ICY NORWAY
The primordial images are the most ancient and the most universal “thought-forms” of humanity. They are as much feelings as thoughts; indeed they lead their own independent life...8
As Kadmon’s essay illustrates, similarities between aspects of Norwegian Black Metal and the furious, Wild Hunt of the dead are startling. Can this be explained as a Jungian “primordial image” resurfacing in a modern generation of youth? Kadmon also points out a few strong contrasts between the rural folklore and Black Metal, which he sees as an urban phenomena. He is not entirely correct in this assertion, however, as many of the Norwegian Black Metal musicians do not come cities such as Oslo, Bergen, or Trondheim, but live in small villages in the countryside. And Varg Vikernes, too, is proud to make the distinction that he is originally from a rural area some distance outside of Bergen, rather than the city itself. Further examples can be found with the members of Emperor, Enslaved, and a number of other bands. Considering the intriguing parallels drawn in Kadmon’s essay, the subject of the relationship between heathen metaphysics and Black Metal—and whether some sort of resurgent atavism may be at their root—is worth investigating in detail.
There is no doubt that a vast number of those involved in Black Metal emulate a barbaric image in their appearance and demeanor, statements and lyrics. The music could certainly be similarly described as barbarous by an unwary listener, although it is often complex and beautiful as well.
COUNTRYSIDE OF TELEMARK
Beyond drawing inspiration for such an outlook from Heavy Metal’s long tradition of masculine motifs, and more specifically from the “Viking trilogy” of influential Bathory albums, many in the scene appear to take things more seriously than simply erecting a façade of fantasy imagery. Besides Bathory, one other early Scandinavian Metal band had also extolled the religion and lifestyle of the Vikings in their music, a group from the ’80s called Heavy Load. Possibly they also inspired some of the kids later involved in Black Metal, and indeed they have been mentioned with appreciation by some close to the scene, like Metalion.
NORWEGIAN MOUNTAIN RANGE
JOHNNY HEDLUND
Among the Death Metal bands, we have noted the presence of Sweden’s Unleashed, who stand quite apart from the rest of their peers in terms of their lyrical and spiritual inspiration. Unleashed have always made clear their admiration for the pre-Christian Norse religion of Ásatrú. Singer and bassist Johnny Hedlund explained the source for his impulse toward these themes:
The influences that I have are actually from my ancestors and from sitting in the countryside and feeling the power of nature—just by sitting there knowing that my grandfather’s, father’s father was standing here with his sword ... by knowing that you are influenced from it.9
Similar sentiments are often voiced by many of the Black Metal bands, who speak of the Norwegian landscape and countryside in tones of reverence. In explaining one of his personal sources of inspiration, Vikernes once commented to a journalist at Terrorizer magazine, “I strongly recommend you to try and walk in the middle of a winter night in a Norwegian forest all alone, and you will understand what I mean: it actually speaks.”10 Obviously Vikernes is not the only one who feels this attraction, since nearly every single Black Metal band has had themselves photographed amongst snow and trees.
The group Immortal even went so far as to make a professional video clip with every band member shirtless in the midst of a freezing winter snowscape, furiously playing one of their songs. A video for the Burzum song “Darkness” goes much further, leaving out any human traces whatsoever—the entire eight minute clip is based on images of runic stone carvings, over which shots flash of rushing storm clouds, sunsets, rocks, and woods. Co-directed by Vikernes from prison via written instructions, the result is impressively evocative despite the absence of any storyline or drama.
WOTAN REDIVIVUS
The end of the twentieth century has witnessed attempts by contemporary men and women to resurrect a wide array of pre-Christian religions. The instinctual or atavistic nature of heathen religion itself is nothing new, and many of these “revivalists” have experienced its magnetic allure. The gods of the North seem particularly prone to stirring feelings which may unexpectedly resurge among the descendants of those who once worshipped them.
