In the age of current mass glorification via media from Lithuania and the United States of diaspora Lithuanian fascists like Adolfas Ramanauskas (Ramanauskas was born in New Britain, Connecticut, USA and later moved to Lithuania, later collaborating with Nazis during their invasion) or Lithuanian exile fascists like Jonas Mekas, few diaspora Lithuanians remember the names of revolutionary socialist Lithuanian diaspora heroes like Vytautas Montvila or Antanas Bimba. Antanas Bimba was a Lithuanian involved in the early American Communist movement, and a post will be made for him sometime later. As for the story of Montvila, It is up to Lithuanians everywhere to give this man his credit as a hero and martyr against fascism.
Vytautas was born to to an ethnic Lithuanian Catholic immigrant family in 1902 in the city of St. Charles, Illinois. His family, like many Lithuanian immigrants to America at the time, left Lithuania due to persecution by czarist Russian Empire authorities, whom sought to ban Lithuanian language as well as restrict the Catholic Church in favor of Orthodoxy. This persecution under czarism caused many minorities, particularly ethnic Lithuanian Catholics and Lithuanian Jews, to move often to the United States, Canada, or South American nations. In 1906, he and his family returned to Lithuania, moving to the city of Marijampolė. The family later moved to Degučiai, then a Marijampolė suburb.
As Vytautas grew older, between the years of 1922-26 he joined the Kėdainiai Teacher’s Seminary. It was somewhat of a social club for study, covering a wide range of topics, such as science, culture, atheism, and philosophy. Members were of various political parties, but it was here Vytautas became acquainted with local Communist activists and gained entry into the wider movement. The communists at these meetings often discussed Marxist theory, offered to share sections of the Communist Manifesto, and recruited members into local Worker’s Guilds. In 1923, he began writing his early poetry, often revolutionary in nature and influenced by avant-garde style. In his most famous poem, “Naktys be Nakvynės” (ENG: “Nights Without Accommodation”), written early in his career, he champions revolutionary socialism and personifies art of poetry as a tool for revolution. His later work from 1940-41 reflects the new Soviet period, condemns the reactionary past, hoping towards a socialist future in Lithuania. These later poems were influenced heavily by the works of fellow Soviet poet V. Mayakovsky, whose works Montvila enjoyed. These later works by Montvila were of a topical oratorical style, and he is credited often with having laid the foundation for other Lithuanian Soviet poets at the time. Montvila also wrote short stories and portions of novels. Among other feats, he translated the novel “Mother” by fellow Soviet writer Maxim Gorky, from Russian into Lithuanian, as well as translated the writer Émile Zola’s novel “The Collapse” from its original French into Lithuanian.
He shortly then studied in the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Lithuania (Today, Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas).
Following his departure from university, he began a life fully committed to revolutionary socialist activism. In 1929, in an effort to organizationally unify leftist writers against the bourgeoisie, he published the revolutionary almanac “Raketa” (ENG: “Rocket.”) For this, he was imprisoned from his arrest in 1929 to 1931. During 1935, he moved back to Marijampolė, and published the “Skardas” (ENG: “Tin”) worker’s newspaper for the Communist faction of the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party. He also published other socialist newspapers, titled “Darbas” (ENG: “Work”), “Kultūra” (ENG: “Culture”), “Aušrine” (ENG: “Dawn”), and “Prošvaistė” (ENG: “The Light”) for various leftist organizations. He simultaneously worked odd jobs to add to his livelihood.
Upon establishment of the Soviet Lithuanian government in 1940, Montvila, like many leftist Lithuanian citizens, was thrilled and ready for change, having been oppressed in a society previously plagued by issues such as anti-communism, rural serfdom, clerical fascism, anti-Semitism, and capitalist exploitation of all of the working people of Lithuania. Vytautas dedicated specialized time to working with Soviet authorities to publish and translate revolutionary texts from various authors, as well as delivering his own revolutionary pro-Soviet speeches. He continued this into 1941, the final year of his life.
Upon the Nazi invasion of Lithuania in mid-1941, he was captured by local collaborators and Gestapo. According to documents, he did not run or resist, rather instead defiantly, in true revolutionary martyr manner, insulted his captors. He was taken prisoner to the 9th Fort in Kaunas, where he was executed, being shot to death on July 19th, 1941, killed alongside many other Jewish and leftist victims of Nazi and collaborator fascist terror. To leftists who are aware of his heroism and revolutionary martyrdom, he is often compared to fellow revolutionary and Spanish poet F. Garcia Lorca, a leftist whom was executed by the Francoists. Vytautas, Lorca, and all revolutionaries shall be remembered forever. May we remember Vytautas Montvila, a hero to all Lithuanians, but especially to Lithuanians in the diaspora! Remember Vytautas Montvila, both uniquely a hero to Lithuanian-Americans, and the people of Lithuania!

