A Burzum Story: Part I - The Origin And Meaning
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Thread Topic: A Burzum Story: Part I - The Origin And Meaning
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too. many. words.
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that Burzum had an occult concept, but it is more correct to say it was a magical concept, or a concept built on fantasy magic. Everything with Burzum was out-of-this-world, even the name.
Like I said, when the Christians called the gods of my forefathers "demons", "trolls", "goblins" and not least "evil", I naturally felt attracted to everything that was seen as "evil" by the Christians. This is a slightly immature reaction, perhaps, but I was only a teenager, so I have no problems with that. I still had this attitude in 1991, and Uruk-Hai was an excellent name, but I felt that I was starting all over again, so I needed a new name too. As most Tolkien fans should know "burzum" is one of the words that are written in Black Speech on the One Ring of Sauron. As far as I remember the last sentence is "ash nazg durbabatuluk agh burzum ishi krimpatul", meaning "one ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them". The "darkness" of the Christians was of course my "light". So all in all it was natural for me to use the name Burzum.
Most bands (except Old Funeral of course ) had "cool" English names, like Immortal, Mayhem, Darkthrone, Destruction, Celtic Frost, Enslaved, Pestilence, Paradise Lost, Morbid Angel, Death, and so forth. I didn't want that, and that was one of the reasons I chose the Uruk-Hai and later Burzum name. At the time - before the release of "The Lord Of The Rings" films by Peter Jackson, I may add - its meaning was pretty much solis sacerdotibus. Only initiates, so to speak, knew what it meant. Only people who had a special interest in Tolkien's world would know, and that was kind of cool - or so I thought. It enabled the listeners to feel special and to feel that Burzum was made especially for them (and it was).
The idea with Burzum was not only to make original and personal music, but also to create something new - a "darkness" in a far too "light", safe and boring world. Unlike 99% of all musicians I didn't play music to become famous, earn money and get laid. I had no interest in neither fame nor money, and I had a very naïve and romantic view on women, an almost medieval (or rather fantsy world) view on women, so I had nothing but contempt for the brain-dead "sex, drugs and rock'n'roll" attitude of the other metal people. Instead my motivation was a wish to experiment with magic, and try to create an alternative reality by the use of "magic". If the spiritual power of many people could be "collected" in one vessel, or transferred through one magic item or entity (in Norse we call it fylgja ["follower", "guardian spirit"]), it could be used to create something real. This is purely magical thinking, and instead of being based on occultism it was based on fantasy magic - something that is kind of amusing to think about. Burzum was supposed to be the vessel, the magic weapon (or if You like; the magic ring), so to speak. I should stress (in case You think I had list my mind completely) that this was an experimental project that only took up some of my time, and I did other things in my life too (like prepare for partisan warfare in case of a US invasion of Norway... ).
If people knew that Burzum was just the band of some teenager that would sort of ruin the magic, I figured, and for that reason I felt that I needed to be anonymous. So I used a pseudonym, Count Grishnackh, and used a photo of me that didn't look like me at all, on the debut album, to make Burzum itself seem more out-of-this world, and to confuse people. I may add that the interview that created all the headlines in January 1993 was also done anonymously, and I never agreed to let any newspapers use my name or photos of me until later, when it was too late to stay anonymous anyhow. It was not my intention to become well-known (or "infamous"...) at all, and when they even used my real name at the time, Kristian (from Greek "Kristos", meaning "Christ") Vikernes, instead of the pseudonym, I was horrified - and this was the thing that actually tipped the scale and made me finally go and change my name legally. No way was I going to let the magic of Burzum be "ruined" by something like that...
When they ruined my anonymity I had to give up that idea, and I eventually stopped using a pseudonym. I wanted Burzum to be well-known, not me, but that obviously didn't work out the way I had planned.
As people involved with magic already know, magic is all about imagination, symbolism, visualization and willpower. If You imagine a thing happening in Your head, You will make it happen - that is if Your willpower is strong enough, or if You possess enough "spiritual power". If an object symbolizes a certain power, it becomes that power. That is why our forefathers carved runes into rocks and pieces of wood, because the runes symbolized certain powers. That is why winter and summer solstice and the equinoxes are so important, because they symbolize special events, that are described in our mythology. That is why we originally began to wear jewellery, because the different metals or stones symbolized different powers in the universe.
Burzum was supposed to be such a symbol. Burzum was an attempt to create (or "recreate" if You like) an imaginary past, a world of fantasy - that in turn was based on our Pagan past. Burzum in itself was a spell. The songs were spells and the albums were arranged in a special way, to make the spells work. Burzum was not intended for live-shows, but instead it was supposed to be listened to in the evening, when the sunbeams couldn't vaporize the power of the magic, and when the listener was alone - preferably in his or her bed, going to sleep. The two first albums are made for the LP format, meaning each side as a spell, so they don't work on CD unless you program the CD-player to only play the tracks of one side of the LP at the time. The later albums were created for CD, so they don't work as well on LP. The first track was supposed to calm down or rather "prepare" the listener, and make him or her more "susceptible" to the magic, the next song or songs were supposed to exhaust the listener and put him or her in a trancelike state of mind, and last track should "calm down" the listener and carry him or her into the "world of fantasy" - when he or she fell asleep. That was the spell, the magic that would make the imaginary past, the world of fantasy, real (in the mind of the listener). If You take a look at the Burzum albums and how they are built up You will see what I mean. The last track of the "spell" (LP side or CD) is always a calm (often synthesizer) track. Whether this works or not is of course another question, but that was the idea anyhow.
The artwork of the two first records are inspired by an AD(1st edition) module called "The Temple Of Elemental Evil", and the artwork on the third and fourth album is inspired by traditional Scandinavian fairy tales. I never read any books about the occult Satanism, so those who believe I was influenced by Satanism are simply and obviously wrong. I did call myself a Satanist in a short period in 1992, but I never was a Satanist. I just used the term to provoke and to underline my hostility towards Christianity - and to stress the need for "darkness" in the world (as too much "light" doesn't illuminate our paths and warm us, it only blinds and burns us - as stated clearly on the "Hvis Lyset Tar Oss" and the "Filosofem" albums [If You wish to know more about that philosophy, I suggest You read my articles or books about Paganism]).
What inspired me to make the music itself is kind of weird too. When I was a teenager my RPG friends and I sometimes took some wooden clubs, spears and swords and went into the countryside to fight each other. We had no other purpose than to fight because it was fun, and we didn't try to hurt each other. We never tried to hit the head of our opponents or other "vulnerable" areas (where men's brain is located...), and we didn't use much force. We -
whoa. not reading all this, what if this makes me crazier?
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- http:// www. burzum .org/
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It's very interesting if you read it.
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