According to Carl Jung, it is not always modern man who actively seeks to consciously revive a pre-Christian worldview, but rather he may become involuntarily possessed by the archetypes of the gods in question. In March, 1936, Jung published a remarkable essay in the Neue Schweizer Rundschau, which remains highly controversial to the present day. Originally written only a few years after the National Socialists came to power in Germany, it is entitled “Wotan.”
Jung states in no uncertain terms his conviction that the Nazi movement is a result of “possession” by the god Wotan on a massive scale. He traces elements of the heathen revival back to various German writers, Nietzsche especially, who he feels were “seized” by Wotan and became transmitters for aspects of the god’s archetypal nature. He states, “It is curious, to say the least of it ... that an old god of storm and frenzy, the long quiescent Wotan, should awake, like an extinct volcano, to a new activity, in a country that had long been supposed to have outgrown the Middle Ages.”11
Jung would some years later reveal his conviction that both Nietzsche and he himself had experienced personal visits in their dreams from the ghostly procession of the “Wild Hunt,” the German equivalent of the Oskorei.
In the “Wotan” essay he goes on to describe Jugendbewegung (Youth Movement) sacrifices of sheep to Wotan on the solstice, and explains in detail his belief that Germany is being led away from Christianity via “possession” by the ancient deity. Jung concludes his explication with the prediction that while Germany in the ’30s may be under the specific sway of Wotan’s more furious attributes, in the “course of the next few years or decades” other, more “ecstatic and mantic” sides of the god’s archetype will also manifest themselves.12
This belief in the atavistic power of the old Norse religion is shared by Stephen McNallen, who is generally credited with sparking the current day revival of Ásatrú or Odinism in the English-speaking world. In the late ’60s, McNallen felt powerfully drawn to investigate the religion of the heathen Norsemen, and what he discovered so inspired him that he composed rituals of worship for the Norse/Germanic gods and set about to find others on a similar spiritual path. After founding a small group, the Viking Brotherhood (which evolved into the Ásatrú Free Assembly), McNallen discovered that a number of people in distant parts of the Western world had also felt an identical “Odinic” pull at the same point in time as he had. Without having any knowledge of one another, groups dedicated to the worship of the gods of Northern Europe simultaneously sprung up in England, Iceland, and on the East Coast of the U.S., along with McNallen’s efforts in Texas. Why this revival would occur in such an “organic” and synchronistic manner is difficult to say—the Jungian explanation of Wotan redivivus is as reasonable as any.
In Norway and Sweden there has also been growing general interest in the indigenous religion of their forefathers, to the point that at least one heathen group, Draupnir, has been recognized as a legitimate religious organization by the Norwegian government. Along with them, other Ásatrú organizations such as Bifrost also hold regular gatherings where they offer blot, or symbolic sacrifice, to the deities of old.
There is absolutely no specific connection between these Nordic religious practitioners and the Black Metal scene. In fact, public assumptions that such a link would exist have been a severe liability to these groups. Dispelling negative public impressions of their religion is made considerably more difficult with characters like Vikernes speaking so frequently of his own heathen beliefs to the press.
When told of Draupnir’s irritation at constantly having to publicly state their lack of any common ground with Black Metal and Satanism, Vikernes appears to naively misundersta
nd that his own declarations are what caused such difficulties in the first place:
This situation with the Christians is like a new Inquisition. People like Draupnir would have been burned at the stake as Devil worshippers. But today they put us in prison. If any Ásatrú group does not stress that they are not Satanists, then they are accused of being that, anyway. So they have to stress that we are not this or that. It must be quite annoying. It’s annoying for me as well, because I’m being called a Satanist all the time.13
“THE WILD HUNT” BY GERMAN ARTIST FRANZ VON STUCK
THOR (DETAIL FROM A PAINTING BY M.E. WINGE)
Ásatrú has no central body to decide who or who isn’t part of it, and of course no one can stop Vikernes from explaining his own heathen worldview as he sees fit—or making his bold assertions that the church burnings, grave desecrations, and other crimes were done in order to “show Odin to the people.”14 Vikernes’s extreme and bloody interpretation of indigenous Norse religion is just as problematic to the neo-heathen groups as was his flaming-stave-church and brimstone variety of Satanism a few years earlier to organizations like the Church of Satan. When contemporary figures sought to revive the old religion of Northern Europe, they had not intended to bring back uncontrollable barbarism and lawlessness with it.
