Popular Pagans Germanic1 Culture and Mythology in (Heavy) Metal Niels Penke Besides the “hellish” elements of Christianity, no other set of themes is as omnipresent in the various genres of heavy metal as the pandaemonium of “Germanic” or Nordic mythology. Odin, Thor, Fenrir the wolf and the World Serpent, the Valkyries and Einherjar, Yggdrasil, Asgard, or the end of the world in Ragnarök – these are all names and images that appear in numerous band names, in songs or album titles, in lyrics, on record covers or on t-shirts. Metal without all this imagery is hard if not impossible to imagine. The variety and breadth of references to “Germanic” culture and myth is large, as is the scale of the political semantics: from apolitical adaptations and implicit or hidden political semantics through to overt political framings. In her fundamental study of heavy metal, the sociologist Deena Weinstein identified the important role played by “Paganism”, i.e. the entire aggregate of pre-Christian religions in Northern Europe, in the emergence of a list of themes specific to metal.2 It is a long way, historically as well as aesthetically, from the first bands, which initially referred to gods, heroes and artifacts of the “Nordic-Germanic” pantheon only occasionally in their lyrics, to the establishment of dedicated subgenres such as Pagan metal and Viking metal, which define themselves through their exclusive reference to “Pagan” and “Viking”. The procedure that Eric Hobsbawm described as an “invention of tradition” 3 would appear to be decisive here: the narrative design of one’s own past, connected to pictures, symbols, slogans and practices. Where collective memory no longer reaches back to ancient times, and where tradition has broken off and ended a continuum of vivid traditions, imagination sets in, and the narrative begins. Its function is to reconstruct a whole picture from the written records and to enrich the fragmentary patterns by inventing the requisite elements that are missing. In connection with the Germanic tribes in particular, this is a phenomenon that can be traced back to early modern times (the 16th century) and that became most prominent in the Romantic period (early 19th century) but also to the Völkische Bewegung (“Folkist movement”) after 1900 and to National Socialism between the 1920s and 1945. All these kinds of cultural heritage are still being maintained in one context or another. They go together in many of the neo-völkisch attempts to shape a “whole” Germanic culture and to identify themselves as Germanic people or tribes. The main problems facing the proponents remain the same and are what all their ancestors throughout the centuries have experienced: the fundamental problem of “reviving” non-literary cultures whose earliest traditions can only be made accessible through archaeological finds – in the form of objects that are dug up and pictorial monuments that are preserved – and through descriptions penned by others, especially Roman authors. Thus the primary, “authentic”, historical phase can only be reconstructed via foreign descriptions, while the first written testimonies come in the 8th century in the Old High German period – after Christianisation, in other words. This means that alternative strategies are needed. One of them is to make the at-once tangible and abstract appeal to the “common blood” of all Germanic tribes and their ancestors, which is supported by the assumption of a “spiritual” kinship, a kind of eternal Volksgeist in the tradition of Herder.4 Another strategy involves accentuating the “realness” and “trueness” of those identity designs that have to be confirmed repeatedly through performance and rhetoric. Tacking “Germanic”, i.e. the supposedly “own” stories and traditions, enables a completely different personal reference to be made to the material than in the case of Satanism or mere fantasy. What “Vikings” and “Teutons” offer is significantly broader due to the number of diffuse historical references involved. In addition to the idealistic identification with allegorical figures representing “good” and “evil”, there is one that enables people to make the historical and ethnic connection at the same time, i.e. to
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