Bog Buddies 2: The Northman, Slavsploitation and the Scholarly Esoteric

Bog Buddies! A minimally edited, community-driven panel show by and for the Scandifuturist Power Walking Club, dwelling in the muddy margins of the Brute Norse cyber-meadhall. Today we return to air our joys and grievances about Robert Eggers' viking film, The Northman (more joys than grievances, truth be told), and unveil the horrific esoteric layers of the movie that neither of us were prepared to face.

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Ep. 41: Written Sorcery from Runes to Cyprianus

In this ghoulish episode we'll be looking at magic and sorcery in literary transmission while Eirik wrestles with his own personal demons. Focusing on the legend-steeped early modern grimoire tradition in Norway, we start our Faustian adventure with the question of runic magic and its developments towards the peak of runic literacy in the High Middle Ages. Before we go on to discuss the influence of continental sorcery, and ultimately the appearance of grimoires on the Scandinavian occult horizon.

Buy my book "Love Spells and Erotic Sorcery in Norwegian Folk Magic" at brutenorse.bigcartel.com/

For all things Brute Norse, see: linktr.ee/brutenorse

Featuring musical arrangements by Helge Taksdal.

Musical contribution by Darya & Månskensorkestern:
daryamnskensorkestern.bandcamp.com/

Some relevant works:
- Bang, Anton Christian (1902). Norske Hexeformularer og magiske opskrifter. Brøggers Bogtrykkeri: Kristiania.

- Flowers, Stephen. 1989. The Galdrabók: An Icelandic Grimoire. Samuel Weiser: York Beach

- Henriksen, Oskar Tobias Rudquist. (2011) "Vil du jeg skal vise dig Fanden?" Presten som magiker i det postreformatoriske Norge. Universitetet i Bergen.'

- Johnson, Thomas K. (2019). Svartkonstböcker: a compendium of the Swedish black art book tradition. Revelore Press: Seattle

- Karlsson, Thomas (2009). Götisk kabbala och runisk alkemi. Stockholms universitet, Religionhistoriska avdelingen: Stockholm

- Mathias Viðar Sæmundsson (1996). Galdur á brennuöld. Storð: Reykjavík

- Spurkland, Terje (2005). Norwegian Runes and Runic Inscriptions. Translation: Betsy van der Hoek. Boydell Press: Woobridge

- Storesund, Eirik (2018). Clubbing Solomon's Seal: the occult roots of the ægishjálmur. www.brutenorse.com/blog/2018/5/14/the-gishjalmur

Ep. 40: Moondog with Stefan Lakatos

Stefan Lakatos joins Brute Norse to talk about the life and work of his friend and teacher, the blind avant-garde composer, poet, pamphleteer, and hobo philosopher Louis Thomas Hardin, aka. Moondog, "The Viking of 6th Avenue". Among other things, discussing the musicology of Moondog and his fascination with Norse Mythology.

Features music composed by Moondog and performed by Stefan Lakatos and Andreas Heuser, and eletronic arrangements by Helge Taksdal.

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Some relevant links and references:

https://www.moondogscorner.de

- Scotto, Robert (2007). Moondog: The viking of 6th avenue. Process Media: Los Angeles

- Moondog (Transl: Marie-Hélène Estève) (2016). 50 Couplets. Lenka Lente

Bog Buddies: The Northman, Viking Films, Fantasy and Authenticity

A fresh concept on the BN podcast: It's the Bog Buddies! Occasional informal, community driven discussions on topical matters. Today we discuss hopes and fears concerning Robert Eggers' upcoming Viking blockbuster: THE NORTHMAN. We pick apart the material culture as best we can based on the trailer, and muse wildly about the strengths and pitfalls of so-called historical cinema.

Ep. 39: Be the Yule Goat you want to see in the world (Holiday special 2021)

In this episode we're putting the ass back in Christmas with a seasonably appropriate reading of two Old Norse tales taken from Flateyjarbók: Þorleifs þáttr jarlaskálds, a sizzling holiday story about vengeance, sorcery, and fake beards. And Þorsteins þáttr skelks, an outhouse-themed ghost story featuring all the hottest gossip on the suffering of ancient heroes.

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With musical contributions from Langsomt Mot Nord, and Helge Taksdal.

Relevant links:
Langsomt Mot Nord: www.langsomtmotnord.no/

Nordberg, Andreas (2006). Jul, disting och förkyrklig tideräkning: www.academia.edu/1366945/Jul_dist…tider%C3%A4kning

Storesund, Eirik (2017): The Yuletide Sacrifices had (Almost) Nothing to do with the Winter Solstice: www.brutenorse.com/blog/2017/12/no…had-almost.html

Ep. 37: Avaldsnes forever

Join Eirik on a virtual tour spanning years in the thousands, but all in one spot: Avaldsnes on the isle of Karmøy. Norway's birthplace, at least if the local tourist board has anything to say about it. An episode of nostalgia and archaeo-historical hypersaturation in an ancient center of power where myth, legend, and history intersect.