One can see a clear shift amongst the Black Metal bands toward a heathen outlook, although few, if any, of them appear to have been influenced by any outside group such as Draupnir or Bifrost. Many of the more Satanic bands have altered their focus, removing explicit reference to the Devil and replacing it with more vague allusions to the “old gods.” Thor’s Hammer amulets can be seen around the necks of just about every band member of any Scandinavian group in promo photos.
Burzum, Enslaved, and Einherjar are just a few of the dozens of groups who play music that is unequivocally focused towards Norse religious themes. These obsessions (exemplified in some of Vikernes’s more far-fetched statements, or musically in Enslaved’s recording an entire album sung in Old Icelandic language) clearly go beyond the point of simple, passing interest. But it remains to be seen where such a road, stretching as it does from the farthest reaches of Nordic heritage and into the vast realm of Skuld, the future, will finally lead.
In Jung’s “Wotan” essay, he states in his conclusion that in addition to its bloodier manifestation, he also believes the “prophetic” aspect of Wotan will become apparent in future. Did elements of the Oskorei, linked so strongly as they are to Odin/Wotan, in some tiny way serve as premonitions which would re-manifest in the centuries of “civilized” behavior that followed? There is another obscure old fable of the Oskorei, where they fetch a dead man up from the ground, rather than their usual choice of someone among the living. It was collected by Kjetil A. Flatin in the book Tussar og trolldom (Goblins and Witchcraft) in 1930. If the folkloristic and heathen impulses of Norwegian Black Metal are in fact some untempered form of resurgent atavism, then this short tale is even more surprising in its ominously allegorical portents of events to come over sixty years later with Grishnackh, Euronymous, and the fiery deeds that swirled around them:
On Aase in Flatdal, they were drinking and carousing one evening around Christmas time. Two men strapped themselves together with a belt and fought with knives. One of the men was stabbed and lay dead on the floor. Then the Oskorei came riding in through the door, took the dead man with them, and threw a burning torch on the floor…15
IN THE SHADOW OF WOLVES
While researching the possible similarities between Nordic cosmology and elements of Black Metal, other intriguing material came to light. Just as Euronymous and Dead fulfilled the grim destinies of their adopted names, this can be seen in other cases as well. An investigation into the old Nordic connotations of the name taken on by Vikernes unearthed some startling correspondences which would appear to indicate the most obscure and archaic meanings of the word itself were destined to make themselves manifest.
Originally bestowed with “Kristian” for his first name, Vikernes found this increasingly intolerable in his late teenage years. When he first introduced himself to the Black Metal scene it was still his forename. Sometime in 1991–92 he legally changed his name to “Varg.” His choice of a new title is curious in light of the actions he would later commit, and the legend that would surround him—although he claims to have adopted it mainly for its common meaning of “wolf.” If one understands the etymology and usage of the word varg in the various ancient Germanic cultures (and there is no evidence that Vikernes did at the time of his name change), his decision becomes downright ominous.
A fascinating dissertation exists entitled Wargus, Vargr—‘Criminal’ ‘Wolf ’: A Linguistic and Legal Historical Investigation by Michael Jacoby, published in Uppsala, Sweden, but written in German. It is a highly detailed, heavily referenced exploration of the Germanic word Warg, or vargr in Norse.
The paper begins with a section “The Term Warg as a Designation for the Criminal in Ancient Germanic Sources,” discussing the connotations of the root word among the various Northern European cultures. It appears in the different language dialects, but always with a negative implication when descriptive of men, conveying the sense of “criminal,” “outlaw,” “outcast,” “thief,” “malefactor,” “evil being,” “the damned one,” and indeed, even “Devil.”
