Monday 31 March 2014

Alternative Lyrics to Well Known Songs 21 - Hodur

The Song: Hodur (based on 'Sandman' by Metallica)
Hodur is the Norse God of war.  He is known the blind god, because he is a God who lives in the midst of action, in his case, in the midst of battle.  This means that he has an over-abundance of single-mindedness, and almost no self-awareness.  His abundance of single-mindedness means that he can excel at the thing that he does (in his case fighting), but has no self-awareness thus has no ability to change what he can excel at, or even change what he does.  He is so dedicated to doing one thing that he is blind to everything else.  This includes other Gods.

Hodur's blindness to other God's is one of the main contributing factors to the Norse end-times scenario called Ragnarok ('the Twilight of the Gods').  Hodur ends up being exploited by Loki (aka the Trickster) into killing his brother and a God whom everyone loves - Baldur.  One day Loki redirects Hodurs war-bow to point at Hodur, and replaces the arrow (which is harmless to Baldur) with mistletoe (which is lethal to Baldur), and gets Hodur to fire the mistletoe at Baldur, killing him.  This act, plus others, which are also instigated by Loki, lead to the end of the Cosmos as we know it.

But there is a happy ending to this tale.  Following Ragnarok and the destruction of the Cosmos, some of the Gods remain, along with a pair of humans who have taken refuge somewhere, the Gods rebuild the Cosmos and establish their own order, and two of the Gods whom rule in this new Cosmos are Hodur and Baldur.  Thus despite the fact that one brother killed the other, they make peace and end up living in harmony.

The story of the blind God Hodur killing Baldur is one that has an analog in real life.  The analog being that young soldiers (who are predominantly young men who are blind to the ways of the world) are often exploited by other people (politicians, officers etc) whose intentions are quite often malevolent.

Finally, some of the lyrics in the song itself describe a few actions that some Odinists use when they wish to induce a Berserker state of mind: biting the shield, hitting themselves etc.  These actions are designed to bring on a physical and violent reaction in the mind of the Berserker, and cause him to become more single-minded & focused, like Hodur.


Play the music video above and sing along, in your head or out loud, with the alternative lyrics given below.
 
 
# Hodur #
I am fight.
I am rage.
I invite everyone,
to join me Hodur.
To feel the burn,
feel the speed,
feel the action,
feel the engrossing.
Fight with skin as armour,
killing is all I know.
 
Exit light.
Enter fright.
Hear me roar.
I am Hodur God of War.
 
Beat me up.
Beat me up.
Get my blood right up.
'till I'm pumped as fuck.
Bite my shield,
strike my chest,
and then turn to my left,
and scream at the Rekkr!
Yeah!
Fight with skin as armour,
killing is all I know.
 
Exit light.
Enter fright.
Hear me roar.
I am Hodur God of War.
 
Yeah-heh.
 
Now I whirl around in a fit,
(Now I whirl around in a fit,)
of bleeding madness and have the need,
(of bleeding madness and have the need,)
to taste the blood of enemies,
(to taste the blood of enemies,)
and hear them shriek in terror.
(and hear them shriek in terror.)
 
Hear me speak: I am war God,
and I completely scare the fuck,
out of verminous enemy,
and the filthy race traitors.
 
Exit light.
Enter fright.
Hear me roar.
 
Exit light.
Enter fright.
Hear me roar.
I am Hodur God of War.
 
Yeah.
 
War.
Yeah yeah!
 
Yo-oh.
 
I am Hodur God of War.
(Fate is in my hands).
 
I am Hodur God of War.
(Fate is in my hands).
 
I am Hodur God of War.
(Fate is in my hands).
 
I am Hodur God of War.
(Fate is in my hands).


[End of lyrics.]
 

Sunday 30 March 2014

Havamal Snippets 134: Old men are often experienced in the ways of the world

The polytheistic, pre-Christian people of Europe (and the rest of the world to be sure), held the elders of their tribes in high regard.  They listened to them.  They showed them respect.  They considered them as human beings rather than as 'old people'.

