During the investigation, it turned out that there were footprints leading to one of the windows, and the window had then been shattered. Later on, I was looking for a silver crucifix that had been at the altar. I had hoped it wouldn’t be completely destroyed or melted, but couldn’t find it. Then we found it by the exit. So the police accepted that someone had been in the church, and that there was foul play involved. The crucifix, still blackened with soot, now occupies the place of honor in our new church.
It turned out that there was a 19-year-old from the suburb next to Hauketo that was responsible. He had bought two cans of gasoline at a nearby gas station, broken into the church and set fire to it. He also took psalm books with him, which the police found in his home later.
HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE ARSONIST?
I was asked by radio and TV to meet him, and wanted to do it. But when I heard that he didn’t regret what he had done, I felt that it was pointless to make a confrontation out of it.
I don’t think this was very ideologically motivated. I think he ended up in this scene because it was the only one in which he could gain recognition. I’ve also heard that he had a difficult upbringing. I feel more sorry for him and feel that he has been punished too harshly. The prison sentence wasn’t that hard, a year or so, but he got a damage claim of 5 million Kronor. That will destroy the boy’s future, and I think a sentence should be such that you can keep on living after atoning for your actions.
THE BURNING TIMES
For the churches that were completely destroyed, the only thing which can be done is to raise a new structure that will somehow correspond to the function of the old church. The Norwegian Directorate for Cultural Heritage estimates the value of each full reconstruction at between 15 and 30 million Kroner (between 2 and 4 million dollars). Thus, the expenses of repairing the totally damaged churches alone could run up into 300 million Kroner (40 million dollars). In addition, there come the expenses incurred by the damages on churches that were only partially harmed. The figures also do not cover the costs of the artistic decorations.
The city of Oslo took Vikernes to court to reclaim damages for the burning of Holmenkollen Chapel. The insurance company Gjensidige did the same for Skjold church and Åsane Church. The original charge was that Vikernes should compensate the entire cost of rebuilding the churches, which amounted to nearly 40 million Kroner (5 million dollars). Later, however, the sum was reduced so that Vikernes would not have to pay for the actual consecrations of the rebuilt churches, nor the cake parties later. Still, around 37 million Kroner remained to be paid, and Vikernes, unsurprisingly, did not accept the charges. He would have to go through the court system again.
NORWEGIAN HEADLINE: “BLACKLY SERIOUS”
In the courtroom, Vikernes once more played the role of Public Enemy No. 1, wearing green fatigues and leering. A certain tone was also set by the fact that all who were admitted to the courtroom were searched with metal detectors (which is not the common practice in Norway). During the trial, Vikernes’s defense attorney claimed that he had been wrongly convicted of the church burnings, the charges were outdated, and furthermore, his client had no money to pay the damages. He pressed for acquittal on all counts.
Vikernes’s protestations of innocence were not accepted by the court, and in December, 1997 he was ordered to pay 8 million Kroner (1 million dollars) in damages. Vikernes would also have to endure a 12% interest rate on the money owed, calculated from the summer of 1996. By the time of the trial the interest alone had already amounted to nearly one million Kroner.
Fantoft Stave Church became, in many ways, the primary symbol of church burnings in Norway. It was a church museum and a prominent attraction for tourists visiting Bergen. It was also used for special weddings and services on important occasions. Fantoft is under private ownership, and this would probably be the most expensive reconstruction of them all. Stave church historian David Walsten noted in 1994, “Like the legendary phoenix bird, a new Fantoft Stave Church began rising from the ashes of the old soon after the tragic fire. The owner’s intention was to construct a faithful copy of the original.”16 The family which owns Fantoft wishes to keep the exact cost of this massive undertaking confidential.
VARG VIKERNES
HOW ORGANIZED WERE MOST OF THESE ACTIVITIES IN REALITY? WERE YOU REALLY SOME KIND OF RINGLEADER?
It was nothing like that, nothing at all. There was no such organization. I was a person who—I’m not going to say I burnt any churches, but let’s put it this way: there was one person who started it. I was not found guilty of burning the Fantoft Stave Church in Bergen, but anyways that was what triggered the whole thing. That was the 6th of June, and everyone linked it to Satanism, because of the 6-6 and it was on the 6th day of the week.
What everyone overlooked was that on the 6th of June, year 793, in Lindisfarne in Britain was the site of the first known Viking raid in history, with Vikings from Hordaland, which is my county. Nobody linked it to that—nobody.
That church is built on holy ground, a natural circle and a stone horg [a heathen altar]. They planted a big cross on the top of the horg and built the church in the midst of the holy place.
That was where it started, that was the first church. From then on it just continued. After that a church in Stavanger, south of Bergen, burned. We had no contact with them in any way. They were just another group who saw this in the newspaper and thought, wow, it was cool and we’ll do the same. They burnt the church and set fire to a small chapel. The next church that burned was Holmenkollen in Oslo, it burnt to the ground. Earlier actually, before August, another church was set on fire in Bergen, but the fire didn’t develop so it just burnt a little, and there was nothing in the newspaper, to keep it silent. Anyway, I’m actually found guilty in doing that. I was found guilty in three successful—and one unsuccessful—church burnings.