https://www.culina-vetus.de/2024/05/18/in-praise-of-the-pig/
The König vom Odenwald is finished, but I will still need to do some work on the final edit and think about what to do with it. Meanwhile, here is another poem in praise of the pig:
https://preview.redd.it/jmuk8m0ip81d1.jpg?width=800&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7ac485fda4996e589c1fb007c5c6e225eec5fab3
IX This is a poem about the pig
And its usefulness
And it was made skilfully
By the kunig vom Otenwalde
As I have nothing new at this time
Many people say: “Very well,
We should have something new,
Kunig, make us a new poem!”
If I have to write something new
I will write about the pig.
Their squealing should gladly be tolerated
Sour liver (lebersoln) come from them
Filled and roasted
Happy are those who have them!
Boiled and smoked
They lose none of their virtue.
Now I should look at
Sausages in four manners
Made with brain and with blood
And also hot liver sausages
And sausages of sheer meat (brod = brät)
Those last long
Roasts by the embers
Give you joy
Bread catching dripping (betreift sniten) underneath
It is no wonder
Head, ears, tail, feet
And one part it digs with (the snout)
And the four pig legs
In vinegar and galantine
Tongue, spleen, and stomach
Of this, I, the kunig, must say
Of this come side dishes
Now hark what I say!
You also use the bladder well
Wherever it is useful.
You have bacon with peas
In your chickens and on a spit
And where there are boiled chickens
You must have bacon and parsley with them.
Further, I always serve
Fried lardons (grieben) in mus and on porridge
Pancakes and filled fritters (krepfelin)
All come from the pig
Dumplings from the rump (buzl)
Appear to be so small
But they are noble (like) venison (wiltbreht).
I will tell you more about the pig:
Shoulders and hams
Nourish nursemaids and women in childbed
Fat cabbage (kruot) come from the pig
Bride and bridegroom eat of that
This is common custom.
All foods are improved with it
Adding a little bacon to fish
I never forget to do this
Use your teeth if you can
Women and men both!
To use the large bellies and lard
You must have salt
You use it to smear on many things
Wagon sides (leitern) so they become smooth
Books, saddles, bucklers,
are protected steadily (by greasing)
And smiths always wear
A (pig)skin apron over their skin
Straps on the helm
Are carried on the field
Points and straps
Are inexpensively bought
The strop for the razor
I have heard and seen this
Is needed to swipe over often
When you wish to shave beards.
You also find, made of the skin
Belts, broad and narrow
I also tell you of the bristles
That they are used to brush hair
And every cobbler
Cannot be without bristles
Weavers and painters, too
Have need of bristles
And also every goldsmith
Works with them.
With bristles you make
Glasses clean, if you know how
And the noble bristles are
Put into the holy water sprinkler
Which is used in good intent
So God may have us in his protection.
The kunig has made this poem
Whoever can write a better one should do so.
This poem completes the series praising domestic animals, following the cow, goose, chicken, and sheep. While it mentions technical applications for pig products, its main focus lies on food. Pigs were kept primarily for eating.
The defense of the pig whose squealing seems to have annoyed people begins with a mention of lebersoln. I am not fully sure what these are, but I suspect it is a reference to the frequently attested roasted mashed liver wrapped in a caul. That certainly seems to have been a popular and exclusive dish. Sausages, made with brain, liver, blood, or sheer meat, are specifically addressed as four main types. This seems to be a mental classification that was current. We have surviving recipes for blood sausages, liver sausages, and the high-status bratwurst made from muscle meat. Some surviving recipes involving brain, too, may describe sausages, but I am less confident in identifying those. The poem does not mention lung sausages, a type we have several surviving recipes for. That may be owed to local custom, personal dislike, lack of status, or any other reason you care to imagine. Certainly people ate every part of the pig, and sausage making was a creative discipline.
Next, the poem mentions roast pork and the joy of eating the drippings with bread – betreift sniten possibly placed under the roast during cooking, though in my opinion more likely spread on toasted slices or loaves afterwards. I can attest to the fact that this is delicious. The feet, snout, ears and tail are cooked in a galantine. This is harder to interpret than it seems because the various words used to describe jelly today could refer to gelatin, but also to thickened sauces at the time. Clearly, though, these fiddly meat bits were cooked, taken apart, and served in an accressible and highly seasoned form.
The next section addresses bacon (speck), a useful ingredient in all kinds of dishes. This could refer to anything from mostly meaty salt-cured pork belly to mostly fat, white Rückenspeck. Interpreting individual recipes can be fraught that way, but it is likely cooks chose what they found served best. One especially interesting note is the poet’s injunction that boiled chicken must always be served with bacon and parsley (here likely meaning the root boiled with the meat). There may be the germ of a recipe in this line. Pig fat is also used as a cooking medium, which provides the connection to pancakes and the broad class of krepfelin fritters. The word usually means a filled fritter like a dumpling, but is often used for other kinds of fritter as well. The lardons (grieben) produced when rendering lard were another way of adding meaty richness to non-meat dishes, served with porridges and vegetable purees.
Two social practices are mentioned as asides: Pork shoulders and ham, probably dry-salted and smoked, are served to nursing mothers and fat kraut, most likely a cabbage dish, at weddings. We have other mentions of this and it seems to have been a custom early on. Addiong bacon to fish while culinarily plausible seems a daring suggestion given that fish was mainly eaten during Lent. It would not be a problem on meat days, obviously, so such recipes likely existed, but to find it stated as common practice in a clerical environment is a slight surprise.
What follows is a list of technical applications: Pigskin used in aprons razor, strops, helmet straps, and all kinds of other roles, pig fat for greasing leather, and bristles for sewing, in brushes, and in holy water sprinklers, the noblest avocation a humble pig could aspire to. Interestingly, we also learn that drinking glasses, still a luxury item, were kept clean using brushes. This kind of detail makes reading the König’s poems so rewarding.
Der König vom Odenwald (literally king of the Odenwald, a mountain chain in southern Germany) is an otherwise unknown poet whose work is tentatively dated to the 1340s. His title may refer to a senior rank among musicians or entertainers, a Spielmannskönig, but that is speculative. Many of his poems are humorous and deal with aspects of everyday life which makes them valuable sources to us today.
The identity of this poet has been subject to much speculation. He is clearly associated with the episcopal court at Würzburg and likely specifically with Michael de Leone (c. 1300-1355), a lawyer and scholar. Most of his work is known only through the Hausbuch of the same Michael de Leone, a collection of verse and practical prose that also includes the first known instance of the Buoch von guoter Spise, a recipe collection. This and the evident relish with which he describes food have led scholars to consider him a professional cook and the author of the Buoch von Guoter Spise, but that is unlikely. Going by the content of his poetry, the author is clearly familiar with the lives of the lower nobility and even his image of poverty is genteel. This need not mean he belonged to this class, but he clearly moved in these circles to some degree. Michael de Leone, a secular cleric and canon on the Würzburg chapter, was of that class and may have been a patron of the poet. Reinhardt Olt whose edition I am basing my translation on assumes that the author was a fellow canon, Johann II von Erbach.
I only translate the poems that deal with aspects of food or related everyday life here. There are several others which are less interesting as sources. They can be found in the newest extant edition by Reinhard Olt, König vom Odenwald; Gedichte, Carl Winter Verlag, Heidelberg 1988.

