Brute Norse Podcast

What is religion? Originally, Viking Era Scandinavians had no concept of "religion" as we understand it, and yet it is their supposed religiosity that most profoundly shapes our understanding of who they were. What do we actually mean when we say this word, and which preconceptions are we imposing on the ancient mind by using it? Are there religious aspects to our own culture that we don't even acknowledge as such? In this episode I am joined by scholar of Religious Didactics at the University of Stavanger, Norway, and one half of the Black Metal two-piece Dødsengel, Adrian Johansen Rinde for a discussion on religion, authenticity, and tradition (both upper and lower case). For shirts, videos, and anything Brute Norse: https://linktr.ee/brutenorse

When not one, but two 8th century mass graves emerged on the beaches of Salme in Saaremaa, Estonia, it marked a new chapter in scholarly inquiry into the Viking Era. Thoughtfully propped up in two military rowing vessels, sitting side by side, and stacked on top of each other, respectively, these 40 or so Scandinavian raiders received graves as shallow as they were ritualistic. The finds brought renewed interest in the historical origins of viking piracy. A culture that came of age with the professionalization of the Germanic warband in the Roman Iron Age, which led to the emergence of a self-insistent aristocratic class, who built their identity around war, feasting, and huge halls. But their primitive adolescence goes even further back, to a dim past of steppe raiding-economies, and eerie coming of age rituals. And yet, one may discern the glimmer of an influence not quite of this world, of a new religion with the promise of a shimmering afterlife in the presence of the Lord. In this episode, Brute Norse attempts to trace the idea of Valhalla, from the darkest of pasts, to the light in the end of the tunnel. Hail Herjan! Hail Wodanaz! Looking for rad Scandifuturist fashion, or anything else Brute Norse related? Look no further: https://linktr.ee/brutenorse Some sources, reading, and mentions for this episode: - Kershaw, Priscilla (2000). The One-eyed God: Odin and the (Indo-) Germanic Männerbünde. Journal of Indo-European studies Monograph No. 36. - Ligotti, Thomas (2010). The Conspiracy Against the Human Race. Viking Press: New York. - Meulengracht Sørensen, Preben (1983). The Unmanly Man: Concepts of Sexual Defamation in Early Northern Society. Odense University Press. - Moynihan, Michael (2017). From Householder to War-Lord to Heavenly Hero: Naming God in the Early Continental Germanic Languages. University of Massachussets Amherst. - Nordberg, Andreas (2004). Krigarna i Odins sal. Dödsföreställningar och krigarkult i fornnordisk religion. University of Stockholm. - Opedal, Arnfrid (1998). De glemte skipsgravene: makt og myter på Avaldsnes. Arkeologisk museum i Stavanger. - Price, Douglas et. al. (2016). Isotopic provenancing of the Salme ship burials in Pre-Viking Age Estonia. Antiquity, 90. Cambridge Journals: Cambridge. - Russel, James C. (1996). The Germanization of Early Medieval Christianity. Oxford University Press. - Ystgaard, Ingrid (2014). Krigens praksis: Organisert voldsbruk og materiell kultur i Midt-Norge ca. 100-900 e.kr. NTNU.

When the soldiers of the 4th Mechanized Infantry Company of the Telemark Battalion rallied around Major Rune Wenneberg, their battle cry was a rite that solidified a sense of camaraderie between them, and helped them adjust to the reality of putting their bodies at the disposal of the international war machine. But as the words "To Valhalla!" rang out between the hills of northern Afghanistan, they did not yet know that this was the cry that would awaken Norway, almost a decade too late, to the reality of Norway's role in military operations abroad. The public erupted in a series of debates, wrestling to make sense of a warrior ideology that had apparently operated in secrecy under their very noses. Everyone from the tabloids to the Church, and the Defence Authority itself, poked at everything from toxic masculinity to the Nazi occult for answers. When perhaps what they should have done first of all, was look themselves in the mirror. This episode also explores the myth and reality of appropriation of Norse mythology by the National Socialists during WW2. WANNA SUPPORT BRUTE NORSE? Use the following link for anything Brute Norse related: https://linktr.ee/Brutenorse Some citations for this episode: — Brunborg, Ole Martin. 2015. På sporet av en norsk krigerkultur: Holdninger til militærmakt før og nå. Militære sudier 1/2015. Forsvarets stabskole — Dyvik, Synne. 2016. "Valhalla rising: Gender, embodiment and experience in military memoirs." In: Security Dialogue 47, 2016. — Eggen, Torbjørn & Torleif Vik. 1944. Stiklestad valplass og symbol. In: Olavstanken. Centralforlaget: Oslo. — Emberland, Terje. 2012. Himmlers Norge. Aschehoug: Oslo. — Goodrich-Clarke, Nicholas. 2005. The Occult Roots of Nazism. Tauris Parke: London. — Hagesæther, Alf Petter. 2010. "Norsk krigerkultur forankret i norrøn myologi eller i naturretten?" In: PACEM 13. — Langeland, Fredrik. 2012. Soldater med lyst til å drepe - krigermaskulinitet i mannebladet Alfa. Norsk medietidsskrift vol. 19.

