I was sure this was an old Medieval ballad, and was stunned to see that Stan Rogers wrote it. To me, the message is about seeking truth. The wouned knight carries the shield, or honor, of his family name. The hawk is his intellect, the hound his tenacity, the steed his physical strength. But, he must leave these behind and enter the lake with only his heart. In the pre-Christian era, the witch would represent the power of nature. In the Christian era, she represents the Holy Spirit. The wounds represent the inability of the things of this world to satisfy us, so we continue to bleed until we enter the lake and seek the truth. Many of the tales and legends of the Middle Ages were adapted from old pre-Christian myths, hence the double meaning on the witch. Suggested reading would be Joseph Campbell's "Hero with a Thousand Faces", or any book about the mythology of the High Middle Ages, circa 1200AD. There is a reason that artists like Loreena McKennitt and authors like Tolkein are fixated on this period: It was a time when our cosmology made sense. Kudos to Stan for re-creatig a perfect story from that time.