In the age of current mass glorification via media from Lithuania and the United States of diaspora Lithuanian fascists like Adolfas Ramanauskas (Ramanauskas was born in New Britain, Connecticut, USA and later moved to Lithuania, later collaborating with Nazis during their invasion) or Lithuanian exile fascists like Jonas Mekas, few diaspora Lithuanians remember the names of revolutionary socialist Lithuanian diaspora heroes like Vytautas Montvila or Antanas Bimba. Antanas Bimba was a Lithuanian involved in the early American Communist movement, and a post will be made for him sometime later. As for the story of Montvila, It is up to Lithuanians everywhere to give this man his credit as a hero and martyr against fascism. Vytautas was born to to an ethnic Lithuanian Catholic immigrant family in 1902 in the city of St. Charles, Illinois. His family, like many Lithuanian immigrants to America at the time, left Lithuania due to persecution by czarist Russian Empire authorities, whom sought to ban Lithuanian language as well as restrict the Catholic Church in favor of Orthodoxy. This persecution under czarism caused many minorities, particularly ethnic Lithuanian Catholics and Lithuanian Jews, to move often to the United States, Canada, or South American nations. In 1906, he and his family returned to Lithuania, moving to the city of Marijampolė. The family later moved to Degučiai, then a Marijampolė suburb.
As Vytautas grew older, between the years of 1922-26 he joined the Kėdainiai Teacher’s Seminary. It was somewhat of a social club for study, covering a wide range of topics, such as science, culture, atheism, and philosophy. Members were of various political parties, but it was here Vytautas became acquainted with local Communist activists and gained entry into the wider movement. The communists at these meetings often discussed Marxist theory, offered to share sections of the Communist Manifesto, and recruited members into local Worker’s Guilds.
In 1923, he began writing his early poetry, often revolutionary in nature and influenced by avant-garde style. In his most famous poem, “Naktys be Nakvynės” (ENG: “Nights Without Accommodation”), written early in his career, he champions revolutionary socialism and personifies art of poetry as a tool for revolution. His later work from 1940-41 reflects the new Soviet period, condemns the reactionary past, hoping towards a socialist future in Lithuania. These later poems were influenced heavily by the works of fellow Soviet poet V. Mayakovsky, whose works Montvila enjoyed. These later works by Montvila were of a topical oratorical style, and he is credited often with having laid the foundation for other Lithuanian Soviet poets at the time. Montvila also wrote short stories and portions of novels. Among other feats, he translated the novel “Mother” by fellow Soviet writer Maxim Gorky, from Russian into Lithuanian, as well as translated the writer Émile Zola’s novel “The Collapse” from its original French into Lithuanian.
He shortly then studied in the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Lithuania (Today, Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas).
Following his departure from university, he began a life fully committed to revolutionary socialist activism. In 1929, in an effort to organizationally unify leftist writers against the bourgeoisie, he published the revolutionary almanac “Raketa” (ENG: “Rocket.”) For this, he was imprisoned from his arrest in 1929 to 1931. During 1935, he moved back to Marijampolė, and published the “Skardas” (ENG: “Tin”) worker’s newspaper for the Communist faction of the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party. He also published other socialist newspapers, titled “Darbas” (ENG: “Work”), “Kultūra” (ENG: “Culture”), “Aušrine” (ENG: “Dawn”), and “Prošvaistė” (ENG: “The Light”) for various leftist organizations. He simultaneously worked odd jobs to add to his livelihood.
Upon establishment of the Soviet Lithuanian government in 1940, Montvila, like many leftist Lithuanian citizens, was thrilled and ready for change, having been oppressed in a society previously plagued by issues such as anti-communism, rural serfdom, clerical fascism, anti-Semitism, and capitalist exploitation of all of the working people of Lithuania. Vytautas dedicated specialized time to working with Soviet authorities to publish and translate revolutionary texts from various authors, as well as delivering his own revolutionary pro-Soviet speeches. He continued this into 1941, the final year of his life.
Upon the Nazi invasion of Lithuania in mid-1941, he was captured by local collaborators and Gestapo. According to documents, he did not run or resist, rather instead defiantly, in true revolutionary martyr manner, insulted his captors. He was taken prisoner to the 9th Fort in Kaunas, where he was executed, being shot to death on July 19th, 1941, killed alongside many other Jewish and leftist victims of Nazi and collaborator fascist terror. To leftists who are aware of his heroism and revolutionary martyrdom, he is often compared to fellow revolutionary and Spanish poet F. Garcia Lorca, a leftist whom was executed by the Francoists. Vytautas, Lorca, and all revolutionaries shall be remembered forever. May we remember Vytautas Montvila, a hero to all Lithuanians, but especially to Lithuanians in the diaspora! Remember Vytautas Montvila, both uniquely a hero to Lithuanian-Americans, and the people of Lithuania!

In the age of current mass glorification via media from Lithuania and the United States of diaspora Lithuanian fascists like Adolfas Ramanauskas (Ramanauskas was born in New Britain, Connecticut, USA and later moved to Lithuania, later collaborating with Nazis during their invasion) or Lithuanian exile fascists like Jonas Mekas, few diaspora Lithuanians remember the names of revolutionary socialist Lithuanian diaspora heroes like Vytautas Montvila or Antanas Bimba. Antanas Bimba was a Lithuanian involved in the early American Communist movement, and a post will be made for him sometime later. As for the story of Montvila, It is up to Lithuanians everywhere to give this man his credit as a hero and martyr against fascism. Vytautas was born to to an ethnic Lithuanian Catholic immigrant family in 1902 in the city of St. Charles, Illinois. His family, like many Lithuanian immigrants to America at the time, left due to persecution by czarist Russian Empire authorities, whom sought to ban Lithuanian language as well as restrict the Catholic Church in favor of Orthodoxy. This persecution under czarism caused many minorities, particularly ethnic Lithuanian Catholics and Lithuanian Jews, to move often to the United States, Canada, or South American nations. In 1906, he and his family returned to Lithuania, moving to the city of Marijampolė. The family later moved to Degučiai, then a Marijampolė suburb.
As Vytautas grew older, between the years of 1922-26 he joined the Kėdainiai Teacher’s Seminary. It was somewhat of a social club for study, covering a wide range of topics, such as science, culture, atheism, and philosophy. Members were of various political parties, but it was here Vytautas became acquainted with local Communist activists and gained entry into the wider movement. The communists at these meetings often discussed Marxist theory, offered to share sections of the Communist Manifesto, and recruited members into local Worker’s Guilds.
In 1923, he began writing his early poetry, often revolutionary in nature and influenced by avant-garde style. In his most famous poem, “Naktys be Nakvynės” (ENG: “Nights Without Accommodation”), written early in his career, he champions revolutionary socialism and personifies art of poetry as a tool for revolution. His later work from 1940-41 reflects the new Soviet period, condemns the reactionary past, hoping towards a socialist future in Lithuania. These later poems were influenced heavily by the works of fellow Soviet poet V. Mayakovsky, whose works Montvila enjoyed. These later works by Montvila were of a topical oratorical style, and he is credited often with having laid the foundation for other Lithuanian Soviet poets at the time. Montvila also wrote short stories and portions of novels. Among other feats, he translated the novel “Mother” by fellow Soviet writer Maxim Gorky, from Russian into Lithuanian, as well as translated the writer Émile Zola’s novel “The Collapse” from its original French into Lithuanian.
He shortly then studied in the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Lithuania (Today, Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas).
Following his departure from university, he began a life fully committed to revolutionary socialist activism. In 1929, in an effort to organizationally unify leftist writers against the bourgeoisie, he published the revolutionary almanac “Raketa” (ENG: “Rocket.”) For this, he was imprisoned from his arrest in 1929 to 1931. During 1935, he moved back to Marijampolė, and published the “Skardas” (ENG: “Tin”) worker’s newspaper for the Communist faction of the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party. He also published other socialist newspapers, titled “Darbas” (ENG: “Work”), “Kultūra” (ENG: “Culture”), “Aušrine” (ENG: “Dawn”), and “Prošvaistė” (ENG: “The Light”) for various leftist organizations. He simultaneously worked odd jobs to add to his livelihood.
Upon establishment of the Soviet Lithuanian government in 1940, Montvila, like many leftist Lithuanian citizens, was thrilled and ready for change, having been oppressed in a society previously plagued by issues such as anti-communism, rural serfdom, clerical fascism, anti-Semitism, and capitalist exploitation of all of the working people of Lithuania. Vytautas dedicated specialized time to working with Soviet authorities to publish and translate revolutionary texts from various authors, as well as delivering his own revolutionary pro-Soviet speeches. He continued this into 1941, the final year of his life.
Upon the Nazi invasion of Lithuania in mid-1941, he was captured by local collaborators and Gestapo. According to documents, he did not run or resist, rather instead defiantly, in true revolutionary martyr manner, insulted his captors. He was taken prisoner to the 9th Fort in Kaunas, where he was executed, being shot to death on July 19th, 1941, killed alongside many other Jewish and leftist victims of Nazi and collaborator fascist terror. To leftists who are aware of his heroism and revolutionary martyrdom, he is often compared to fellow revolutionary and Spanish poet F. Garcia Lorca, a leftist whom was executed by the Francoists. Vytautas, Lorca, and all revolutionaries shall be remembered forever. May we remember Vytautas Montvila, a hero to all Lithuanians, but especially to Lithuanians in the diaspora! Remember Vytautas Montvila, both uniquely a hero to Lithuanian-Americans, and the people of Lithuania!

