Reply #7: Something that's always struck me about it

[Orrex]

is the poignant innocence about the whole thing, because first two verses are essentially pure and childlike before the song introduces the male.

Somehow, even after his introduction, you hope that it's all innocent, though it quickly becomes clear that the innocence is an illusion.

I hadn't thought of Bjork's vocals as symbolic of a rape, because she vocalizes like that all the time anyway. But it fits here in that context regardless.

And you're right that the song earns real points for staying in the girl's perspective, thereby avoiding preachy sentimentality.

Is "sows a bird in her knickers" a transliteration of an Icelandic idiom along these lines, or are we to take it as the fairly straightforward image that it seems to be?

The song is beautiful in Icelandic, too.