Showing respect to elderly people isn't something that should be done because it's 'the right thing to do'.  People should show respect to their elders because it's good: It's good for the younger generation (they benefit by gaining knowledge & learned experience) AND it's good for the elder (they benefit by passing on their knowledge & experience).  Everything that is good is good for your and good for others, is good now and is good later, is good in itself and begets goodness.  The previous generation (the Baby Boomers) cast aside this concept of goodness, and embraced the opposite of this: 'instant gratification' (as evidenced by the free love, drug taking, and love of music halls).  A number later embraced the other, equally bad, alternative to goodness - 'Deferred Gratification'.  It is equally as bad because it promises a golden future at the expense of a miserable present.

Present and future generations need to re-learn the older culture which benefited all people in society (you and other people), all times that a person lived (the present and the future), if they are to grow and advance.  One way of re-learning these older traditions is to start showing respect to older people, to see them as human being with life-experience that we all can benefit from.


134
Ráðumk þér Loddfáfnir
en þú ráð nemir
njóta mundu ef þú nemr
þér munu góð ef þú getr
at hárum þul
hlæðu aldregi
opt er gott þat er gamlir kveða
opt ór skörpum belg
skilin orð koma
þeim er hangir með hám
ok skollir með skrám
ok váfir með vílmögum    
 
I advise you, Loddfafnir,
to take advice;
you would benefit, it you took it,
good will come to you, if you accept it:
[6] never laugh
[5] at a gray-haired sage
often what an old man says is good,
often [9] clear words come
[8] out of shrivelled skin,
from the one who hangs among the hides
and dangles among the dried skins
and moves among the entrails.


[End.]

Friday 28 March 2014

Men of Yore: Frank Whittle

This is another in a series of posts about men from history who have either achieved great things in one form or another by pushing boundaries: either in themselves or in society or science or exploration of some form. Boundary pushing and growth is what men do, it's their nature: to grow and push outwards. We, as men, are the frontiers men, the first to discover/uncover new territory, in a metaphysical sense (i.e. including both material and the immaterial) that is later colonised and 'civilised' by the rest of humanity. 

Frank Whittle

Air Commodore Sir Frank Whittle, OM, KBE, CB, FRS,[1] Hon FRAeS (1 June 1907 – 9 August 1996) was a British Royal Air Force (RAF) engineer air officer. He is credited with single handedly inventing the turbojet engine. Whittle's engines were developed some years earlier than those of Germany's Dr. Hans von Ohain who was the designer of the first operational jet engine.[2]

From an early age Whittle demonstrated an aptitude for engineering and an interest in flying. At first he was turned down by the RAF but determined to join the Royal Air Force, he overcame his physical limitations and was accepted and sent to No. 2 School of Technical Training to join No 1 Squadron of Cranwell Aircraft Apprentices. He was taught the theory of aircraft engines and gained practical experience in the engineering workshops. His academic and practical abilities as an Aircraft Apprentice earned him a place on the officer training course at Cranwell. He excelled in his studies and became an accomplished pilot. While writing his thesis there he formulated the fundamental concepts that led to the creation of the turbojet engine, taking out a patent on his design in 1930. His performance on an officers' engineering course earned him a place on a further course at the University of Cambridge where he graduated with a First.[3]

Without Air Ministry support, he and two retired RAF servicemen formed Power Jets Ltd to build his engine with assistance from the firm of British Thomson-Houston. Despite limited funding, a prototype was created, which first ran in 1937. Official interest was forthcoming following this success, with contracts being placed to develop further engines, but the continuing stress seriously affected Whittle's health, eventually resulting in a nervous breakdown in 1940. In 1944 when Power Jets was nationalised he again suffered a nervous breakdown, and resigned from the board in 1946.[4]
 
In 1948 Whittle retired from the RAF and received a knighthood. He joined BOAC as a technical advisor before working as an engineering specialist in one of Shell Oil's subsidiaries followed by a position with Bristol Aero Engines. After emigrating to the U.S. in 1976 he accepted the position of NAVAIR Research Professor at the United States Naval Academy from 1977–1979. In August 1996, Whittle died of lung cancer at his home in Columbia, Maryland.[5] In 2002, Whittle was ranked number 42 in the BBC poll of the 100 Greatest Britons.[6]
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Whittle