Brute Norse goes to the movies in this spoiler saturated interlude to the series on Valhalla. What are the gods, and how do they see us? With its unsettling depiction of a simulated reality, Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s 1973 sci-fi masterpiece «World on a Wire» (Welt am Draht) is an oft cited example of a film way ahead of its time. In this episode, we’re going to turn that claim upside down and let the mythic merge with the cybernetic, using the film as an opportunity for a Scandifuturist reading of Norse Pre-Christian cosmology, and notions of heroic transcendence. Support Brute Norse! https://patreon.com/brutenorse https://teespring.com/stores/brute-norse SoME: @Brutenorse Mentioned works: - Fassbinder, Rainer Werner (1973). World on a Wire: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070904/ - Fragasso, Claudio (1990). Troll 2: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105643/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 - Heide, Eldar (2014). Contradictory Cosmology in Old Norse Myth & Religion - But still a system? https://www.academia.edu/7454838/Contradictory_cosmology_in_Old_Norse_myth_and_religion_but_still_a_system - Neckel, Gustav (1913). Walhall.

In the midst of the crumbling and plague ridden Yankee Empire, Eirik plots to evacuate New Jorvik and relive the Migration Era by conquering the Mosel. But if he dies trying, where will he go? What is Valhalla anyway, and what do we know about Norse mythology's most iconic afterlife location? In this episode we brave Odin's storm, and wade through tides of iron to attend the raven's feast. All to look at the research history of this extravagant warrior paradise. It's a meandering road through source-critical pitfalls, deadly ancestral cliffs, and the grotesque aesthetics of Viking Era warrior poets. Support and follow Brute Norse! www.Patreon.com/Brutenorse www.teespring.com/stores/brute-norse www.instagram.com/brutenorse www.twitter.com/brutenorse Some sources for this episode: - Bergsveinn Birgisson (2003). Å elska med øyreløs hund og skummel død. Nordica Bergensia 29 - 2003. University of Bergen - Nordberg, Andreas (2004). Krigarna i Odins sal. Dödsföreställningar och krigarkult i fornnordisk religion. University of Stockholm - Sundqvist, Olof & Anders Kaliff (2006). Odin and Mithras: religious acculturation during the Roman Iron Age and the Migration Period. In: Old Norse Religion in Long-Term Perspectives. Nordic Academic Press: Lund

Myth speaks of an exclusive community of dead warriors, whose sacrifices in service for their divine monarch granted them access to live in a grand hall, where they would be served and entertained by young maidens, and continue their fight on a cosmic scale from the spectral realm in perpetuity. In this episode we explore the development, consequences, and controversies of the idea and location of Yasukuni Jinja, where 2,5 million of Japan's military dead are enshrined and venerated as gods. We trace its humble origins as a war memorial, circus venue, and pacifying ground to soothe angry warrior ghosts, to its more infamous stage as a spiritual meat grinder of the State Shinto Military Industrial Complex, able to transform young men into national deities on an industrial scale. A cautionary tale against romanticizing death and martyrdom, this episode explores how the Imperial State manipulated aesthetics and indigenous beliefs for immediate military gains. We meet the Christian existentialist kamikaze pilot Ichizo Hayashi, and tour the shrine grounds with the ghost of Eirik's great-uncle Ingolf, all the while making phenomenological comparisons to the Norse concept of Valhalla. Support and follow Brute Norse! www.brutenorse.com www.Patreon.com/Brutenorse www.teespring.com/stores/brute-norse www.instagram.com/brutenorse www.twitter.com/brutenorse Some sources for this episode: - Hardackre, Helen (2017). Shinto: A History. Oxford University Press. - Kolstø, Janemil (2007). "Rethinking Yasukuni: From Secular Politics to Religious Sacrifice". University of Bergen. - Ohnuki-Tierney, Emiko. (2006). Kamikaze Diaries: Reflections of Japanese Student Soldiers. The University of Chicago Press.