In the age of current mass glorification via media from Lithuania and the United States of diaspora Lithuanian fascists like Adolfas Ramanauskas (Ramanauskas was born in New Britain, Connecticut, USA and later moved to Lithuania, later collaborating with Nazis during their invasion) or Lithuanian exile fascists like Jonas Mekas, few diaspora Lithuanians remember the names of revolutionary socialist Lithuanian diaspora heroes like Vytautas Montvila or Antanas Bimba. Antanas Bimba was a Lithuanian involved in the early American Communist movement, and a post will be made for him sometime later. As for the story of Montvila, It is up to Lithuanians everywhere to give this man his credit as a hero and martyr against fascism.
Vytautas was born to to an ethnic Lithuanian Catholic immigrant family in 1902 in the city of St. Charles, Illinois. His family, like many Lithuanian immigrants to America at the time, left due to persecution by czarist Russian Empire authorities, whom sought to ban Lithuanian language as well as restrict the Catholic Church in favor of Orthodoxy. This persecution under czarism caused many minorities, particularly ethnic Lithuanian Catholics and Lithuanian Jews, to move often to the United States, Canada, or South American nations. In 1906, he and his family returned to Lithuania, moving to the city of Marijampolė. The family later moved to Degučiai, then a Marijampolė suburb.
As Vytautas grew older, between the years of 1922-26 he joined the Kėdainiai Teacher’s Seminary. It was somewhat of a social club for study, covering a wide range of topics, such as science, culture, atheism, and philosophy. Members were of various political parties, but it was here Vytautas became acquainted with local Communist activists and gained entry into the wider movement. The communists at these meetings often discussed Marxist theory, offered to share sections of the Communist Manifesto, and recruited members into local Worker’s Guilds.
In 1923, he began writing his early poetry, often revolutionary in nature and influenced by avant-garde style. In his most famous poem, “Naktys be Nakvynės” (ENG: “Nights Without Accommodation”), written early in his career, he champions revolutionary socialism and personifies art of poetry as a tool for revolution. His later work from 1940-41 reflects the new Soviet period, condemns the reactionary past, hoping towards a socialist future in Lithuania. These later poems were influenced heavily by the works of fellow Soviet poet V. Mayakovsky, whose works Montvila enjoyed. These later works by Montvila were of a topical oratorical style, and he is credited often with having laid the foundation for other Lithuanian Soviet poets at the time. Montvila also wrote short stories and portions of novels. Among other feats, he translated the novel “Mother” by fellow Soviet writer Maxim Gorky, from Russian into Lithuanian, as well as translated the writer Émile Zola’s novel “The Collapse” from its original French into Lithuanian.
He shortly then studied in the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Lithuania (Today, Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas).
Following his departure from university, he began a life fully committed to revolutionary socialist activism. In 1929, in an effort to organizationally unify leftist writers against the bourgeoisie, he published the revolutionary almanac “Raketa” (ENG: “Rocket.”) For this, he was imprisoned from his arrest in 1929 to 1931. During 1935, he moved back to Marijampolė, and published the “Skardas” (ENG: “Tin”) worker’s newspaper for the Communist faction of the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party. He also published other socialist newspapers, titled “Darbas” (ENG: “Work”), “Kultūra” (ENG: “Culture”), “Aušrine” (ENG: “Dawn”), and “Prošvaistė” (ENG: “The Light”) for various leftist organizations. He simultaneously worked odd jobs to add to his livelihood.
Upon establishment of the Soviet government in 1940, Montvila, like many leftist Lithuanian citizens, was thrilled and ready for change, having been oppressed in a society previously plagued by issues such as anti-communism, rural serfdom, clerical fascism, anti-Semitism, and capitalist exploitation of all of the working people of Lithuania. Vytautas dedicated specialized time to working with Soviet authorities to publish and translate revolutionary texts from various authors, as well as delivering his own revolutionary pro-Soviet speeches. He continued this into 1941, the final year of his life.
Upon the Nazi invasion of Lithuania in mid-1941, he was captured by local collaborators and Gestapo. According to documents, he did not run or resist, rather instead defiantly, in true revolutionary martyr manner, insulted his captors. He was taken prisoner to the 9th Fort in Kaunas, where he was executed, being shot to death on July 19th, 1941, killed alongside many other Jewish and leftist victims of Nazi and collaborator fascist terror. To leftists who are aware of his heroism and revolutionary martyrdom, he is often compared to fellow revolutionary and Spanish poet F. Garcia Lorca, a leftist whom was executed by the Francoists. Vytautas, Lorca, and all revolutionaries shall be remembered forever. May we remember Vytautas Montvila, a hero to all Lithuanians, but especially to Lithuanians in the diaspora! Remember Vytautas Montvila, both uniquely a hero to Lithuanian-Americans, and the people of Lithuania!

So, this got out of hand. This post was originally supposed to be an analysis of light & lightning as symbols in TTPD, and it still is, but it also turned into something else. It also now basically only covers three lines of one song somehow but it's WORTH it, I promise it's worth it. But what happened is over the course of writing this post I also found like my "symbol cipher" holy grail.
I'll link my original post on the symbol cipher in case you want to see, but I will quickly try to explain the theory here! Essentially, I think that the literary allusions on TTPD act as a guide to unpacking the symbolism on the album. The most obvious example of this might be the albatross. Taylor is sort of borrowing symbolism from Rime of the Ancient Mariner and applying it to her own work. With this example, the referencing and the symbol appear on the same track, but I don't think this is necessarily the case for most of them.
In my last post I analyzed the symbol of a kiss. To do this, I found out which of the literary works Taylor references uses “kiss” in a symbolic way. Peter Pan was an easy answer here. In Peter Pan, "a kiss" symbolizes childhood innocence. So, I used the idea of "innocence" to interpret Taylor's use of "kiss" on TTPD. This analysis, along with the similar one I did about the albatross as a symbol, wound up working even better than I had originally anticipated.
Symbol Cipher Theory & Kiss Symbolism
Albatross Symbolism on TTPD
Very sorry in advance for the length. Things just kept happening and I simply don't know how to be concise with all of this. (She says, launching into unnecessary personal narrative--)
It was Monday night. I was more than halfway through my analysis of light-based symbolism on TTPD. I was sorting through lyrics, trying not to feel insane as I oscillated back and forth between symbolic meanings pulled from various works of literature, sometimes layering them on top of each other within the same verse or even line.
https://preview.redd.it/vz1r5b5ixx0d1.png?width=1330&format=png&auto=webp&s=6b2ad17c2ff12be2d6d49df2e8540e90b8da02bb
I’d noted light-based symbolism in 3 of the works Taylor alludes to in her own:

• Frankenstein- In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, light is a symbol of knowledge or enlightenment, while lightning symbolizes the destructive power of ambition and the dangers of pursuing knowledge without considering the consequences.
• The Great Gatsby- In The Great Gatsby, the green light is a symbol for the American Dream, and the components of that American Dream, including Daisy. We learn through Gatsby's fate that the American Dream is an illusion, a false promise.
• Tell all the truth but tell it slant- This poem by Emily Dickinson uses light as a symbol for knowledge, or truth, as she calls it. This works in almost in the opposite way that Frankenstein does; while Frankenstein's symbolism has to do with seeking out knowledge, Dickinson is referring to the delivery of knowledge or the reveal of truth. "The truth must dazzle gradually," she says, "or every man be blind."

Frankenstein connections in TTPD & Tumblr Post Emily Dickinson "Slant" connections & The poem's double meaning
There could easily be more examples, but I have honestly been too overwhelmed to even consider it. Please! discuss below, I have brain worms now. (Note: I did not count fire, stars, or the sun, because I think they might be treated as separate symbols.)
So to put it in Multiple-Choice Format, Frankenstein’s light is knowledge, Gatsby’s light is illusion, and Dickinson’s light is truth. While I had been trying to keep my focus solely on TTPD, a bunch of this symbolism already reminded me of songs like mirrorball and Bejeweled, which seem to frame truth as reflection or refraction of light.
I went backwards through the tracklist as I did this analysis, which made "Guilty As Sin?" one of the later tracks I took a look at. And I've been looking at it ever since. (sorry, tracks 1-8)
So, when you really look at these starting lines, multiple questions arise. Who is drowning in the Blue Nile? “He” or “I?” It would depend on punctuation, except we have none. Besides those quotation marks, anyway, but hey! Why are those there if that isn’t even the full song title? It’s also by The Blue Nile, so why isn’t the ‘t’ in “the” capitalized? And what does Any of this have to do with Frankenstein?
But let’s start where I started, and maybe we can answer these questions as we go.
So who is drowning? It depends, I think. When I first listened to the song, my impression was that the speaker of the song, the “I,” was the one drowning. In my head, the second line felt almost like an aside or a clarification. "[I was] drowning in the Blue Nile; he sent me "Downtown Lights." So, my first interpretations of this line, through the lens of symbolic light, looked like this:
I was overwhelmed by deep emotion listening to the song he sent me about light because it reminded me of the past.
The symbolism here reminded me most of the Frankenstein interpretation: light as a symbol for knowledge. To me, this little scene does evoke an exchange of both light (a phone lighting up w/ a message) and knowledge (the reminder of the song.) With that in mind, I went a layer deeper.
I was overwhelmed listening to the deep truth she shared with me I had forgotten about them.
Lightning is also a symbol in Frankenstein, of the destructive nature of ambition, and the dangers of pursuing powerful knowledge without considering the consequences. I wondered if the digital (or electric) nature of the exchange could add another layer to our interpretation.
I was in danger out there thanks to the destructive reminder he sent me. I had heard that one before.
After that, I shifted my focus to the other interpretation of the line: "Drowning in the Blue Nile, he sent me Downtown Lights. I hadn't heard it in a while."
In this interpretation, he is the one drowning in the Nile (Blue.) He is the one who's lost in the lights. (hiii MA&THP) So okay, maybe the answer is either or both or, maybe, “those are the same picture.” I was starting to get the feeling that, much like TTPD itself, these lines were meant to be looked at from every angle, that their meaning shimmers, changes depending on how the light hits them.
Lost in the light, he dragged me under it too It was something I knew once, a long time ago (I've been there too, a few times?)
The lights in this interpretation feel like they could be stage lights, which is a reference often made on TTPD, though not in this song (directly, anyway.) Gatsby is the only work on the list which made reference to electric light, instead of light as a sort of natural, cosmic force. In this way, the green light in Gatsby is artificial, which makes sense for a symbol of false promises and illusion.
Covered in well-lit illusion she made me false promises I hear them all the time (or, maybe) I’ve used that one myself?
At this point, I started interpreting the final line here in a sort of ironic or sarcastic way. I know we haven't gotten there yet because we are stuck in the Guilty As Sin? intro timeloop, but the next line is "my boredom's bone deep."
This was where my "dazzle" senses started tingling. Things were going slant. We were talking illusions and how things may not be as they appear in the light! We were deep in double meanings, purposeful cracks, and hidden possibilities. The very idea of these three lines having so many multi-facets almost seemed to perform the act of dazzling gradually, itself!
I also realized around here that I had all but ignored that first Blue Nile reference, the band name. hadn't really known what to do with it. Why would she mention both the artist and the song title? Surely one reference would have been enough, especially given the apparent public knowledge about the associations of that song.
I had first just thought of it as a way to play on the drowning motif and the light motif at the same time, and had used the band name for it's words, thinking of depth and emotion. I had thought of the song itself as in "interpretation of light," but I had not thought of the band as the "interpreters" of light.
Lost in a sea of interpretations, he sent me his own version of the truth. I had heard that that one before. I'm so bored of this.
When I originally googled the Blue Nile, I hadn't known the reference. I had just typed it into google from hearing it audibly. I first read about the River Nile and how there are two parts (ha ha.) Then I ended up finding out it was the name of a diamond company before realizing it was a reference to the band and song. Specifically, its an online-only company that sells diamonds cheaper since they don’t have brick-and-mortar stores. Lots of people use it for engagement and wedding rings. This might seem unconnected, if that 't' were only capitalized!
I think this would allow us to fold in the Emily Dickinson, sequin-stars, mirrorballesque meaning here very well.
This was when I decided it probably didn't really matter who was drowning, that it could be both at the same time, within one interpretation. "[As we were] Drowning in the Blue Nile, he sent me "Downtown Lights."
Drowning in diamonds (the dazzle of light) he told me something I already knew. How Boring.
