, the picture fades.
And as my body decays, mold begins to fill my grave.
The smell of death permeates, The silk within my coffin lays.
Go to hell!
As they bury me now, six feet there my body lies.
Still feel like I can't go down, I hear a distant wailing cry.
God, something must've gone wrong.
Much too late I realize.
Go to hell!
I saw my funeral that day, I know who didn't show to mourn.
My judgement was life in hell, Pillars of pain and thorns.
My only friend's the goat, With 666 between his horns.
Go to hell!
Place all your trust here in me, Rest assured these things I know.
And as Charon sails the sea, Your journey too shall end below.
Ah yes you're all sitting ducks, It's true you reap what you sow.
Go to hell!
Now I lay me down to sleep, Blah, blah, blah my soul to keep.
If I die before I wake, I'll go to hell for heaven's sake.
Go To Hell
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In Reply To #19
Very true, but I was just sayin' that there are humanistic values to be found in religious teachings and works, even if religious people themselves don't mean it that way. Even Richard Dawkins (the ~*hardcore atheist*~), for instance, points to Jesus as exemplary of humanistic values aside from his teaching about God, which is why Dawkins started those "Atheists for Jesus" shirts.
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I used to recite the prayer, minus the "die before I wake" part. They've replaced it with something new. I did know about the "die before I wake" part years ago, though.
anyway, Jesus can take everybody else for eternal angelic buttsecks, if you ask me
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May I tell a joke? Ok.
The great rabbi of Jerusalem comes to the Vatican to meet the Pope. The Pope shows him around his office, and the impressed rabbi looks around.
"Hey, what is this?" Asks the rabbi, pointing to a beautiful, decorated phone on the side of the room.
"Oh, that is a phone for making calls directly to God."
"Magnificent! To tell you the truth, I have a pressing matter I have to consult God with. May I use your phone?"
"Of course you may."
And so the rabbi makes his call, and when puts down the phone he says: "Thank you. So it wouldn't be too much of a trouble, I would be willing to cover the cost of my call."
"That would be 23$."
The rabbi pays, and the two part.
A year later, the Pope comes to Jerusalem and decided to visit the Great rabbi. When he meets him, he notices that the rabbi has the same phone in his office likr his own.
"Wonderful! Is that a phone for calling God as well?"
"Indeed."
"What reminds me, I should consult him on an urgent matter of my own. My I use you phone?"
"As you wish!"
So the Pope consults with God, and later tells to the Rabbi:
"I wish to be so kind and pay the phone bill for my conversation."
"If that is what you want, that would be 5 NIS (1.25$)."
"Five NIS? Why so cheap."
That's where the rabbi smiles and says: "local call". ;D