In this slightly festive Yuletide episode, Eirik retells some of his favorite miracles associated with Iceland's first (and only) Christian holy man: The frail, picky eating, voluntary celibate, 12th century bishop Þorlákr Þórhallsson. Patron saint of Iceland - and autism! Thorlak was a renowned sage who hardly ever touched a drink unless it was alcoholic. He channeled his divine superpowers to heal the mangled, clobber wildlife, punish bullies, and make beer both strong and tasty. The episode also touches upon various tidbits of seasonally appropriate errata, such as the mysterious lost Scandinavian saint Sjur, Medieval ethnic stereotypes about sausage-eating Icelanders, and the freshest old news on the Norse lunisolar calendar. Get wiseer about the pre-Christian holiday of Jól: https://www.brutenorse.com/blog/2017/12/norse-yuletide-sacrifices-had-almost.html Looking for a pre-christian lunisolar almanac that fits in your pocket? Check out KwellonTungl: https://www.etsy.com/shop/KwellonTungl Support Brute Norse: https://www.Patreon.com/brutenorse https://www.Teespring.com/stores/brute-norse

In this episode Eirik recounts his Japonic yuletide odyssey of 2018. He takes a comparative, Scandifuturist look at the prehistory of Japan through the Jōmon, Yayoi, and Kofun periods. It's the story of how hunter-gatherer master potters met their demise at the hands of militant, kami-fearing, rice-farming, mound building, Iron Age settlers from the Asian mainland. Strolling backwards with a voyeur's gaze from the streets of Tokyo to the valleys of Gifu, as Japan is staged as a fellow barbarian periphery beyond the ghost of the Roman Empire, to question Classical and Post-Enlightenment assumptions about how humanity ought to cope with the terror of the past, handing out wedgies to the Western canon and national mythologies as we go. Support Brute Norse: www.brutenorse.com www.twitter.com/brutenorse www.instagram.com/brutenorse www.patreon.com/brutenorse www.teespring.com/stores/brute-norse Suggested reading: - Imamura, Keiji (2003). Prehistoric Japan: New Perspectives on Insular East Asia. Routledge: London - Kolstø, Janemil (2007). Rethinking Yasukuni: From Secular Politics to Religious Sacrifice. Master of Arts Thesis. AHKR, University of Bergen: Bergen - Hardacre, Helen (2017). Shinto: A History. Oxford University Press: New York

Aksel returns to the podcast for banter-filled spitballing on ancient Scandinavia and new old news from European prehistory. Whatever happened to that frickin’ viking ship (?) from episode 14, and what's up with these Viking Era mortuary houses? Some of the subjects tackled: - The Crossroads exhibit at the Art & History Museum, Brussels. - Migration period identity. - Aksel's time travel hitlist. - Preliminary results from the Gjellestad ship excavation. - Democratization of Viking burial practice. - A phallic stone from Bronze Age Sweden. - Iron Age mortuary houses. - Eirik's dream burial. - Hollow promises of future podcast subjects. - The afterlife, reincarnation, and Germanic naming conventions. Support Brute Norse: www.Patreon.com/brutenorse www.teespring.com/stores/brute-norse -Topical links- Help name the new moons of Saturn: https://carnegiescience.edu/NameSaturnsMoons Why are adult daughters missing from ancient German cemeteries? https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/10/why-are-adult-daughters-missing-ancient-german-cemeteries The Crossroads exhibit at the Art & History Museum, Brussels: https://www.artandhistory.museum/exhibitions/crossroads The recent Gjellestad ship excavations: https://www.khm.uio.no/english/about/news/current-issues/we-are-digging-after-a-new-viking-ship%21.html "The Rollsbo Penis": https://www.thelocal.se/20190926/swedish-archaeologists-find-penis-statue-rollsbo-bronze-age A recently excavated Viking Era mortuary house: https://www.nrk.no/viten/arkeologer-ved-ntnu-vitenskapsmuseet-har-funnet-restene-fra-et-sjeldent-dodehus-fra-vikingtiden-1.14707210

