Knights & Knaves Alehouse

Is this the ToEE?? And what kind of band is Burzum?

Burzum... one man band (has had assistance from a few others along the way), the guy Varg (born Kristian, but changed it) Vikernes is a convicted killer and church burner, neo nazi (claims to not be in contact with any such groups any longer, which is quite helpful when he has parole hearings), something of a Charles Manson equivalent for Norway if the hype is to be believed... Burzum played black metal until the guy went to prison, where he decided that guitars were "nigger instruments" since metal reached back to rock and roll and the blues, and so released two keyboard-only albums all about Nordic mythology.

He used to dress up in medieval gear for promotional photos, and even though the picture doesn't show up in your post, I've seen an essay dealing with this... Varg was (is?) a role-player with the TOEE near-reproduction on one of his covers, and a map from a MERP supplement in the background of one of his promo photos.

Yah, I always wondered about the history behind the album cover. Thanks for the information JimLotFp. I did not realize he was the one convicted for the Fantoft Stave church burning in Norway.

Yeah the guy was a real fricking tool and his music pretty much sucked as much too. If there ever was a person or company that I was rooting for WOTC to crack the whip on and sue the hell out of, it was this idiot and his record company.

Jerry

Yikes! I just stumbled across the picture on google...so I guess when my mom warned me about devil-worshipping roleplayers 25 years ago she wasn't entirely FOS.

Burzum is just one of the Black Metal bands I like.
I follow Asatru just like Varg. But he misrepresents the faith with his SkinHead Propaganda.
I like the music not the artist.
He is Nazi scum. IMHO!!!!

Asatru would be Odin, right? As in the Norse god? Seems mighty popular amongst the Aryan Nation guys in prison. How exactly do you distinguish the obviously subtle theological differences? Do you still perform hanging sacrifices at Upssala or has that been dropped in favor of a soup line for the homeless? How can you be sure some of those Asatru-guys aren't really just spoilers for Loki?? Is that whole Ragnarok thing real or just an 'allegory'?

P.S. I still think Immigrant Song rocks!

I have a close friend who is accredited with the Utah State Prison as clergy. His ID lists him as what he is... a priest of Thor.

And no, the Asatru have nothing to do with white "supremacy" (or any such groups), nor do they perform human sacrifices.


In AD&D terms, he would classify as Chaotic Good.

http://asatru.org/thekinrd.html#top

http://www.asatru.org/


While Ásatrú is generally a tolerant religion, it is sometimes erroneously identified with neo-Nazi and "white power" organizations which also use Odinist symbols.

The three largest American Ásatrú organizations have specifically denounced any association with racist groups. There is actually an antagonistic relationship between many neo-Nazis and the membership of most Ásatrú organizations in the USA, who view "national socialism as an unwanted totalitarian philosophy incompatible with freedom-loving Norse paganism".

The often problematic association comes from the fact that among neo-Nazis, there tend to be specifically 'white power' forms of Ásatrú and Odinism, which are viewed in such groups as being important attempts to retrace early segments of white european history, and they tend to be popular among those who view Christianity as a fundamentally Judaic religion.

Cool expo. No sarcasm intended. I gotta love the thought of your buddy walking past all those Mormon prison guards in Utah to serve his flock. That's some serious badass! I'm not in the market for a new religion, but may I ask a few more questions??

Would you say Asatru/Odinism is primarily concerned with power? Is there a certain ethnicity attached to it (I'm assuming not all worshippers are Norwegians). Any cool sacraments - mead, mushrooms, frosty mornings?

I met a "Donnar" worshiper in college. That's the name his Norse sect referred to Thor as. I remember his Book of Troth and his hand carved idols in his dorm room. And he had hair like this guy's wig from the Conan the Barbarian movie:

I actually have a few friends that are deeply into their Ásatrú faith. I even seriously considered it for a while and joined them in a number of their practices and ceremonies.

(and honestly would consider going back to it if I really started to seriously care about religion and beliefs again, thus far I feel I have been pretty well burnt by most of my former/current beliefs - but that is a topic better left for elsewhere) .

Two of them are exactly what one would expect of the stereotype. White, 6ft plus, 230 lbs, big sons of guns in good shape, with long hair similar to that in the pic above. Both heavily involved in medieval reenactment and so on. Real tough SOBs. The other was a little spindlely guy, total bookworm nerd type, mixed race. But oddly enough he was the one in charge of the local group. I saw him get challenged to a wrestling match by one of the other bug guys when we were hanging out one night. He had the big guy almost in tears and "tapping out" in a very short amount of time. He may have looked like nerdy book worm but turned out he was also a state champion wrestler. Heh.

Their belief system is very appealing, at least it was to me.

One thing I always found funny was whenever I would go to one of the local moots that the Pagan community would hold or to the circles for the various holidays my friend Amber would host (she follows a celtic/fey religion) we would inevitably get around to talking about the different groups. Usually the local Ásatrú didn't attend these gatherings since they usually had their own gatherings going on at the same time, so obviously they and their belief would come up - not in a bad way mind you - but one of the things that was always said that I found amusing was "never piss off an Ásatrú."

Most of the pagans that I knew followed the Three-fold Rule. If you don't know, it basically says if you do something bad or evil, it will come back to you 3 times worse. A basic karma like rule.

Well, After I became friends with a number of Ásatrú, I realized why the other groups always said to never piss them off. One of my Ásatrú buddies told me of their groups take on the three-fold rule. That being,

If you screw with me I will fold you in half three times.

Heh.

I knew there was a reason I got along with them from the get go.

Jerry