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Some references:
- Bergsveinn Birgisson (2013). Den svarte vikingen. Spartacus.

- Ilkjær, Jørgen (2000). Den første norgeshistorien: Illerupfunnet, ny innsikt i skandinavisk romertid. Kulturhistorisk Forlag.

- Ilkjær, Jørgen (2002). Illerup Ådal: Archaeology as a Magic Mirror. Moesgård Museum.

- Klausen, Aksel (2013). The Flagghaug prince - Rome's foe? A Late Roman Iron Age weapon grave from Avaldsnes. MA Thesis. University fo Bergen.

- Opedal, Arnfrid (1998). De glemte skipsgravene: Makt og myter på Avaldsnes. AmS småtrykk.

- Østmo, Einar (2020). The History of the Norvegr 2000 BC-1000 AD, In Dagfinn Skre (ed.), Rulership in 1st to 14th century Scandinavia. Royal graves and sites at Avaldsnes and beyond. Walter de Gruyter.

Ep. 38: The Saga of Thormod Torfæus

In this episode we explore the life and times of the pioneering Icelandic saga translator, historian, womanizer, drunkard, witch-defender, and murderer Thormod Torfæus (1636-1719). Following him from the miseries and nerdery of his native Iceland, to the jingoistic opulence of the Danish court, and finally to the shores of Norway. A voyage through the utter insanity of Early Modern scholarship. A world of grand claims, lovecraftian grimoires, espionage, crimes against humanity, narwhal-ivory-snorting alchemists, and the meandering chaos of a life that eerily paralleled that of the anti-heroes of ancient Scandinavia.

Support Brute Norse:
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Naaljos Ljom:
naaljosljom.bandcamp.com/

Scattered referenced works and citations:
- Bergsveinn Birgisson (2020). Mannen fra middelalderen: Historikeren og morderen Tormod Torfæus. Vigmostad og Bjørke.

- King, David (2005). Finding Atlantis: A true story of genius, madness, and an extraordinary quest for a lost world. Harmony.

- Torfæus, Tormod (2008-2014). Norges Historie, Vol 1-6. Torgrim Titlestad (ed.) Eide forlag.

- Various (2001). Tormod Torfæus: ei innføring. Torgrim Titlestad (ed.). Erling Skjalgssonselskapet.

Ep. 36: Cluttered Pasts and Unruly Heritage with Stein Fastadvoll

The present is inevitably haunted by the past. A cluttered past. Order and chaos spill over and onto each other. The past onto the present, and the present onto the past. Academically, this causes many potential problems: Will data saturation force us to reinvent the way we deal with the past? Will the fragility of modern tech create gaps in the knowledge our descendants will have about us? Is linear time a sham? How will we cope with pastness in the inevitable clutter of the Anthropocene? We're just rolling with the punches! But first of all, let us shed some of the historicist paradigms we've grown all too accustomed to. In this episode of high Scandifuturism, archaeologist Stein Farstadvoll (@wasteunearthed)comes on to question the one-track-mind of linearity and explore barbarian ontologies.

unrulyheritage.com/
Stein Farstadvoll on ResearchGate: www.researchgate.net/profile/Stein-Farstadvoll

Some referenced works:
- Benjamin, Walter (1940). Theses on the Philosophy of History.

- Eliade, Mirchea (1949). The Myth of the Eternal Return.

- Lund, Thure Erik (2000). Om naturen.

- Lund, Thure Erik (2006). Om de nye norske byene.

- Mayhem (1994). De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas.

- Nietzsche, Friedrich (1896). Thus Spoke Zarathustra.

- Storesund, Eirik (2017). The Trollish Theory of Art.

- Tusmørke: tusm-rke.bandcamp.com.

Ep. 35: Apeling Panspermia: Or the völkisch saga of the Lemurian ape craze ...

... and the demise of the electric Aryo-Germanic hermaphrodite elites from Atlantis at the hands of wanton Mediterranean excess, and an erotic treatise on Austro-German inferiority complexes at the start of the 20th century, as illustrated by the völkisch movements and feverish Ariosophical nonsense. With a guest performance by Swedish enfant terrible Johnny Bode."

Deliver us oh lord from the wrath of the apelings!

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SOME MENTIONED WORKS AND SOURCES:
- Emberland, Terje (2012). Himmlers Norge. Humanist forlag.
- Emberland, Terje (2003). Religion og rase: Nyhedenskap og nazisme i Norge 1933-1945. Humanist forlag.
- Goodrich-Clarke, Nicholas(2005). The Occult Roots of Nazism. Tauris Parke.
- Lenthe, Eckehard (2019), Annabel Lee (transl.). Wotan's Awakening. Dominion press. dominionpress.bigcartel.com
- Liebenfels, Jörg Lanz von (1905/????). Theozoology, or the Science of the Sodomite Apelings and the Divine Electron. An introduction to the most ancient and most modern philosophy and a justification of the monarchy and the nobility. With 45 Illustrations.