What drives you? In this episode, Eirik sits down for a talk with Kevin from Leornende Eald Englisc, who makes educational youtube videos on Old English informed by his particular spiritual convictions. We talk about linguistics, the problem with translations, old Germanic languages, cosmic law, accepting the passage of history, devotinal service, and the importance of good intent and deeds. May we be reborn and do good deeds again! Watch Kevin's content here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLnwScGuOxVlaN5aV9in9ag Mentioned works: Peter Wessel Zapffe, The Last Messiah https://philosophynow.org/issues/45/The_Last_Messiah Bhagavad Gita https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhagavad_Gita Sallust, On the Gods and the World https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Sallust_On_the_Gods_and_the_World

The natural sciences talk avidly about the geosphere, biosphere, atmosphere, and so on. Less so about the noösphere. The noösphere is the sphere of mind. A term that allows us to conceive of consciousness and information exchange, not just as abstract philosophical notions, but as a massively tangible cosmic force with a concrete, observable influence on the physical world. In this episode Eirik reads his essay "The Antenna on the Holy Mountain: Noöspheric meditations on the Norse cargo cult", originally commissioned by the Canadian artist Erin Sexton for the 2018 Noöspherics conference at Lydgalleriet in Bergen, where it formed the introductory chapter to the conference book. Written in the shadow of Norway's decision to abandon FM radio for new, digital solutions, this essay explores the noöspheric proposition that our intelligence extends beyond our physical bodies, drawing on crisis, technological collapse, extraterrestrial exploration, and religious ritual, and the noösphere's implications for Eirik's own experience of the antiquarian sciences, and his alienated yearning towards a better understanding of the pre-Christian Scandinavian worldview. - Erin Sexton's homepage: https://erinsexton.com - Topos Publications: https://topospublications.com Support Brute Norse on https://patreon.com/brutenorse or sweeten my coffee by purchasing a piece of fresh BN merch on https://teespring.com/stores/brute-norse

In this episode Eirik takes an eldritch look at Norwegian identity, from the mythology and dreams of Iron Age expansionists to the national mythology of state bureaucracy. He attempts to negotiate between the representation, artifice and organism of Norwegianness itself, drawing on Thure Erik Lund's oddball idea of the "True" versus "Norwegian" Norwegians and Nick Land's concept of hyperstition, realizing his own participation in the ongoing ritualization that keeps the Norwegian creature alive.

The saga continues with an exploration of the vocabulary, material culture, and social status of beer in Iron Age and Medieval Scandinavia. We look at different terms for beer in the Old Norse language and discern their differences, from Old Norse ǫl, mungát, and bjórr to modern ale and beer, with an intimate look at the "Nordic grog" of Scandinavian prehistory, before we venture up to the many festivities of Nordic peasants up until the bacchanalian festivals of Medieval guilds. Also more or less mentioned: - Household sacrifices - Ale runes - Yeast necromancy - The drunken Germanic war machine - No pets in the guild hall Support Brute Norse on: https://patreon.com/brutenorse https://teespring.com/stores/brute-norse

Join Eirik for an invigorating dip into the crooked creek that is the history of beer and brewing in Iron Age and Medieval Scandinavia, with some serious side-eye to the later Nordic farmhouse brewing tradition. In this episode we will cover what exactly beer is, and what separates the global industrial brewery from its historical household counterpart. Cheers! Support Brute Norse: www.patreon.com/brutenorse www.teespring.com/stores/brute-norse Music: Edvard Grieg, "Aa grisen hadde eit tryne"/ "Oh, the pig he had a snout" performed by Papalin

Join Eirik for a counter-cultural walk on the wild side as he looks at some of his favorite pieces of bogus and fringe literature on the subject of pre-Christian Scandinavia, from Kjell Aartun's runic sex cults to the seedy, folk-etymological mysteries of the so-called Bock Saga, before finally landing on the forgotten, acid drenched sci-fi works of Norway's favorite outlaw, the infamous Black Metal musician Varg Vikernes. To support Brute Norse: www.patreon.com/brutenorse www.teespring.com/stores/brute-norse

In this episode Eirik shares what the holidays mean to him as a homesick barbarian/contrarian, and covers some of the many yuletide horrors past folks had to put up with. And concerning the paganism of Christmas: Norse religious festivals were determined according to a lunisolar calendar, so when exactly did the vikings celebrate jól, what exactly is its relationship to the winter solstice, and why does any of that matter to you and me?

In this episode, Eirik and Aksel catch up after several months of disconnect and get up to speed with some of their favorite archaeological news of 2018. They speculate on the contents of prehistoric alcoholic beverages, muse on recent incidents on North Sentinel Island, analyze Danish gang wars in light of warlike honor-shame societies and Norse sexual defamation, look at the so-called Staffordshire hoard helmet, and find some odd historical parallels to the Evil Dead franchise.

