Iron Maiden's lyrical themes and inspirations

Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the English poet, literary critic, philosopher, an author of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla Khan which inspired Iron Maiden

Iron Maiden is considered one of these bands most broadly inspired by philosophy, mythology, history, and the classics of world literature and cinematography. The main authors of the lyrics are Steve Harris, Adrian Smith, and Bruce Dickinson; occasionally Blaze Bayley and Paul Di'Anno, while the remaining members contributed very rarely or not at all.

The lyrical content of the band refers to historical figures and events (e.g. "Aces High", "Paschendale", "Montségur", "The Trooper", "Alexander The Great", "The Longest Day", "Invasion", "Brighter Than a 1000 Suns", "Empire of the Clouds", "Death or Glory"), mythology ("Flight of Icarus", "Powerslave", "If Eternity Should Fail"), or use motifs taken from literary classics ("Brave New World", "Sign of the Cross", "Murders in the Rue Morgue", "To Tame a Land", "Sun And Steel", "Phantom of the Opera", "Rime of the Ancient Mariner", "Moonchild", "Seventh Son of a Seventh Son") and films ("Where Eagles Dare", "Children of the Damned", "Tailgunner", "Clansman", "The Edge of Darkness", "The Number of the Beast"). Social and moral issues ("Charlotte the Harlot", "22 Acacia Avenue", "Gangland", "Public Enema No. 1", "Wasting Love") or philosophical and existential problems ("The Evil That Men Do", "Hallowed Be Thy Name", "Total Eclipse", "Prodigal Son", "Revelations", "Dance of Death", "Journey Man", "The Legacy", "For the Greater Good of God", "The Book of Souls"). The group also touched upon difficult and controversial aspects, an example of which is the lyrics of one of the biggest hits, "Run to the Hills", about the tragic fate of the Indian Americans inflicted on them by white arrivals from Europe.

The Man in the Iron Mask cinematic poster, the movie that inspired Steve Harris to form his own band

Many lyrics of the band are based on the novels and poems of such authors as Edgar Allan Poe, Aleister Crowley, Frank Herbert, Plato, Homer, Nostradamus, John the Evangelist, Miyamoto Musashi, Robert Burns, John Keats, Dante Alighieri, J. R. R. Tolkien, John Milton, Michael Moorcock, Gilbert Keith Chesterton, Orson Scott Card, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Samuel Beckett, Mark Twain, Wolfgang Goethe, Joseph Conrad, William Shakespeare, Arkady Fiedler, Marcel Proust, James Jones, James Joyce, William Blake, Oscar Wilde, Marquis de Sade, Friedrich Nietzsche, Umberto Eco, Bertrand Russell, William Golding, Aldous Huxley, Arthur C. Clarke, Stephen King, H. P. Lovecraft, Alexandre Dumas, and many others. The musicians were also inspired by mythologies and tales from distant cultures, biographies of great heroes and descriptions of historical events, battle stories, religious, mystical, or esoteric books, and current socio-political affairs.

The lyrical context of the Iron Maiden songs was also inspired by classic works of world cinematography. The most significant include the original film versions of such works as: The Man in the Iron Mask, The Phantom of the Opera, Julius Caesar, The Omen , Quest for Fire, Where Eagles Dare, Nostradamus, The Duellists, Seven Samurai, The Prisoner, From Here to Eternity, The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner, The Name of the Rose, Frankenstein, WarGames, Braveheart, The Longest Day, The Red Baron, Apocalypse Now, The Wicker Man, Alexander the Great, Rosemary's Baby, Blade Runner, King Arthur's Knight, When the Wind Blows, How to Make a Monster, Doctor Who, The Red and the Black and many more.

Lauro Meller, a Professor at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, conducted a detailed analysis of the Iron Maiden compositions. He included the research results in a book titled "Iron Maiden: A Journey Through History", published in 2018.