It's always interesting to read about the psychology/character of men who have achieved great things.  Whittle seemed to be a proverbial free spirit and disliked the constraints on his style of learning; he prefered the freedom of a model aircraft society to the constraints of formal education:
Whittle hated the strict discipline imposed on apprentices and, convinced there was no hope of ever becoming a pilot he at one time seriously considered deserting.[8] However, throughout his early days as an aircraft apprentice (and at the Royal Air Force College Cranwell), he maintained his interest in model aircraft and joined the Model Aircraft Society, where he built working replicas. The quality of these attracted the eye of the Apprentice Wing commanding officer, who noted that Whittle was also a mathematical genius. He was so impressed that in 1926 he recommended Whittle for officer training at RAF College Cranwell.[3]
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Whittle#Entering_the_RAF
A final point about Whittle is that his revolutionary design was dismissed by the powers that be as nothing important.  This seems to be a common occurance throughout history, whereby individual men working off their own backs make breakthroughs which are dismissed by the so-called Elites of the day.  If nothing else, reading about this makes one more inclined to disregard the opinions of todays elites/priests (be they secular priests like scientists, or spritual ones) who proudly proclaim that they know the truth, and that you should all worship them because of it, only to have their claims swiftly disproven (just like Lord Kelvin who proclaimed that "heavier than air flight is impossible").


[End.]

Wednesday 26 March 2014

Havamal Snippets 133: Know a goodness in yourself, and recognise that goodness in others

This stanza doesn't make any sense to me (the last three lines are unrelated to the first three, making the verse a non-sequitur), so I'll defer to the interpretation of someone who studies the Havamal and Nordic life in general.  His website can be found HERE.  These are his thoughts on stanza 133:
Once again, the extreme banality of this stanza leads the reader to wonder what information Ódhinn wanted to put in it.

It does not seem reasonably possible to choose the meaningwonder’ for kyn but, to keep this meaning asbackground music’ for a proper understanding of this stanza.

Now, here is a group of people already settled in the home and they do not know well if the newcomers are of the family. This remark either is ironic, or touches to dumbness since, as everyone knows, the principal concern of a group already in place is to judge the nature of the newcomers. Moreover, the last three lines not only do not shine by their originality but moreover they seem disconnected from the three first.

The solution with these dilemmas are in the choice of the meaning ‘soul-mates’ rather than simplyfamily’. None is able to recognize his/her soul-mate at first sight and even less the one of other people. In it lies a kind of magic which I already evoked by studying [stanza] 124 in an allusion to Montaigne and La Béotie’s famous friendship. This kind of relation is established without knowing too precisely why. This is why “these who are already in the home,” i.e. the former friends, are not able to spot in a newcomer if he/she will become a soul-mate.

The second half of the stanza explains why, in any case, to accept a soul-mate, as beautiful his/her soul might be, it is necessary to show generosity, i.e. to seek in the others what is better than you own self. All things considered, this second half says that each one contains parts of the best and parts of the worse and it implicitly advises you to recognize your own worse and the other’s best in order to build a faithful relation.

The magic of life is so strong in this stanza that it is enough for me to recall that the relations between friend magicians follow the same paths as for everyone’s.
Source: htp://www.nordic-life.org/nmh/NewHavamalEng111-137.htm
 

133
Opt vitu ógörla
þeir er sitja inni fyrir
hvers þeir ro kyns er koma
erat maðr svá góðr
at galli ne fylgi
né svá illr at einugi dugi     
 
Often they don't precisely know,
those who sit first in a house,
whose kinsmen they are who come (later):
no man is so good
that no fault follows him,
nor so bad that he is of no use.


[End.]

Friday 21 March 2014

Men of Yore: Alexander the Second of Russia (The Liberator)

This is another in a series of posts about men from history who have either achieved great things in one form or another by pushing boundaries: either in themselves or in society or science or exploration of some form. Boundary pushing and growth is what men do, it's their nature: to grow and push outwards. We, as men, are the frontiers men, the first to discover/uncover new territory, in a metaphysical sense (i.e. including both material and the immaterial) that is later colonised and 'civilised' by the rest of humanity.