Vineyards and wheat fields forever! In this episode Eirik takes a long, hard look at the belief in supernatural isles in Northern Europe. Our fantastic odyssey begins with the Norse discovery of America and its peculiar ties to scholarly hearsay in the Middle Ages, before we go on to address the rampant abundance of vanishing isles along the Scandinavian coast. Other more or less tackled subjects include: Minimally counterintuitive concepts, order from chaos 101, imperialist pigs and pyromaniac expansionism, the counter-factual Vinland wine industry, how to terrorize the huldufolk with every day objects, layered oceans, and much, much more. Musical contribution: Sjóraust IV by Richard Moult.

In the conclusion to our wetland venture, Aksel and Eirik take an up close and personal look at some of our favorite bog bodies. We go knee deep Roman and Migration Era weapon sacrifices, and dive into bog butter, bog milk, and bog cheese, exploring the wonders of ancient refrigeration and self-tanning (turning your face into shoe-leather).

Eirik and Aksel begin their journey into the bogs of Northern Europe. They look at water symbolism in Norse mythology and burial rites, the emergence of water depositions in the Mesolithic though the Bronze Age, and mentally prepare for the gim reality of Iron Age human sacrifice.

In this episode we are joined by Wulfheodenas founding member, archaeologist/cage fighter Dieter Huggins. Beyond him spouting wisdom from his life on the forefront of living history, here are some of the things you'll find in this veritable smörgåsbord of an interview: - The current state of Dark Age living history. - Funerary pageantry among early Scandinavians and Anglo-Saxons. - The regulation of violence past and present, from warbands to the UFC, and the ambivalence of the warrior ethos. - Fair doses of camp life nostalgia.

In the final segment of the Chronologies of Ancient Scandinavia, Eirik and Aksel tackle the slippery slope of commodification of viking heritage, its uses and abuses. Can our admiration for our thieving, hyperviolent ancestors be morally justified? Let's find out!

In this part, Aksel and Eirik get into the actual timeline of Scandinavian prehistory with an emphasis on the Bronze and Iron Ages, including the Viking Age. We talk about the materiality of these periods, the language, and regional variation, before we segway drunkenly into our own snobbery.

Aksel joins the podcast once again to help unravel the dense issue of Scandinavian chronology. We start off softly with a primer on the origin and development of the ages themselves, from the Greek concept of the Golden Age, to the timeline of modern archaeology, before we get into how the Norsemen developed their own system of ages based on surprisingly scientific criteria.

The giants called: They want their primeval chaos back! This episode features a cosmic horror reimagining of the Norse myth of creation, adapted from my essay "The Trollish Theory of Art: a scandifuturist art creation myth", published in the recent darkness-edition of Scandinavian Kunstforum. Afterwards, I give a quick overview of Norse poetic morbidity, and pitch a few thoughts on how a philosophy based on Nordic folklore and mythology could inform our perception of traditional and modern art.

In this surprise Halloween special, we take a look at the strange and trippy story of the Oseberg ship, and of how a Brooklyn clairvoyant may have caused the discovery of the world's most extravagant Viking Age burial.

In this episode, archaeologist Aksel Klausen takes us deeper into the dark woods of Germania Libera. We take a look at Germanic, Hunnic, and Roman identity, and see how some kingdoms looked to the Romans - or the gods - to legitimize their power. On the way, we also find the time to consider Germanic animal ornament as an expression of surrealist art, and runes and writing in a non-written, storytelling culture.

Prehistorian Aksel Klausen joins the Brute Norse Podcast to swill wine and chat about ring symbolism, weapon sacrifice, kingship, and the emergence of the ancient Germanic warrior elites. This is the first part of a two-part interview.

The Germanic tribes are often credited with the destruction of the Western Roman Empire. There are no Roman roads in Scandinavia, still the empire resonated in the cultural memory of the Vikings. From Teutoburger Wald to the Taliban, Brute Norse joins forces with Krister Vasshus, PhD student in onomastic sciences at the University of Bergen, to discuss just how far the Roman shadow fell beyond its Northern border.

In this first episode I had a talk with Leszek Gardeła, assistant professor of archaeology at the University of Rzeszów, Poland, about the ambiguity of magic, morbid viking burials, and the ethics of studying the dead. Music by Eirik Storesund and KB Hus.