WHAT ARE THE THREE YOU ARE FOUND GUILTY OF?
Holmenkollen, Skjold Church in southern Hordaland, and Åsane Church. When I was in prison in Bergen, that church was just one kilometer away, and the under-warden came and stared at me—though he wouldn’t look in my eyes—and said: “Every day I drive to work I go past the ruins of the Åsane church and every time I think of you.” That was the first thing he told me. I was put in isolation for one year. That was a bad trip—it wasn’t the right place to come to prison. He’d been married and baptized in that church.
YOU CLAIM THE CHURCH BURNINGS ARE LINKED TO ODINISM OR ÁSATRÚ?
The point is that all these churches are linked to one person. Everything was linked to that one person, who was not Østein obviously. All the church burnings, with the exception of Stavanger because that was another group (who, by the way, have also turned into nationalistic pagans).
CAN YOU EXPLAIN IN AN ABSTRACT WAY HOW THINGS MIGHT HAVE FUNCTIONED?
Just like I said to the journalists, I might know what happened. If it turns out to be correct, well it was just a lucky guess! The first church burned on the 6th of June, with the intention probably to light a flame, to put dried grass and branches on the coal and the fire to make it big. It’s a psychological picture—an almost dead fire, a symbol of our heathen consciousness. The point was to throw dry wood and branches on that, to light it up and reach toward the sky again, as a growing force. That was the point, and it worked.
I’M INTERESTED IN THE IDEA THAT THERE WAS A GOAL BEHIND THE BURNINGS.
It would be extremely childish in any other case. The Greek guy [Vikernes is referring to the person found guilty in the arson of Hauketo Church] was influenced by us; he was trying to be one of our friends. I was just in Oslo a couple of times, coincidentally every time we burned a church. The group in Stavanger, they were doing it of their free will, of their own interest and hatred towards the church. I think the Greek guy was the only one who was doing it to impress. The people in Stavanger did it without our influence. That was in ’92. They were caught right afterwards. They were 16–17 years old, heavily into drugs and Anton LaVey.
YOU CLAIM THERE IS A GENUINE CONNECTION TO NATIONALISM.
I’ve always had that, more or less. It’s not a Satanic thing, it’s a national heathen thing. It’s not a rebellion against my parents or something, it’s serious. My mother totally agrees with it. She doesn’t mind if someone burns a church down. She hates the Church quite a lot. Also about the murder [of Østein Aarseth], she thinks that he deserved it, he asked for it. So she thinks it’s wrong to punish me for it. There’s no conflict between us at all about these things. The only thing she disliked was that I liked weapons and wanted to buy weapons, and suddenly she got a box of helmets at her place because I ordered them! Bulletproof vests, all this stuff...
THE COUNT’S EMISSARY
Churches were not the only things being disturbed by the middle of 1992. On July 26th, an 18-year-old girl, Suuvi Mariotta Puurunen, nicknamed “Maria,” crept up to a quiet house belonging to Christopher Jonsson in Upplands Väsby, near Stockholm, Sweden. She attempted to set the domicile on fire and left a note tacked to the door with a knife which read, “The Count was here and he will come back.”17 Someone inside the house awakened at the smell of smoke and the fire was quickly put out before any serious harm was done. Jonsson is the frontman of the Death Metal band Therion. He had been involved in an argument with Vikernes. Shortly after the attempted arson on his house, Jonsson received a letter from Norway:
Hello victim! This is Count Grishnackh of Burzum. I have just come home from a journey to Sweden (northwest of Stockholm) and I think I lost a match and a signed Burzum LP, ha ha! Perhaps I will make a return trip soon and maybe this time you won’t wake up in the middle of the night. I will give you a lesson in fear. We are really mentally deranged, our methods are death and torture, our victims will die slowly, they must die slowly.18
The actual perpetrator of the attack, Maria, would later be arrested and her diary discovered by the Swedish authorities. In speaking of her actions, she wrote, “I did it on a mission for our leader, The Count. I love The Count. His fantasies are the best. I want a knife, a fine knife, sharp and cruel... he-he.”19 She would later be sentenced to one year’s observation in a mental hospital for her activities in connection with the Black Circle.
SWEDISH HEADLINE: “‘I AM GUILTY OF ARSON.’
MARIA’S DIARY REVEALS HER TO BE
A DEVIL WORSHIPPER”
BLACK METAL MEETS THE PRESS
In January, 1993, after seven major churches had burned in Norway, Vikernes spoke to a reporter at the Bergens Tidende daily newspaper. According to Vikernes, his interview was absurd and revealed nothing that could prove his involvement in any crime.
However, this article in all its demented glory would in fact bring intense scrutiny upon the Black Metal scene—at that point an otherwise unknown byway of underground youth culture—and link it to the burgeoning wave of inexplicable church burnings. Vikernes also provided connections to an unsolved murder of a homosexual the previous August in the Winter Olympic park in Lillehammer, a crime which the police had exhausted all their leads on and given up investigating.
VARG VIKERNES
WHAT LED TO YOU ACTUALLY BEING ARRESTED?
