Strange Things in Norway

Shortly before Anders Breivik went on his killing spree in Norway on July 22nd, he published a manifesto detailing his thoughts on multiculturalism, Marxism, Islam, and their effects on Norwegian society.  Much of his manifesto, the 1,500-page 2083 – A European Declaration of Independence, is devoted to the “Islamization” of Europe, and how “cultural Marxism” is allowing Islamic colonization of Europe.  He accuses these “cultural Marxists” as wanting to deconstruct European traditions, culture, and even the various nation-states within Europe.  He identifies those in Norway who belong to the Labour Party, Socialist Left Party and the Center Party as being responsible for this “Islamic colonization.”  He chronicles how Europe and Christendom has been under attack by Islam for the past 1,400 years.  He details how Europe escaped Islamic domination in 732 when Charles Martel stopped the invasion of the Umayyid Caliphate at the Battle of Tours, and the stopping of the Ottomans at the gates of Vienna in 1683.  He says that now Europe is again at war with Islam, only this war is a demographic one, one with a mass migration of Muslims accompanied by a high Muslim birthrate in Europe.  According to him, the Muslims are being aided and abetted by the cultural Marxist elites of Western Europe.  He accuses the European Union of deliberately destroying the cultural traditions of member states by flooding them with immigrants and erasing the traditions of the indigenous peoples of Europe, the Jews and Christians.  To wit, the word “indigenous” appears 160 times in his manifesto.  Breivik claims there has been a “genocide” conducted against the “indigenous” peoples of Europe for many years.

His cure for solving Europe’s Islamic colonization is to remove what he sees as the political doctrines of “cultural Marxism” and multiculturalism.  He advocates assimilation of Muslims into European society, and mass deportations of Muslims from Europe who do not assimilate.  In a video self-interview posted on-line with his 1,500 page document, he said he is part of an indigenous-rights movement whose ideology is cultural conservatism. "I am very proud of my Viking heritage. My name, Breivik, is a place name from Northern Norway, dating back to before the Viking era."  Breivik identifies himself as a “Justiciar Knight Commander for Knights Templar Europe and one of several leaders of the National and pan-European Patriotic Resistance Movement.”  He states as his military objectives as the use of guerrilla warfare against the above-mentioned political parties.  The method of choice would be sabotage operations or the “use of shock attacks” against these “category A and B traitors.”  Such was his plan when he committed his crimes on July 22nd.  

Breivik’s crimes in the name of the indigenous peoples of Europe remind me of something I saw on IFC about a year ago.  It was a documentary of Norwegian black metal called Until the Light Takes Us.  Filmmakers Audrey Ewell and Aaron Aites moved to Norway to pursue their interest in that country’s black metal scene. They discovered a story of extreme aesthetics, murder and church burning.  What is “black metal”?  It’s a sub-genre of thrash metal that’s raw and poorly produced.  It has “blast beat” drumming [very fast tempo – over 180 beats per minute] and distorted guitars.  The vocals are mostly high pitched rasps and guttural growls that are most unintelligible.  Many vocalists try to sound like what they think a demon or something from hell would sound like.  The lyrical themes have mostly pagan or satanic themes.  The documentary follows two of the leading lights of Norwegian black metal.  Gylve Nagell [aka Fenriz] of the band Darkthrone is a quiet, unassuming guy who just goes about his business as he laments the commercialization of black metal.  The other guy is Varg Vikernes [aka Count Grishnackh], who is as charismatic and outspoken as Fenriz is quiet and unassuming.  For Fenriz, it’s all about the music, but for Vikernes there is an extreme Norwegian nativist political and religious [pagan] agenda in play.  Also of interest, all the interviews of Vikernes for this documentary took place in the Trondheim maximum security prison, where he served 16 years of a 21-year sentence for murder and arson.  

In keeping with the pagan aesthetic, members and fans of the Norwegian black metal scene claimed responsibility for over 50 arson attacks on Christian churches between 1992–1996. Many of the buildings were hundreds of years old, and widely regarded as important historical landmarks.  One of the first and most notable was Norway's Fantoft Stave Church.  This church had been in place in Bergen since 1883.  It had been moved from Fortun, located at the eastern end of Sognefjord, where it was built around 1150.  Its ruins appeared on the cover of Burzum’s album Aske [Norwegian for ‘ashes’].  Burzum is the one-man band black metal project of Varg Vikernes, who like Breivik is proud of his Viking heritage.  In Until the Light Takes Us Vikernes tells about how and why he and others burned churches: the Christians put the churches over sacred pagan grounds hundreds of years ago and so the black metal movement, for ostensibly nationalistic, back-to-the-Roots ideals, decided to burn the churches down. Like Breivik, Vikernes sees an external force [in this case Christianity] as being a force of oppression against “indigenous” cultures in Norway.  Norwegian police believed Vikernes was responsible for the Fantoft Stave Church burning, but they could not prove it.  However, Vikernes was found guilty for the arsons of Holmenkollen Chapel [the church King Harald V and the royal family attended], Skjold Church and Åsane Church.  He was also convicted for the murder of Øystein Aarseth [aka Euronymous], who owned an independent record store named Helvete [Norwegian for Hell].  Aarseth also founded his record label Deathlike Silence Productions in its basement, releasing some of the most important Norwegian black metal recordings. Several musicians in the scene often met in the basement of the record store; including the members of Mayhem, the members of Emperor, Varg Vikernes, and Snorre Ruch of Thorns.  Bård 'Faust' Eithun worked in Helvete and lived at the back of the building, and Tomas 'Samoth' Haugen also lived there for a time. The store's walls were painted black and decorated with medieval weapons, posters of bands, and picture discs, while its window featured a polystyrene tombstone. 

