Ok here's my take on The Accolade
I: A kid grows up with hopes of being a knight. "Play shields and wooden swords......" "Youthful hope to right the wrong..."
He gets a premonition of some sort, a vision. "Sons of Antioch, the angel's voice cries out to him. Free the holy lands, bring peace to it again" So he decides to join the crusades.
"To see the light, he spent his life to understand. The sword he once held tight, falls forever from his hand." He dies. He "sees the light that he spent his life to understand" In other words, all his life he enforced the belief that there was an afterlife where you go to heaven and he finally experiences it. The sword falling from his hands probably infers that he doesn't die, he gets killed.
II: That guy had a son during his life and when he dies, his son wants to avenge his death. "On a cold and misty night, a ring of torches light the hallowed ground where his father's laid to rest. In the reflection of a sword he sees his destiny, and he swears up to the sky 'you will not have died in vain'"
The chorus just explains the battles and stuff he fought in during the crusades.
"Winds of change taint the sweet smell of home. And all around him he can see the pain and misery. This tyrant's reign is through I will stand and fight, will you?" He heads back home and their leader is corrupted by power, obsessed with the crusades and he just keeps sending waves of men to their deaths. (I know this is awfully specific but I read a story about something like this so I just refer to it in my head. Something about King George or whatever I forget. Also in the story he wants to stay with his love but he's forced to go in the crusades again where ultimately he dies.) So yeah, that pretty much sums it up.