The meaning of just the three lines seemed endless. But it was all feeling very difficult to prove. Was I going a little too crazy with this? Could all of this be true at once? I'm not Dylan Thomas. She's not Patti Smith! I've never even been to the Chelsea Hotel.
But then, what about the kisses?
At some point along the way here, I had another, somewhat troubling, thought: there was no way I could attribute the symbolism here only to Frankenstein and Gatsby and Dickinson while that Blue Nile reference was staring me right in the face.
I had looked up "Downtown Lights" before, way back when the album first came out, but that initial lyric scan honestly hadn't left an impression while my brain was spinning around like a propeller, focused on nothing but consuming TTPD. Now I knew that (according to the symbol cipher code of ethics) I had to take a look at the specific allusion here and find out how light is treated symbolically within "The Downtown Lights" by The Blue Nile.
Essentially, I was ready to do a lyric analysis within a lyric analysis
I put the song on, then went over to genius and began clicking around, as you do. It did not take long to find literally exactly what I was looking for. I will give you a visual of what happened next:
https://preview.redd.it/sf4p8linqx0d1.png?width=300&format=png&auto=webp&s=0dc47ca9d5efdb366e699f8b6474b0c2cd6e18aa
ego trip 5/13/2024
So as it turns out!! the downtown lights hold different meanings at different points throughout the Blue Nile song! This was very exciting for me. It meant that, yes, light could have alternating meanings at different points throughout TTPD and still maintain the idea of a "symbol cipher.” In fact, Taylor was practically singing to me that it does.
Drowning in the Blue Nile, indeed.
So we know the downtown lights have multiple meanings in the song, but what did they mean? According to Genius, the The Blue Nile song switches between using the downtown lights as a positive, welcoming presence, and as an alienating, lonely sight. I think it's possible that we are touching on both of these interpretations at once here. The first use of "downtown lights" comes in the opening verse "It's alright, can't you see / the downtown lights?" This use reminds me of the idea of "the light at the end of the tunnel."
Drowning in the Blue Nile Overwhelmed by these interpretations of light (relatable)
He sent me 'Downtown Lights' I hadn't heard it in a while He reminded me of 'the light at the end of the tunnel' as if I could have forgotten
My boredom’s bone deep No part of me is interested in this anymore.
This cage was once just fine I used to be able to tolerate these limits
Am I allowed to cry? Am I allowed to be sad about something I chose? (conjecture)
For this last one, I will interpret the lines with the other meaning of “the downtown lights," the distance and alienation, ("Empty streets, empty nights / the downtown lights") I am also going to try to do my best to layer in as much of some of the other interpretations as possible.
Drowning in the Blue Nile Lost and bathed in the illusory, dazzling glow of thousands of reflections
He sent me Downtown Lights He brought up the light at the end of the tunnel, but it only reminded me of the separation that remains between where I am and where I want to be.
I hadn’t heard it in a while As if I needed reminding. I used to use that line myself, but I don’t believe it anymore.
My boredom’s bone deep There is nothing left for me to learn here and I can no longer convince myself otherwise.
This cage was once just fine I used to feel like these limits protected me, but now I feel caged and gawked at.
Am I allowed to cry? Is it hypocritical of me to come clean now? How would they react?
The last use of "the downtown lights" is here: "The neons and the cigarettes, rented rooms and rented cars The crowded streets, the empty bars Chimney tops and trumpets, the golden lights, the loving prayers The coloured shoes, the empty trains, I'm tired of crying on the stairs The downtown lights"
To me, this evokes that sort of overwhelm feeling, when everything gets to be too much; the good things and the bad things, and the ways they overlap and contradict each other, and pull you apart, and drive you crazy, kind of thing. This meaning feels almost like it doesn't even need an interpretation. It's the part of the Blue Nile you drown in.
Um so this ended sort of dark and sad. I didn't think about that when I came up with my clever little bookend format. Luckily, I have just the thing, and it's weird!!
So, somewhere along the way here, I clicked on the username of the contributor who annotated “The Downtown Lights." They're username is Abraxas01.
It turns out "Abraxas" is (ok. yeah. why not? at this point why not?) a word that has multiple meanings, including "the honorable and Hallowed word," (the sacred or holy word) and "the uncreated Father," (not existing by creation : eternal, self-existent) and "the beautiful, the glorious Savior.”
I’m not even going to think about trying to unpack all of that. But Merriam Webster's defines the word as something “used as a charm on an amulet or talisman in Europe, Asia Minor, and North Africa from the second century b.c. until the 13th century," so there's also that.
The word comes from Biblical Greek. Wikipedia says “The spelling of Abraxas seen today probably originates in the confusion made between the Greek letters sigma (Σ) and xi (Ξ) in the Latin transliteration.”
On the profile, I saw a few interesting things, but nothing that seemed as connected to TTPD as the "The Downtown Lights" annotations. At one point I was scrolling through Abraxas01's following list and I noticed that they and another user called perfectrhyme were following each other. This other user has a ton of points on the website, but no real info. Instead, their bio reads "perfectrhyme is keeping quiet for now," which is not, like, an auto generated message from the site, I'm pretty sure, because a bunch of the new users just have blank bios.
This user’s annotations here were much more interesting in terms of Taylor connections. I’m going to include some of the most compelling ones and I need people to tell me what they think because I don’t know what’s going on anymore!!!
The PFP is Chaucer
My town was a wasteland? Jumping off of very tall somethings?
https://preview.redd.it/kgu3iljzlx0d1.png?width=478&format=png&auto=webp&s=6c452696b58e47fbc430019960e871016be9fdff
So much of it is from the balcony scene... swifter??
https://preview.redd.it/j01x0u5fmx0d1.png?width=470&format=png&auto=webp&s=09cbcf1b82bb2003d18aa91b2984e4fda8162d7b
https://preview.redd.it/4rx6vy5fmx0d1.png?width=470&format=png&auto=webp&s=b1b2a06bcaaaea8ce6c0c3372395c9b9d9f05942
I mean
A description of the painting
One last sidenote which I know I am not the most qualified person on this sub to talk about is that the Abraxas01 profile uses a photo of Brian Jones and Mick Jagger that was shot by Linda McCartney, Paul McCartney’s wife. Beatles posters, what does this mean???
Here are some more of my interpretations of light and lightning off of TTPD, including Peter, The Bolter, Clara Bow, and ICDIWABH (they are not all like this one lol)
In general, I need to know other people’s thoughts on all of this pls help me make some sense over here I begggg