Alexander II, the Liberator, portrait (image from portrets.ru)
Alexander II, the Liberator,
portrait (image from portrets.ru)


Childhood and Education
Alexander, the eldest son of Tsar Nicholas I , was born in Moscow on April 29, 1818. From the early age the boy was reared for the throne. Tutored by a poet and literary critic Vasily Zhukovsky, the young heir apparent received a broad and thorough education, from arts and languages to sciences and rigorous military training. To complete his schooling at the age of 19 he embarked on an extensive tour of Russia and Europe. During his European travels Alexander met his future wife, Princess Marie of Hesse. The couple married in 1841 and had 8 children.


Beginning of Rule
Alexander became Tsar on the death of Nicholas I in 1855, aged 36, already a mature and experienced statesman. From his father, Alexander inherited a bloody Crimean War with a coalition of the Turkey-led Ottoman Empire, Britain and France. Russia’s serf-based economy couldn’t support the cost of warfare, the loss of life was tremendous and a year on the Tsar began peace talks. The Treaty of Paris ended the bloodshed but Russia lost its dominance in the Balkans and its warships were banned from the Black Sea.

A painful feeling of failure was widespread. Alexander felt the time was ripe for reforms. Censorship was relaxed, new education programmes drafted, independent press flourished. But the Tsar realised he had to go far beyond that. The war proved Russia was no longer a great military power and couldn’t compete with industrialised European nations.


Abolishing Serfdom and Reforms
Alexander now began to think of bringing an end to serfdom – an immense task advocated by many liberal intellectuals but fiercely opposed by landowners. But he pushed ahead with the reform and in 1861 Russia became one of the last countries in Europe to shake off serfdom.

The emancipation law itself was an enormously long document of nearly 400 pages. Trying to balance the interests of both the proprietors and the peasants, it stated that Russia’s 22 million serfs were now free but didn’t make them land owners. Instead, they had to buy or rent the land from their former masters. In the end, few were pleased. For the nobles, the step was unwelcome, for the peasants the long-awaited freedom brought disappointment. The land was often priced higher than its real value and millions found themselves in hopeless poverty and debt.

Still, the change spurred other innovations – education and judicial reforms followed, an elaborate scheme of local self-government in large towns and rural districts was set up. The economy was boosted, railway construction boomed, trade soared, banks and factories sprang up across the country.

But together with political openness the Empire saw the rise of the nationalistic movements. In 1863 the so-called January Uprising flared up in Poland. It was suppressed after eighteen months of fighting, thousands of Poles were executed or deported to Siberia, many estates were confiscated and a much tighter Russian control over Poland was imposed.


Foreign Policy
Meanwhile, on the international arena Russia’s weight was at an all-time low. Remembering the embarrassment of the Crimean War, Alexander dreamt of restoring his country’s status and influence. Military spending sky-rocketed but the army was restructured and rearmed to fit European standards. And the Tsar soon got the chance to test his brand new military might against the power that dealt him a humiliating defeat two decades earlier.

It was Bulgaria, at the time a part of the Ottoman Empire that propelled Russia to war. In 1876 a Bulgarian revolt against the Turks was brutally crushed causing a public outcry in Russia. Alexander was reluctant to fight but saw himself as champion of the oppressed Orthodox Christians and declared the war the next year. It took him another year to win – 200,000 Russian soldiers were killed, but after 500 years of Turkish rule Bulgaria was back on the map. The country still remembers Alexander II as the Liberator Tsar and one of its founding fathers.

But after a military triumph Russia faced a devastating diplomatic defeat. The Tsar initially dictated the terms of the peace settlement. The Ottoman Empire conceded the creation of a large Bulgarian state. But many European powers, most of all England and Austria-Hungary, anxious about Russia’s increasing influence gathered in Berlin calling for another treaty. Not able to afford another war, Alexander could only watch as much of his efforts were erased. He later called it one of the darkest pages of Russian diplomacy.


Personal Life
The war took its toll on Alexander. His interest in politics weakened, he felt exhausted and sought refuge in his private life. By that time he had embarked on the greatest and last love-affair of his life – a passionate romance with Princess Catherine Dolgorukova. Their 14-year-long relationship began in the summer of 1866. The love between a 47-year-old Emperor and an 18-year-old schoolgirl was condemned by the court and the royal family but it didn’t stop Alexander. His wife’s health was failing and in 1880, less than a month after her death, Alexander married his long-time mistress. By that time Catherine had bore him four children. But their morganatic union proved short-lived.