WEREWOLF
The designation was used in the oldest written laws of Northern Europe, often with a prefix to add a specific legal meaning, such as gorvargher (“cattle thief”) or morthvargr (“killer”). Comparative mythology researcher Mary Gerstein, author of the essay “Germanic Warg: The Outlaw as Werewolf,” notes that in the old Icelandic legal text, the Grágás, “one finds morthvarg ‘murder-varg’ as a term for a particular subclass of outlaw ... [which] implies killing furtively ... as well as the attempt to conceal the crime. It is the crime of a skulking werwolf.”16 The term also appears in the ancient Norwegian legal context, to designate the criminal who performed the exact crime Varg Vikernes would become renowned for a millennia later: brennuvargr (“arsonist” or literally, “fire wolf”). In researching the Gulathingslov, the early Norse laws, Gerstein concludes:
The term Varg is also rare and highly specialized; it occurs as a technical term for an outlaw not known to be such, úvísavargr, and as a term for a man outlawed for arson: “tha er hann útlagr oc úheilagr oc heitir brennuvargr” (he shall be outlawed and deprived of all rights and shall be called “fire-varg”) ... varg as it occurs in the earliest Old Norse codes is an item of petrified legal vocabulary, retained in expressions involving oral pronouncement of outcast status for especially odious crimes, such as arson, oath breaking, and secret slaying.17
ULVER THE MADRIGAL OF NIGHT
Jacoby’s research continues with an investigation and examination of the most noteworthy crimes which were strongly connected to the word. These are: grave robbery, treason, theft, and manslaughter. A case can be made that Varg Vikernes fulfilled each one of these specific connotations in some respect. Describing the first of the crimes, there is clause in another ancient Germanic legal text, the Salic Law, which states: “If any one shall have dug up or despoiled an already buried corpse, let him be a varg.”18 Vikernes’s advocacy of, and participation in, grave desecrations surely qualifies him for this designation. As regards treason, Varg proudly states a desire to see the current government of Norway overthrown, and he identifies with the man whose name has become synonymous with treason in the international vocabulary, Vidkun Quisling. Vikernes has also often been called a “traitor” by others in the Black Metal scene for killing Øystein Aarseth. Vikernes was found guilty of theft—he stole 150 kilos of explosives and had this stored in his apartment at the time of his arrest. The old Germanic laws do not appear to make a distinction between first-degree murder and manslaughter, and refer only to the latter. Vikernes was convicted of murdering Euronymous, although he insists this was only manslaughter, done in self-defense. It is eerie and uncanny that some
one could live up to their name so well, even down to the subtleties of its earliest etymological essence. As a result of his actions, he has truly become an “outlaw” and “outcast” in the eyes of society.
ILLUSTRATION OF A THIEF HUNG WITH A WOLF FROM
A 1907 EDITION OF SAXO’S HISTORY OF THE DANES
The Rev. Sabine Baring-Gould, in his Book of Werewolves, writes of the other meanings inherent to Vikernes’s chosen namesake:
The word vargr, a wolf, had a double significance, which would be the means of originating many a were-wolf story. Vargr is the same as u-argr, restless; argr being the same as the Anglo-Saxon earg. Vargr had its double signification in Norse. It signified a wolf, and also a godless man. [...] The Anglo Saxons regarded him as an evil man: wearg, a scoundrel; Gothic vargs, a fiend. ... the ancient Norman laws said of the criminals condemned to outlawry for certain offenses, Wargus esto: be an outlaw! [be a varg!] ... among the Anglo Saxons an utlagh, or out-law, was said to have the head of a wolf. If then the term vargr was applied at one time to a wolf, at another to an outlaw who lived the life of a wild beast, away from the haunts of men—“he shall be driven away as a wolf, and chased so far as men chase wolves farthest,” was the legal form of sentence—it is certainly no matter of wonder that stories of outlaws should have become surrounded with mythical accounts of their transformation into wolves.19
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