True to FromSoft form, Elden Ring’s (opens in new tab) soundtrack is phenomenal, bursting forth during boss fights to capture all the majesty and madness of the foes you face. The choral elements of these tracks are a big part of what makes them special, though I have to confess to not having known the actual words to any of them since the Tower Knight in Demons’ Souls (and his banger of a track, HA-HAHA-HA-HA).
But thanks to the excellent work of Daniel Olmos, we’re starting to get some more insight into some of Elden Ring’s most intriguing characters, as he’s begun translating the boss music lyrics from Latin to English on his YouTube channel.
And, unsurprisingly, the lyrics add some depth to these encounters. For the Godrick boss battle, for example, we hear the deeply insecure runt of the divine litter arguing with his inner demons, insisting that he’s of Godly blood while mocking voices scream him down. Here’s a snippet:
“Midget behind all others in stature,
(background)Weak, feeble, crippled,
(foreground) weak God
(foreground)Either way I am a God
(foreground) I do not fear the heat of the battlefield
(background)Cowardly, cowardly, cowardly…”
The lyrics to the Godskin Apostles, meanwhile, rant about their anger at the Erdtree and how they wish to drape themselves in the skins of the gods. Yeesh.
There are some big feelings in those lyrics, and lore-gatherers will surely start turning to Mr. Olmos’ channel (who only started uploading these videos a few days ago) as a vital source of information. Interestingly, he says in the comments to one of the videos that many of these lyrics are a little bit off grammatically, following an English rather than a Latin sentence structure. Could it be that FromSoft cut a little corner here and wrote these lyrics without consulting a Latin expert?
Olmos’ channel also features translations for Starscourge Radahn and the Deacons of the Deep battle from Dark Souls 3, which gives us hope that this he’ll continue translating music from across the Soulsborne series, unearthing lore that’s been lying in plain sight (or, well, singing in not-so-plain sound) for years.
