Varg Vikernes was born Kristian Vikernes on February 11, 1973, outside of Bergen, Norway. known by the nom de plume Count Grishnakh during the early days of
black metal in Norway, Vikernes was the man behind the one-man
music project Burzum, and lately has become a prominent voice for Neo-Nazism. He is currently incarcerated for the 1993 murder of his former friend and member of the black metal-band Mayhem Øystein Aarseth (AKA Euronymous), serving a sentence of 21 years, the maximum possible in Norway. Euronymous published the first Burzum records, though the circumstances surrounding the reason for the murder are not entirely clear. Aarseth no longer had control of Vikernes' material, but Vikernes claims Aarseth had threatened to
kill him and that his act was infact 'premeditated self-defense', which according to his own "Nordic" code of ethics was a perfectly viable reason. According to those who knew both, these claims are probably fictitious.
Vikernes is a proponent of the Ásatrú
religion and believes it is a
religion for all Germanic peoples. He helped create the Odalist movement & co-founded the 'All-Germanic Heathen Front' (although he is neither a member nor a leader). He is the author of several
short works on his personal weltanschauung, namely 'Vargsmål' (lit. 'the speech of Varg'), 'Irminsûl' & 'Germansk Mytologi
og Verdensanskuelse'. Vikernes interprets the old lore in a fascistic way and belongs to the leading heads of modern esoteric
fascism.
He terminated his musical project that he continued from prison in 2000 due to the 'negative notoriety' which he believed he continually received from it as
well as believing he was constantly misunderstood and misinterpreted by an 'ignorant' "fan" base that saw contradictions in either his outlook or how things he has said correlated to his outlook which he assures were never contradictive but simply novel & pervasive.
Vikernes has written lyrics for several songs by the band Darkthrone ("quintessence," "as fittermice as
satan's spys" etc) that make use of characteristics from old Germanic folklore. In these, "
satan" is brought up in the context of an 'eye' which is a source of light (i.e. the
Sun) with mentions of a 'spear,' a 'hall of battle.' All of which are masked references to the Germanic god Odin as he has been identified by the Christian Church. This was done with the double meaning that Vikernes does indeed consider Odin the "Adversary" of Judeo-
Christianity as they could understand it. This has been mostly mistaken as 'proving' that Vikernes was at one time a "Satanist" and therefore someone who cannot adhere to one line of thinking, but infact the case is that he is an artist as
well as an ideologue. Vikernes has stated many times that he is entirely opposed to Satanism as he considers it a reactionary form of
Christianity.
