The song was written by Jimmy Page at Headley Grange while he was experimenting on the mandolin owned by John Paul Jones . Page explained in 1977 that " ' Battle of Evermore ' was made up on the spot by Robert Plant and myself . I just picked up John Paul Jones 's mandolin , never having played a mandolin before , and just wrote up the chords and the whole thing in one sitting . " The song , like some others by the group , makes references to '' The Lord of the Rings '' by J. R. R. Tolkien . Plant felt he needed another voice to tell the story , and for the recording of the song , singer Sandy Denny was invited to duet with Plant . Denny was a former member of British folk rock group Fairport Convention , with whom Led Zeppelin had shared a bill in 1970 at the Bath Festival of Blues and Progressive Music . Plant played the role of the narrator and Denny represented the town crier . Page elaborated that " The song sounded like an old English instrumental first off . Then it became a vocal and Robert did his bit . Finally we figured we 'd bring Sandy by and do a question-and-answer-type thing . " To thank her for her involvement , Denny was given the symbol on the album sleeve of three pyramids ( the four members of Led Zeppelin each chose their own symbols for the album ) . This is the only song Led Zeppelin ever recorded with a guest vocalist . In an interview he gave in 1995 to '' Uncut '' magazine , Plant stated that ' F or me to sing with Sandy Denny was great . We were always good friends with that period of Fairport Convention . Richard Thompson is a superlative guitarist . Sandy and I were friends , and it was the most obvious thing to ask her to sing on " The Battle of Evermore " . If it suffered from naivete and tweeness — I was only 23 — it makes up for it in the cohesion of the voices and the playing . ' " The Battle of Evermore " was played live at Led Zeppelin concerts during the band 's 1977 North American Tour . For these live performances , Jones sang Denny 's vocals and played acoustic guitar whilst Page played mandolin . Sometimes John Bonham sang Denny 's vocals along with Jones
1977 North American Tour
Led Zeppelin North American Tour 1977
The Battle of Evermore