spinelanguage

Valer Church arson (via Roadrunner Records)

On May 22nd, convicted murderer/arsonist and Burzum mastermind Varg Vikernes was released from prison.   A week later, someone apparently set a 204-year-old church on fire.

Coincidence?

I don’t know.  I highly doubt Varg would be so stupid as to commit a crime similar to one he was convicted for; while he was behind bars, he couldn’t stop talking about how much he wanted to leave that part of his life behind.  Until we get more information, there’s no way to tell he was involved in any way.

But it is strange that these attacks are gearing up again around Varg’s release from prison.  Just before he got out someone vandalized a church, and now after he’s free one’s been set on fire.  Is someone paying homage to him?  Or could these attacks be fueled by something else entirely?

Well, let’s get some things straight.  Whenever churches get attacked, the first instinct people have is to blame Satanism.  In a world where everything is black and white, people who believe in the antithesis of Christianity would definitely be the guilty party – but that wasn’t the case in the early 90’s.  The public now believes Germanic Pagans were responsible for those arsons.  Varg never claimed to be a Satanist in practice, but referenced Pagan history and his personal heritage from time to time in interviews.

Why does that matter?  Well, look at this picture:

Nordstrand Church vandalism

Obviously I can’t translate, but you don’t really need to.  “666″?  Yeah, really original.  And look at the handwriting, it looks like it was done by a 13-year-old.  “Satan lives” was also written somewhere.  I have no idea whether or not those who vandalized this church also burned down Valer, but what this looks like to me is a bunch of kids who really didn’t understand the church attacks from the early 90’s are trying to revive it.  Can you imagine writing “666″ on anything after you turn 18 (mentally) without feeling like a moron?  I doubt it.

On a side note, Nordstrand also had some of their gravestones overturned:

Nordstrand Church vandalism (via Dagbladet.no)

If the Valer arson is unrelated, which it very well may be, I think we can say with some certainty that Nordstrand was hit by people, young or old, who couldn’t go through with the whole kit-and-kaboodle.  But the problem is that what happened at Nordstrand is being linked, at least off-hand, to the incident at Valer.  As recently reported by NRK in Norway, these attacks have been billed by a Satanism expert as a possible beginning to another church arson crisis in the country.

Knowing that Pagan influence was largely responsible for the original crisis, why would a Satanism expert be speaking about this?  Well, probably because of the “666″ and “Satan lives” graffiti at Nordstrand, but that’s assuming the same people also burned Valer.  I think the police have a lot of research to do before they push forward with their investigation.  Satanists may very well be responsible, but there’s no way to tell right now.  Ask a Pagan expert too!

From my perspective, church burning is so 1992.  It’s destructive, and gives people a reason to hate black metal for more than just the nature of the music.  I’m interested to see who is actually behind these attacks – and how many people will label Varg as the boogeyman again.  Evil as he may be, he’s a largely misunderstood individual.