Parties at Helvete were legendary: huge, chaotic, candle lit affairs, where devotees wore corpse paint, black capes, and replicas of Viking gear. From his base at Helvete, Aarseth became a leader of the scene. He often expressed hope that Black Metal would incite young people to violence; conceiving methods of torture, he held lengthy lectures on how the pain would scare the victims. "It was an exciting period," says Samoth, the guitarist for Emperor. "We all hung out and talked about our hatred for Christianity and how to get the Viking religion back." All of this “Inner Circle” despised Christianity's glorification of weakness, it's sympathy for the sick and needy. So the Circle devised the idea of setting fire to the pride and glory of Norway — it's beloved wooden churches. That would remind the people of Norway that they were all still the children of Odin.  When I stumbled onto this story of these church burnings [of which I thought there were only a few], I came upon this list I found in Wikipedia and was somewhat started to see how long the list of church burnings was.  

1992 - 
May 23: burning of Storetveit Church in Bergen

Jun 6: burning of Fantoft Stave Church in Bergen – Varg Vikernes is strongly suspected as the culprit, but was not convicted.

Aug 1: burning of Revheim Church in Stavanger

Aug 21: burning of Holmenkollern Chapel in Oslo – Varg Vikernes and Faust were convicted for this.

Sep 1: burning of Ormøya Church in Oslo

Sep 13: burning of Skjold Church in Vindafjord  – Varg Vikernes and Samoth were convicted for this.

Oct 3: burning of Hauketo Church in Oslo

Dec 24: burning of Ǻsane Church in Bergen  – Varg Vikernes and Jørn Inge Tunsberg were convicted for this.

Dec 25: burning of a Methodist church in Sarpsborg – a firefighter was killed while fighting this fire. 

1993 -
Feb 7: burning of Lundby New Church in Gothenburg, Sweden

1994 - 
Mar 13: burning of a church in Sund

Mar 27: burning of Seegård Church in Snertingdal

May 16: attempted burning of Gol Stave Church in Buskerud

May 17: attempted burning of Åmodt Chapel in Buskerud

Jun 4: burning of Frogn Church in Drøbak

Jun 19: attempted burning of Heni Church in Gjerdrum

Jul 7: burning of a church in Jeløy

Jul 21: attempted burning of Odda's Church

Aug 13: attempted burning of Loop Chapel in Meldal

Dec 10: attempted burning of Ǻkra Church

Dec 22: attempted burning of Askim Church

Dec 26: attempted burning of Klemestrud Church 

1995 - 
May 13: burning of Lord Church in Telemark

May 25: burning of Såner Church in Vestby

Jun 14: burning of Moe Church in Sandefjord

Jul 21: attempted burning of a church college in Eidanger

Sep 3: attempted burning of Vågsbygd church college in Oddernes

Nov 3: burning of Innset Church in Rennebu 

Why the antipathy toward the Lutheran Church?  Here’s what Vikernes had to say about it:

In our contemporary society, youth are pretty much lost. They have no direction. Nobody is telling them what to do. That is, people are telling them what to do, but the youth have an instinct telling them this is wrong. People are telling them that Christianity is good, people are telling them that the USA is good, NATO is good, our democracy is good, but we know, if not intellectually, we know instinctively that this is wrong.

Extremism comes in different shapes and sizes anywhere you go.  Black metal has nothing to do with what Breivik did, but those who follow it are a bit extreme.  Given Anders Breivik’s expressions of his Christian faith, Vikernes and others like him who are part of Norway’s neo-Nazi fringe would probably excoriate him for not being nationalistic or extreme enough.  Vikernes would probably burn Breivik’s church given the opportunity.  But both Vikernes and Breivik have this in common:  they blame outside influences for Norway’s problems.  It is as if Vikernes and Breivik are two sides of the same coin.  In my research, I found that church burnings continue in Norway today.  It isn’t happening on the same scale as what it was during the 1990s, but it’s still happening.  The average Norwegian must feel like Dylan’s Mr. Jones – something is happening but they’re not quite sure what it is.  But whatever “it” is, “it” is pretty ugly.