Untimely Assassination
Alexander’s reforms were drawing more and more criticism. For some his extraordinary efforts to change his country were too much while others believed he didn’t go far enough. Alexander became a victim of numerous murder plots – one dramatic assassination attempt followed another.

In February 1880 Alexander announced that he was considering granting the Russian people a constitution. But the plan never went ahead. On March 13, 1881 the Tsar’s carriage was bombed in the streets of St. Petersburg by members of a revolutionary organisation People’s Will. He emerged shaken but unhurt and wanted to see the site of the explosion and check on the wounded Cossacks that accompanied him. As he made his way over, another terrorist threw his bomb. Fatally wounded, Alexander died an hour later.

A reformer, a warrior, a diplomat and a man of tragic fate, Alexander II has gone down into history as the Liberator Tsar.

Source: http://russiapedia.rt.com/prominent-russians/the-romanov-dynasty/alexander-ii-liberator/
 
Hereditary monarchy like all forms of governance has its pros and cons that too a large extent depend on the character of the monarch (or Tsar in the case of Russia) in charge.  Sometimes the monarch will have a more positive moral character, who prefers free & educated subjects rather than servile & stupid ones.  Other times the monarch might have a more negative moral character, who prefers to keep their subjects servile and scared.  Alexander was one of the former, who preferred a free and educated population to a slave based one.  So much so that he spearheaded many reforms for the people, including the growth of universities.  Surprisingly the russiapedia article doesn't mention all of these reforms, but the wikipedia one does:
The tsar was responsible for numerous other reforms including reorganizing the judicial system, setting up elected local judges, abolishing capital punishment, promoting local self-government through the zemstvo system, imposing universal military service, ending some of the privileges of the nobility, and promoting the universities. 
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_II_of_Russia
Until that moment that all men decide that they would rather rule themselves than be ruled we will have to have rulers, be they hereditary monarchs like Alexander the II or elected ones, so let us give our support to the moral ones when they have their time on the throne.


[End.]

Wednesday 19 March 2014

Havamal Snippets 132: Be hospitable to guests

Like many pagan/polytheist cultures around the world, the Viking culture stresses the importance of being hospitable to guests.  It's a point that is made in stanzas 103, 132, and 135.  Be hospitable to guests, treat them well.  It's part of being human, that hosts should be genial to guests, and guest should reciprocate.  The Christian tradition of marching into someone else's homeland and telling them that their way of life is wrong is a recent addition to world culture, and as such an anomaly.  Christians calling this 'spreading the word' and 'preaching the gospel', but as Mike points out, this is a total misnomer:
[Missionaries] have walked into other peoples lands telling them their whole belief system is wrong, their gods are wrong, and their way of life is wrong. They’ve gone into other peoples lands and disrupted the political and social systems time and time again for centuries. Many of the worlds political and social problems can be traced to the Christian conversion and the disruption it caused. In some sense, they set the whole world into an unrest. 
I saw a man say something that has always stood out in my mind since then. This took place in the late 80′s sometime. I was studying anthropology at the time. I saw this documentary about this Christian religious group that went out into the world to try to ‘teach the world the truth’. They went to this small tribe. I think it was in the orient somewhere. These missionaries saw how people would offer prayers to their gods and one of them said something like: ”We need to change that. We need to teach them that Christ will answer their prayers, not these idols”. Their guide, who was part of the tribe, turned to them and said: “What for? Why do they need to be changed? What’s wrong with their gods? They’ve been worshipping them for centuries”. I will never forget that. Later, they’d look at other tribes and find nothing but fault with their religion.
Source: http://mikespassingthoughts.wordpress.com/2010/12/30/thoughts-on-christian-missionaries-a-personal-gripe
The idea that Christians are civil genial and decent folk is a lie that Christians believe in, and convince other people to believe.  Being civil and hospitable to all people, friends and guests, is something that polytheists, pantheists and other belief systems, practise and have practised for countless millenia.


