{"id":973,"date":"2010-04-27T23:20:23","date_gmt":"2010-04-27T17:50:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wokay.in\/?p=973"},"modified":"2010-04-27T23:20:23","modified_gmt":"2010-04-27T17:50:23","slug":"thats-so-black-feathered-wound-bird","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aadisht.net\/blog\/2010\/04\/27\/thats-so-black-feathered-wound-bird\/","title":{"rendered":"That’s So Black Feathered Wound-Bird!"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Saga of Cormac the Skald<\/a>, which I mentioned in my post on Icelandic awesomeness<\/a> is notable for the badassery of its subjects, the beauty of its language, and many, many songs about ravens. Sample these:<\/p>\n

The friend that I trusted has failed me
\nIn the fight, and my hope is departed:
\nI speak what I know of; and note it,
\nYe nobles, – I tell ye no leasing.
\nLo, the raven is ready for carnage,
\nBut rare are the friends who should succour.
\nYet still let them scorn me and threaten,
\nI shrink not, I am not dismayed.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

and<\/p>\n

Of the reapers in harvest of Hilda
\n– Thou hast heard of it – four men and eight men
\nWith the edges of Skrymir to aid me
\nI have urged to their flight from the battle.
\nNow the singer, the steward of Odin,
\nHath smitten at last even Bersi
\nWith the flame of the weapon that feedeth
\nThe flocks of the carrion crows<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

and<\/p>\n

I have smitten Toothgnasher and slain him,
\nAnd I smile at the pride of his boasting.
\nOne more to my thirty I muster,
\nAnd, men! say ye this of the battle:
\nIn the world not a lustier liveth
\nAmong lords of the steed of the oar-bench;
\nThough by eld of my strength am I stinted
\nTo stain the black wound-bird with blood.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The love songs are not spared:<\/p>\n

I tell you, the goddess who glitters
\nWith gold on the perch of the falcon,
\nThe bride that I trusted, by beauty,
\nFrom the bield of my hand has been taken.
\nOn the boat she makes glad in its gliding
\nShe is gone from me, reft from me, ravished!
\nO shame, that we linger to save her,
\nToo sweet for the prey of the raven!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Nothing improves a love song like the presence of Corvidae.<\/p>\n

Anyway, the presence of the ravens is only one instance of how hardcore the songs of the Icelandic sagas are. This led me to ask the obvious question – are there any Scandinavian metal bands which incorporate songs from the sagas into their lyrics. The natural person to ask was Rahul Raguram.<\/p>\n

Rahul, being a cute guy, pointed me in the direction of Oakenshield and Amon Amarth. Oakenshield has in fact incorporated text from the Poetic Edda<\/a> into their lyrics. At least, they claim to have done so. In their The Death of Baldr<\/em>, I was hard pressed to make any lyrics out. Their name definitely takes its name from the Poetic Edda, specifically the V\u00f6lusp\u00e1. And here’s a cool bit of triva – Tolkien took the name for the Dwarf Thorin Oakenshield (the one who was King Under the Mountain) from the same source. Anyhow, here’s The Death of Baldr<\/em>:<\/p>\n

<\/object><\/p>\n

Googling also turned up this delightful webpage about Norse\/ Asatru\/ Heathen inspired music<\/a>. There is chanting, folk, and of course metal. Such joy.<\/p>\n

But can there be true joy without ravens? No. And therefore, here’s Oakenshield again, with Twa Corbies<\/em>:<\/p>\n

<\/object><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Saga of Cormac the Skald, which I mentioned in my post on Icelandic awesomeness is notable for the badassery of its subjects, the beauty of its language, and many, many songs about ravens. Sample these: The friend that I trusted has failed me In the fight, and my hope is departed: I speak what […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,7],"tags":[176,221,222,401,558,566,582,768,1008,1021,1194,1317,1481,1558,1574,1684,1792,1823,1912,2229,2377],"class_list":["post-973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arbit-fundaes","category-books-movies-and-music","tag-asatru","tag-baldr","tag-baldur","tag-carrion","tag-cormac-the-skald","tag-corvidae","tag-crows","tag-eyeballs","tag-hugin","tag-iceland","tag-king-under-the-mountain","tag-low-king","tag-munin","tag-norse","tag-oakenshield","tag-poetic-edda","tag-ragnarok","tag-ravens","tag-saga","tag-the-hobbit","tag-viking-metal"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7AOU2-fH","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aadisht.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aadisht.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aadisht.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aadisht.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aadisht.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=973"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.aadisht.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/973\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aadisht.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aadisht.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aadisht.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}