Hunger Games prequel explains the origins of ‘The Hanging Tree’

The Hunger Games has returned in the new prequel movie The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes which changes the way we think about a key moment from the original series.

While the movie is set 64 years before the first movie, the prequel does contain a number of Easter eggs for fans – Coriolanus Snow has always hated Mockingjays btw – and we now know the origins of the haunting song ‘The Hanging Tree’ that proved so key in Mockingjay.

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is set around the time of the 10th Hunger Games and sees the 18-year-old Coriolanus Snow become a mentor to the female tribute from District 12, Lucy Gray Baird.

Lucy Gray isn’t actually from District 12 like Katniss Everdeen, she’s a member of a traveling troupe called the Covey who happened to be stuck in the district after the collapse of the rebellion years before.

Coriolanus and Lucy Gray strike up a close relationship and thanks to Coriolanus using all of his shrewd ways in the Hunger Games, Lucy gray manages to survive and win – but it comes at a cost.

He’s found out and forced to sign up as a Peacekeeper, requesting to be stationed in District 12 so that he can reunite with Lucy Gray and they can plan their future.

Such plans are derailed though when a man called Arlo Chance kills some men and is hanged, sparking a rebellion in District 12. It’s this hanging that leads to ‘The Hanging Tree’ origin as it’s revealed that Lucy Gray wrote the song.

If you don’t remember the song from either the Mockingjay book or the movie, each verse contains the same lines, except for a different third line in each verse.

Arlo’s final words were to tell his wife to run, explaining the third lines in the song’s first and second verse: “Where they strung up a man they say murdered three” / “Where the dead man called out for his love to flee.”

In the book series, ‘The Hanging Tree’ is a song Katniss remembers from her youth and she compares the lyrics to her own experiences in the arena.

She believes she understands why the “dead man” would want his lover next to him rather than facing “the evil that awaits her in the world”, and it’s something she almost does with Peeta when he wants Katniss to kill him to protect the rebels .

In Mockingjay – Part 1, the song has the same origin, but is used as a symbol for the rebellion (with “necklace of rope” changed to “necklace of hope”) in one of the movie’s most powerful scenes.

The fact that the song is connected to Coriolanus adds extra weight to its use as a rebellion anthem in Mockingjay, given that it would remind him of his relationship with Lucy Gray who he believes betrayed him.

Coriolanus and Lucy Gray have plans to leave District 12 with the rebels, but he becomes convinced that she’s going to betray him, revealing his part in the rebel plot and therefore taking away any chance of his later rise to power.

Lucy Gray manages to get away and her fate is left ambiguous, while Coriolanus heads back to the Capitol to become the Coriolanus we know and hated from the original series.

For more on The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, check out:

• The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes review
• How long is The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes?
• Does The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes have a post-credit scene?
• What age rating is The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes?
• Is Jennifer Lawrence in The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes?
• How to watch The Hunger Games movies in order
• The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes reveals the origin of the Hunger Games
• The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes explains key Hunger Games moment

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes is out now in cinemas.

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