I Am The Black Wizards: Multiplicity, Mysticicsm And Identity In Black Metal Music And Culture (2008) by Benjamin Hedge Olson

Author:Benjamin Hedge Olson
Language: rus
Format: epub
Published: 2014-05-08T04:00:00+00:00

Part Two: Below the Misty Mountains Cold: Black Metal and Tolkien

The writings of J.R.R. Tolkien have been nearly as influential as traditional folklore on black metal culture. Tolkien was a philologist with a particular interest in the languages, folklore and culture of northern Europe, and these interests played a pivotal role in inspiring Tolkien’s fantasy world.264 Indeed, the name for his world, Middle Earth, was taken directly from Norse mythology, as are a multitude of place names, character, motifs and images that make Tolkien’s work so evocative.265 From the earliest days of Norwegian black metal, Tolkien’s work served to enhance, articulate and in many respects replace the messy realities of ancient Nordic culture for a group of imaginative young Norwegians who were looking for a magical world to escape into. Tolkien’s orcs in particular provided a model for the monstrous, super-human, war-like beasties that black metalers continue to emulate.266 Tolkien’s world is the perfect imagined past that black metalers wish to superimpose over the Viking age. Middle Earth provides a fantastic paradigm for an attractive “evil” in the form of the orcs and Sauron, and a rich romantic setting that resembles an idealized Northern Europe. Tolkien’s world allows black metalers to take the aspects of Old Norse mythology and traditional folklore that they find engaging and discard the aspects that they find inconvenient, bookish or incomprehensible.

Varg Vikernes, the only member of Burzum, church burner and Neo-Nazi extraordinaire, was one of the earliest black metalers to make the connection between black metal and Tolkien. The name Burzum comes from Tolkien, Burzum meaning “excessive darkness” in Orcish.267 Burzum’s first incarnation was dubbed Uruk-Hai, a band of mutant orcs bred by the evil wizard Saruman in Lord of the Rings. Vikernes’ early pseudonym, Count Grishnackh, was borrowed from Tolkien, Grishnackh being a particularly belligerent Uruk-Hai.268 Vikernes used several scenes from Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings as subject matter for Burzum songs and albums, including the cover of his 1993 album Det Som Engang Var which was inspired by the gates to the evil kingdom of Mordor.269 It is significant that Vikernes never uses Tolkien’s protagonists as subject matter; the evil, violent, misanthropic characters are his exclusive interest. Tolkien’s evil characters allow Vikernes to combine transgression, the abject, and imagery consistent with Satanism in his vaguely medieval fantasy world. Identification with evil characters like the orcs, the Ringwraiths and wargs allow black metalers to maintain the inversion of mainstream values popular among Satanists (which Vikernes was at the time), while also allowing them access to Tolkien’s Viking-inspired aesthetic.

As are the majority of his comments on any subject, Vikernes’ interpretation of Tolkien is idiosyncratic, but illuminate black metal’s conception of itself. In an interview with Moynihan and S0derlind, Vikernes explains:

An Uruk-Hai is the typical berserker in the Tolkien stories. There’s a lot of Norse mythology in Tolkien. We were drawn to Sauron and his lot, and not the hobbits, those stupid little dwarves. I hate dwarves and elves. The elves are fair, but typically Jewish — arrogant, saying, ‘we are the chosen ones.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.