- The Johnny Bode Society: johnnybode.com/
- Dolda Fakta: hemligkammaren.se/

Ep. 34: Viking Drone Warfare - Spinning, seiðr & gandr with Eldar Heide

Few things about Norse paganism are as misunderstood or -represented as the practice of seiðr, and that's saying something. But if there is one single man that stands firm as mountain, jutting forth from the sea of quackery, that man is Eldar Heide. Linguist, Old Norse philologist, maritime conservationist, ski-tree-jumper. Pioneer of retrospective methods, and one of the main minds behind the prevailing paradigm of Norse magic, and its fascinating connection to the pre-Christian religion of the Fenno-Scandinavian Sami. A wacky world of textiles, bodily orifices, magic missiles, breath (good and bad!), and sexual taboos await!

You can find most of Eldar's work here:
www.Eldar-heide.net

Support Brute Norse at:
www.linktr.ee/brutenorse

Some relevant or mentioned works:
- Gardeła, Leszek (2016). (Magic) Staffs in the Viking Age.
- Meulengracht Sørensen, Preben (1983). The Unmanly Man.
- Price, Neil (2002). The Viking Way: Religion and War in Late Iron Age Scandiavia.

Ep. 33: Subterranean Yuletide Extravaganza 2020

A hellish episode for a hellish year. Recorded in tribute to the folkloric forces that terrorized the Norwegian countryside in the sacred season. Respecting the return of the ancestral dead, the mischief of the Hidden Folk, and the hauntings of trolls, ghosts, and goblins who made the yuletide feast the cornucopia of blood-curdling coziness that all Scandinavians dreaded and cherished.
Bake no bread, spin no thread: The Wild Hunt is on the loose!

Featuring themes arranged by Helge Taksdal.

Support Brute Norse:
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Learn more about the Norse lunisolar calendar here.

Ep. 32: The Unspeakable Cults of Gothiscandza (w/ Krister Vasshus & Laurine Albris)

Beginning as an attempt at a conversation on the enduring memory of ancient tribes in the Norwegian county system, and the erasure of their memory in the face of modern centralization, onomastician Krister Vasshus and archaeologist Laurine Albris joins the podcast for a numinous discussion that soon evolves in the direction of pagan place names and some of the stranger cult sites the North can offer, including some shocking new reveals from the frontlines of Nordic Iron Age archaeology.

Support Brute Norse @ linktr.ee/brutenorse

Some referenced works:
- Bjorvand, Harald et. al. (2019). Irilien på Øverby i Vingulmark. Viking: Norsk arkeologisk årbok, årgang 82.

- Olsen, Magnus (1905). Det gamle norske ønavn Njarðarlog

- Bergsveinn Birgisson (2014). Den svarte vikingen.

- Universitetsmuseet (UiB). «Enestående funn av hedensk gudehov fra yngre jernalder» [Last downloaded Nov. 19. 2020: tinyurl.com/y5suz8al]

- Grundvad, Lars & Laurine Albris (2020). Afdækning af fænomenet hørg fra yngre jernalder og vikingetid. Nye udgravninger ved Harreby. [Last downloaded Nov. 19. 2020: tinyurl.com/y52lt5m4]

- Nordberg, Andreas (2002). Vertikalt placerade vapen i vikingatida gravar. Fornvännen.

- Heide, Eldar (2013). Solar og gudane på Tysnesøya. Chaos.

Ep. 31: Do Viking Androids Dream of Electric Ships?

In this absolute nonsense episode, a chat bot by the name of AI Dungeon is harnessed to generate a grim saga about a eunuch miner living in a dystopian interstellar civilization ruled by an evil supercomputer sacred king.

Ep. 30: Did Norse Religion Exist? Authenticity & Religious Adjacency with Adrian Johansen Rinde

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).

Episode 29: Heaven is a Place on Earth (Valhalla Pt. 3)

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: 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.

Brute Norse Pod Ep. 28: Valhalla Pt. 2: To Valhalla? Norse myth, the military, & the nazis

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.

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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 Podcast Ep. 27: World on a Wire, Norse Cosmology, and Heroic Death (Valhalla interlude)

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.

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Mentioned works:

- Fassbinder, Rainer Werner (1973). World on a Wire: www.imdb.com/title/tt0070904/

- Fragasso, Claudio (1990). Troll 2: www.imdb.com/title/tt0105643/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

- Heide, Eldar (2014). Contradictory Cosmology in Old Norse Myth & Religion - But still a system?

- Neckel, Gustav (1913). Walhall: Studien über germanishcen Jenseitsglauben.

Brute Norse Podcast Ep. 26: Valhalla Pt. 1 - Fight for your right to party

In the midst of the crumbling 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 wade through storms of blood and iron 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 Norse warrior poets.

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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

Brute Norse Podcast Ep. 25: Valhalla (prologue) - The Temple of Reluctant Gods

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.

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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.

Brute Norse Podcast Ep. 24: Legends of Drunken Master - The Miracles of St. Thorlak

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.

Don't forget: Norse Yuletide Sacrifices Had (Almost) Nothing To Do With The Winter Solstice.

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