further Viking moods
me: the modern "vikingcore" movement is an embarrassing ahistorical invention that has no resemblance to real Scandinavian cultures, catering to neo nazi groups and cringey men insecure in their masculinity
my therapist: sure
me: but I can't help but be moved by a song which brings to mind a noble warrior grimly performing one final dance of death, ready to meet his end and be sent to the great halls of his fathers
my therapist: who can
Fun fact: my undergraduate degree is in Scandinavian studies. Yes, it is a worthless degree to have. They got rid of it the year I graduated! Other fun fact: I have $40,000 in student loan debt. I was an aimless depressed nerd who didnāt want to do anything in life, so I took a set of courses called āWorld of Vikingsā on a whim and just. Stuck with it, because why not. Therapy tells us to accept our past, we make the best decisions we can as the people we are in that moment, etc. And that's true. But also, yeah, if I could go back and talk to 18 year old me I'd be pretty fucking firm to drop out of school OR get an accounting degree and take some literature electives, but don't waste your money on this. Oh well. Here we are.
So anyway, for 4 years I was very immersed in viking history, myth, and modern pop culture viking stuff. All my classes were scandinavian stuff, all my friends were fellow unfortunate scandinavian studies students, I lived in the scandinavian studies dorm for a couple years even, and studied in Sweden. I got very into all of it of course, but also became increasingly aware of the right wing groups who are ALSO very into it. This seemed to only get more relevant after 2016 and the current global push towards fascism we still live in.
Lots of new viking media images coalesced in these past ~10 years. The sort of droning ambient low chanting of Danheim (fully ahistoric, fully cribbing from Mongolian music of all things), the super tatted up berserker with his braids and cool side-shave haircut (also ahistoric, just sort of viking metal guy aesthetic). Guys who resonate with this movement who are really into the image of being shirtless and going crazymode and murdering some people, y'know. It's all just kind of embarrassing to see now. In the end I just thought fuck it, let them have it. I didn't want to be associated anymore and didn't have any heroic aspirations of reclaiming it. My academic interests moved on besides, so it was easy enough to just kind of, let that whole phase of my life pass. Every now and then though, I can be reminded of some Viking vibes though. It can be fun. Enjoying AC Valhalla even as I stumble through not really remembering the plot 4(?) years later.