Amid all my attempts to tie The Tortured Poets Department to literature, poems, and the rest of Taylor Swift’s discography, I missed one of the most obvious references possible. With the song “Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?” as a play on titles of other works—namely, “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?” and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?—Taylor Swift is calling herself a wolf.
If Taylor Swift is calling herself a wolf, and that wolf is a dangerous force to be reckoned with, I wondered where else in her filmography or discography Swift has referenced or even identified with wolves, so I set out to see if there is a common (queer) thread tying it together.
Swift directly references wolves just three times in her lyrical discography: “Daylight” from Lover and “Guilty as Sin?” and “The Prophecy” from The Tortured Poets Department, plus the indirect reference in the “Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?” song title, also from Tortured Poets. However, the first time we meet wolves in Swift’s catalog is in the “Out of the Woods” music video from 1989, where our rabbit hole begins.
My thesis: Tortured Poets is the mourning warning for what’s to come on reputation (Taylor's Version), and this is tied together by wolves and light versus dark imagery being threaded from 1989 (Taylor’s Version) through Tortured Poets, in addition to the scenery of the woods, underwater, and the beach. All of this is ultimately leading us out of the woods and into the daylight to fully understand reputation (Taylor's Version) through the lens of Tortured Poets.

Are we out of the woods yet?

We first see wolves in the “Out of the Woods” music video. A pack of snarling wolves is chasing Swift through a dark forest, even shredding her evening gown (hello, "The Alcott") trying to attack her. Once she emerges from the woods, Swift and the wolves run through a snowy landscape, but it becomes unclear whether Swift is running from or with the wolves. By the end of the music video, Swift and the wolves appear to coexist.
https://preview.redd.it/677o64llmz0d1.png?width=1754&format=png&auto=webp&s=9275b63cc50f5970a79e616ba179d06b50a85083
Swift re-released 1989 in 2023, and the lyric video for “Out of the Woods (Taylor’s Version)” shows the exact tour visuals from the 1989 World Tour. The visuals show two wolves running through the dark forest along a body of water that shows their reflections. There are multiple “twos” throughout the lyric video (which have been flashed incessantly during the Tortured Poets era) but there are a few other notable things. First, the wolves appear to be ghosts or phantoms, transparent and glowing only in the moonlight. Second, the two wolves emerge from the forest together, then leap from the cliff and turn to dust as the song ends.
For reference for anyone who wants to watch all of these:

• "Out of the Woods" original music video
• "Out of the Woods" performed on the 1989 World Tour
• "Out of the Woods (Taylor's Version)" official lyric video

The duality of the wolves is significant, but the idea of Swift being one of the wolves works nicely when you realize Swift is one of the wolves in the original music video. I interpret the video's message as one only being able to find peace in acceptance, not desertion of, their true selves. The dark versus light motif comes up often in Swift’s discography, and we see it here as Swift coexists with the wolves as one of them in the light. The lyrics speak to the juxtaposition of Swift and the muse as being “in screaming color” versus “the rest of the world [as] black and white.”
Swift “finds herself” on a sunny beach. The version of Swift that has braved and endured the trials and tribulations of the forest, fires, and more reunites with this version of herself. This is the last music video of the seven (! and, of course, "seven" is tied up in this theory later on) released during the original 1989 era, which leads us directly to reputation, namely, “Look What You Made Me Do.”

What did we make her do?

No, Taylor Swift doesn’t reference wolves on reputation or in the song “Look What You Made Me Do,” but reputation is tied to the symbolism of “Out of the Woods.” The LWYMMD music video opens with the version of Swift we saw at the end of OOTW picking up where we left off, except it appears Swift (or at least her reputation, as is displayed on the gravestone) is dead and buried.
Wolves typically represent the untamed, wildness, and freedom. In many adages and fables about wolves, there tends to be a duality, either with wolves versus their domesticated counterparts in dogs or good and light versus evil and dark. For Swift to run from then become a wolf signifies a desire to outrun her own identity—something wild and dangerous—only to accept it and find peace in the light. For Swift to have found this version of herself and come to accept it in OOTW only to see it buried in LWYMMD suggests the thing “we made her do” is kill off that version of herself to save her reputation. I interpret this as a dangerous element of Swift’s self, potentially queerness, being so threatening to her reputation that she was forced to bury or conceal it despite thinking she was finally “out of the woods,” grounding the plane we see Taylor saw the wings off at the end of the music video. Aligned with the Karma/lost album theory, Swift’s plans were scrapped and replaced with reputation, and the thing she sought to do—come out—forced another rebirth in LWYMMD. Swift is notably caged in LWYMMD in an orange jumpsuit reminiscent of a prisoner’s, and there is more caged imagery aligned to wolves later in Swift’s lyrics, especially in the Tortured Poets tracks tied to this theory. More on that soon.
To bring this full circle, I believe this is the reason 1989 (Taylor’s Version) is beach-themed: Swift is reclaiming the union of her two selves that she should have been able to claim post-1989 originally before the events that inspired reputation came to be.
For some more bonus content, the LWYMMD lyric video includes a typewriter that appears to be writing a manuscript for a film or play:
https://preview.redd.it/o7l2ipksmz0d1.png?width=2634&format=png&auto=webp&s=69ad0ea3a3ffb81834bb8ba1f41af6ce9edec09e

She only saw daylight

Swift mentions wolves for the very first time in her lyrics on “Daylight,” the last track of Lover, her first owned album and what is thought to be the “coming out” album. (And, in my opinion, the aesthetic no one noticed that forced her to become a non-functioning alcoholic.)

Maybe you ran with the wolves and refused to settle down Maybe I’ve stormed out of every room in this town Threw out our cloaks and our daggers because it’s morning now It’s brighter now, now

To run with the wolves is to live wildly with unbridled freedom, typically against societal norms. In psychology, there is a concept of “women who run with wolves” as women rediscovering their wild and their passions. Several reflections I found on this concept relative to queerness discuss the idea of wolfpacks and tribes, and I see this in “Daylight” as Swift focuses not only on emerging from the darkness herself but bringing someone else with her ("threw out our cloaks and our daggers"), allowing them to abandon the frustration represented by storming out of rooms or the need to run instead of standing in the light.
As we know, sadly, Swift returns to the woods in folklore and evermore after another ruining of her “best-laid plans” despite emerging from a “twenty-year dark night” and “throwing out [her cloak and dagger]” in “Daylight.” On The Eras Tour, the folklore and evermore sets take place in the forest at night under a massive moon similar to the one in the “Out of the Woods” lyric video and original tour visuals for 1989. Swift also famously wears a cloak during the “willow” performance on tour.
https://preview.redd.it/12m7c6qfoz0d1.png?width=1974&format=png&auto=webp&s=6a397cfccde1a36ff6217ddd6458b5eae5b0f13a
Following folklore and evermore, Swift released Midnights, a continued commentary on the light versus dark motif representing “thirteen sleepless nights” across Swift’s life. The next references to wolves don’t come until The Tortured Poets Department. There are two, both on songs that (I believe) describe an identity crisis and struggle: “Guilty as Sin?” and “The Prophecy” as well as the indirect reference in “Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?” that started me down this rabbit hole. As noted above, these songs also reference cages and being trapped.