That was January of 1993. It was an interview and I simply said, “I know who burned the churches.” It was very simple psychology: show Odin to the people and Odin will be lit in their souls. And this is exactly what happened in Norway today, there’s a big trend in interest in Norse mythology, in all these things. And I dare say that one of the main reasons is just because of that case. I truly believe that. Why else should it be?
WHAT DID YOU SAY IN THIS INTERVIEW?
I said, “I know who burned the churches,” to the journalist, and I was making a lot of fun with him because we told him on the phone, we have a gun and if you try to bring anybody we’ll shoot you. Come meet me at midnight and all this, it was very theatrical. He was a Christian, and I fed him a lot of amusing info. Very amusing! Of course he twisted the words like usual. After he left we lay on the floor laughing.
We thought it would be some tiny interview in the paper and it was a big front page. The same day, an hour or so after I talked to him on the phone, the police came and arrested me. That was why I was arrested. I didn’t tell them anything. I talked to the police that time and I told them, “I know who burned the churches—so what?” They tried to say, “We’ve seen you at the site,” and all this, and I said, “No you haven’t!”
They bugged my friends a lot, like the Immortal guys, one of them was taken into custody. They were messing a lot with them, but they were dealing okay with it. And actually this murder that Bård Faust did, I was interviewed about that as well—they believed I did it. Then they suddenly suspected him, but I talked him so well out of it, that when he turned up to the police and said, “I want to give you an interview,” they didn’t even bother to listen to him. They said, “Who are you? We don’t want to talk to you,” and he’d done it! And of course, after some while, they had to release him, because they didn’t have anything on him. But later when he was in a cell, after twenty minutes he was crying into his lawyer’s tie and told everything. That’s the loyalty you get.
The Black Metal scene first came to the attention of mainstream, middle Norway through a cover story in the Bergens Tidende daily newspaper on January 20, 1993. Vikernes’s brooding gaze covered the front page of the newspaper under the headline “WE LIT THE FIRES.” [The text of this story is reproduced in its entirety as Appendix I.]
In the article, Varg Vikernes set the tone for the Black Metal scene’s subsequent interaction with, and portrayal by the media. In flamboyant phrases he unveiled the story of a grand conspiracy aiming to overthrow the forces of good in Norway and slaughter innocent rabbits. With quotes like “Our purpose is to spread fear and evil,” he left no doubt about his feelings toward society.20 The article gives unique insight into how the Black Metal scene was developing at the time, and particularly how Vikernes tried to construct his image in the media.
Journalist Finn Bjørn Tønder was approached by two youths who had grown up with Vikernes. As his band Burzum was set to release a new album, they had conducted an interview with Vikernes which they hoped Bergens Tidende would print. The article closed with the remark that Vikernes had burned eight churches and killed a homosexual at Lillehammer—the latter act being the crime that Bård Eithun would later be jailed for.
Unsurprisingly, Bergens Tidende did not buy the article. However, Tønder sensed a story and set up a meeting with Vikernes with help from the two youths. In the agreement, there was the understanding that Vikernes was to read through and okay the final article. With everything thus arranged, the midnight madness at Vikernes’s pad ensued.
Tønder called Vikernes early in the evening the day afterward to read an unfinished version of the article to him on the phone. Vikernes said that it was completely in keeping with his spirit, but that he also feared that it would lead the police to him. He explained that if he didn’t pick up the phone when Tønder called him back later with the full version, he might have already escaped to Poland—supposedly to comrades there. When Tønder called back, Vikernes did-n’t answer, but he had not gone into exile. He was already downtown being questioned by the police, who had managed to find him on their own.
In an unrelated event, the police had come across some flyers for Burzum’s Aske mini-album. The flyers, like the record sleeve, proudly displayed a picture of the smoldering ruins of Fantoft Stave Church. This caught the eye and interest of the police, who simply went to the address on the flyer, where they found Vikernes.
By time the article was printed, the Bergen police had Vikernes in custody and realized that this was the youth interviewed by Tønder. In the subsequent interrogations by the police, Vikernes both claimed that he never spoke to Bergens Tidende, and that the article was incorrect. But the newspaper had four representatives present during the interview, and therefore plenty of witnesses to attest to the accuracy of the piece.
&
nbsp; In addition to boldly presenting himself as a probable suspect in the rash of church arsons, Vikernes’s statements in the newspaper would have other residual effects. In the article, Vikernes calls the accomplice in the arson of Åsane church a “less intelligent individual” who was “utilized” by the Black Circle.21 The person he was referring to, Jørn Inge Tunsberg from the Bergen Black Metal band Hades, ironically later talked to the police partially due to irritation at Vikernes’s unflattering description of him.
Vikernes later claimed that during questioning at his initial arrest he was also suspected for an unsolved murder in late 1992. An older black exchange student in Bergen had been reported missing some months earlier. Varg referred to his disappearance as a “murder” in a number of fanzine interviews, implying that he might have been involved with the crime. In reality, the whole incident was just a red herring. The police found out that the man had withdrawn money from his bank account after he was presumed dead. The man had a family, and in the end police concluded he’d simply run away to escape his responsibilities.
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