She (still) dreams of throwing her life to the wolves

The Tortured Poets Department plays with dark and light, a frequent motif in Swift’s discography. While the standard version of the album is represented by white with a relaxed image of Swift’s body literally laid back with a notable ray of sunlight over it, The Anthology is near-black and pictures Swift holding her head in anguish.
Both versions of The Tortured Poets Department official album artwork, representing light versus dark
Swift mentioned that Tortured Poets was written about the “last two years” of her life, and I feel this has been mischaracterized and reduced to focus only on the highly public elements of her love life. Swift likely spent those two years deep in her rerecording process for all four albums following Fearless (Taylor’s Version) and Red (Taylor’s Version).
During this two-year timespan, we can assume Swift likely recorded Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) and 1989 (Taylor’s Version) in addition to their releases, and it is likely that Swift has already recorded reputation (Taylor’s Version) and Taylor Swift (Taylor’s Version) in the same timeframe.
For Swift to say that Tortured Poets represents "the end of this chapter of the author’s life" most likely signifies a closing door on a period of deep retrospective. I believe this is the crux of Tortured Poets entirely. I find it probable, not just possible, that much of Tortured Poets references this process and Swift’s experience and feelings unearthing and rerecording these albums. In revisiting those “eras” (or times in her actual life as a human being), I imagine the process to be quite painful. For anyone, revisiting diary entries (or souvenirs as Swift calls them in “The Manuscript”) from painful times in one’s life would be difficult enough, but to rerecord music that may have been so painful for entertainment purposes must be another beast altogether, especially after being essentially forced into the retrospective after her album catalog was stolen from her, or potentially viewing the music you wrote at the time differently through the lens of new perspective… Just, ouch.
As an aside, with both Midnights and Tortured Poets, Swift seems to be making the “paternity testing” she discusses on reputation of her music more difficult, ascribing the periods of the album-writing to broader swaths of time over her life that weave further into her past, perhaps (and likely) referencing more than her love life or what the public knows.
I believe “Guilty as Sin?” refers to the “Out of the Woods” music video. Swift runs from the wolves to save herself, and there’s even a point when Swift jumps off a snowy cliff into the ocean, and it seems Swift dreams about this moment in “Guilty as Sin?” and perhaps the song was even inspired by the 1989 rerecording process.

My boredom's bone deep This cage was once just fine Am I allowed to cry? I dream of cracking locks Throwing my life to the wolves Or the ocean rocks

We see the same imagery—Swift seemingly drowning in the ocean—on The Eras Tour during “my tears ricochet,” reminiscent of the “Out of the Woods” imagery. Swift sings MTR right after “illicit affairs,” a song in which Swift tells her muse she would “ruin [herself] a million little times” to be with them, the same phenomenon Swift has been singing about since at least 1989. Swift also sings about her “stolen lullabies” during “my tears ricochet,” tying the song to at least the events that triggered the rerecording process.
https://preview.redd.it/exucgmxboz0d1.png?width=1142&format=png&auto=webp&s=5cf2926faa89f5e5bd923039e4e2b9394e7eefd5
Potentially also notably, the lyric video for “Is It Over Now?” from 1989 even features sheets swirling like the ocean does in the MTR tour visuals.
https://preview.redd.it/qb2um1c9oz0d1.png?width=1198&format=png&auto=webp&s=a6f7b3e9314786420f6b0788d6f4551161faf017
This is notable because during the acoustic set of The Eras Tour, Swift has performed a mashup of “Out of the Woods” and “Is It Over Now?” from 1989 (Taylor’s Version). At the time of writing this post, Swift has sung the mashup twice on her tour, once in Argentina on November 11th—or 11/11, a callback to the doubles and duality concept—and once in Paris on May 10th (which also happened to be the second night of the Paris tour stop, and 10 is a double of 5, for those keeping track at home).

Quick, semi-wolf-related tangent

So we’ve established that OOTW and IION? are connected, and I found yet another song that seems to be referencing the same moment in time as OOTW: “But Daddy I Love Him.” In both songs, Swift and her muse experience “the heat” or a backlash against their relationship, then find a seemingly happy ending: In BDILH, Swift’s parents “came around” to accept the relationship, and in OOTW, the monsters were just trees.
https://preview.redd.it/9avqekl0xv0d1.png?width=2144&format=png&auto=webp&s=3b5f9d232050387ddd7723936568203b6171122b
Linking these three songs, I find it interesting that Swift sings, “But fuck it, it’s over” during BDILH, perhaps an answer to the final track of 1989 (Taylor’s Version) that begs, “Is it over now?” repeatedly.
That’s not where the similarities end, either. There are also two references to the phrase “good name” in Tortured Poets. Merriam-Webster defines a “good name” as a person’s good reputation. This leads me to believe these songs, namely “Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?” (wolf reference) and “But Daddy I Love Him” directly reference reputation and the scandals that marked the start of the reputation era and what the Lover era tried (yet failed again) to accomplish.
https://preview.redd.it/up1tjgc7xv0d1.png?width=1970&format=png&auto=webp&s=963e0bac1f837ff6f9f845bf789dcae75f021b5f
As a side note, her “good name” could also be a double entendre nod to Swift’s other upcoming rerecorded album, Taylor Swift (Taylor’s Version), in a very meta sense of the phrase, which would represent a country album that would likely be less well-received coming from an openly queer artist.

Back to the wolves

The last time Swift mentions wolves is in “The Prophecy,” a song from The Anthology version of Tortured Poets, comparing herself to a wolf howling.

A greater woman stays cool But I howl like a wolf at the moon And I look unstable Gathered with a coven round a sorceress' table

Swift fights against fate, howling at the moon. The coven and sorceress’ table call back to the cloaks and daggers Swift threw out in “Daylight,” signaling that she has found herself yet again in the darkness or night which, of course, is the only time the moon would be visible to howl at.
As an aside, this is not dissimilar from the picture she paints of herself in “seven” from folklore, screaming “ferociously anytime [she] wanted,” another song tied to 1989 via The Eras Tour in which Swift had previously (and has now removed) a “seven” x “Wildest Dreams” spoken interlude (or poem!) before the folklore set, further linking the two albums with the woods and darkness motifs, as well as the concept of “wildness” in both songs.
Overall, “The Prophecy” seems to describe the version of Swift we see in the “Out of the Woods” music video before she reaches acceptance. Swift is constantly battling against natural elements and forces, fighting back against her true and fated self or the path she finds herself on.
There is, however, still a happy ending. The wolves eventually reach the end of the woods together. The heat dies down, the monsters are just trees, and the parents come around. What “The Prophecy” represents are the moments when that journey through the woods seems neverending, not necessarily Swift's current feelings about her life.

It’s (almost) over

When discussing her short film for “All Too Well (Taylor’s Version),” Swift talks about how she would have been unable to create this kind of art without the perspective she’s gained in the years since. The fictionalized version of Swift in Tavi Gevinson’s “Fan Fiction” also comments on the “Taylor’s Version” element of the rerecording, which I find to be an apt description of what it must be like to create and have others consume the art in this context—that listeners should be made to feel uncomfortable with the added context that has come from the retrospective wisdom of the artist in hindsight.
In it, Swift says:

Her unrealistic expectations should only emphasize the gulf between their experiences. Her capacity for remembering, compared to his, is a symptom of youth. And her need for control, to tell the story, might also be seen as a trauma response. The line “The idea you had of me—who was she?” indicates that he was the first to dehumanize-by-idealizing. It should be unsettling to relisten to the 2012 version with the understanding that they had been living in his fantasy.

(Don't even get me started on "Fan Fiction." Or do. Maybe it'll be fun.)
In summary, my theory is this: Inserting Tortured Poets between the sequential release of 1989 (Taylor’s Version) and reputation (Taylor’s Version) serves as the necessary lens and context to properly read reputation for what it is and what it represents to Taylor Swift. Not only is Tortured Poets a commentary on fame, identity, and this highly vulnerable process and moment she finds herself in, but the lens through which all her rerecordings must be listened to through.