132
Ráðumk þér Loddfáfnir
en þú ráð nemir
njóta mundu ef þú nemr
þér munu góð ef þú getr
at háði né hlátri
hafðu aldregi
gest né ganganda
 
I advise you, Loddfafnir,
to take advice;
you would benefit, it you took it,
good will come to you, if you accept it:
never mock or laugh
at a guest or traveller.


[End.]

Sunday 16 March 2014

Havamal Snippets 131: Be warey of: ale, other mens girlfriends, thieves

This stanza is a pretty straightforward list of things that you ought to be wary/cognisant when dealing with: ale, other mens wives/girlfreinds, and thieves (I suppose this could be extended to include con-artists).  The benefit of being wary/cognisant is a common theme throughout the Havamal.  Such as being wary of ones surroundings as in stanzas 1 and 6, or wary of other people as in stanza 7, or not drinking ale because it causes forgetfulness (which is the opposite of wariness).


131
Ráðumk þér Loddfáfnir
en þú ráð nemir
njóta mundu ef þú nemr
þér munu góð ef þú getr
varan bið ek þik vera
en eigi ofvaran
ver þú við öl varastr
ok við annars konu
ok við þat it þriðja
at þjófar ne leiki 
 
I advise you, Loddfafnir,
to take advice;
you would benefit, it you took it,
good will come to you, if you accept it:
wary I bid you be,
but not too wary:
with ale be the most wary
and with another's woman,
and with a third thing,
that thieves do not trick you.


[End.]

Friday 14 March 2014

Men of Yore: John Wilkins

This is another in a series of posts about men from history who have either achieved great things in one form or another by pushing boundaries: either in themselves or in society or science or exploration of some form. Boundary pushing and growth is what men do, it's their nature: to grow and push outwards. We, as men, are the frontiers men, the first to discover/uncover new territory, in a metaphysical sense (i.e. including both material and the immaterial) that is later colonised and 'civilised' by the rest of humanity.

John Wilkins


John Wilkins (1 January 1614 – 19 November 1672) was an English clergyman, natural philosopher and author, as well as a founder of the Invisible College and one of the founders of the Royal Society, and Bishop of Chester from 1668 until his death. 
John Wilkins, bishop of Chester, was born at Fawsley, Northamptonshire, and educated at Magdalen Hall, Oxford. He was ordained and became vicar of Fawsley in 1637, but soon resigned and became chaplain successively to Lord Saye and Sele, Lord Berkeley, and Prince Charles Louis, nephew of Charles I and afterwards elector palatine of the Rhine. 
In 1648 he became warden of Wadham College, Oxford. Under him the college was extraordinarily prosperous, for, although a supporter of Oliver Cromwell, he was in touch with the most cultured royalists, who placed their sons in his charge. In 1659 Richard Cromwell appointed him master of Trinity College, Cambridge. At the Restoration in 1660 he was deprived, but appointed prebendary of York and rector of Cranford, Middlesex. In 1661 he was preacher at Gray's Inn, and in 1662 vicar of St. Lawrence Jewry, London.  
He became vicar of Polebrook, Northamptonshire, in 1666, prebendary of Exeter in 1667, and in the following year prebendary of St Paul's and bishop of Chester. Possessing strong scientific tastes, he was the chief founder of the Royal Society and its first secretary. He died in London on the 19th of November 1672. 
The chief of his numerous works is an Essay towards a Real Character and a Philosophical Language (London, 1668), in which he expounds a new universal language for the use of philosophers, and is the most advanced work on artificial language in its time. He is remembered also for a curious work entitled The Discovery of a World in the Moon (1638, 3rd ed., with an appendix "The possibility of a passage thither", 1640.) Other works are A Discourse concerning a New Planet (1640); Mercury, or the Secret and Swift Messenger (1641), a work of some ingenuity on the means of rapid correspondence and in fact the first book on cryptography printed in English; and Mathematical Magick (1648). 
Source: http://www.browsebiography.com/bio-john_wilkins.html
On His Personality/Character:
As to Wilkins' character, Aarsleff writes in [1]:-
Throughout his life, he gained and retained the friendship and respect of men of the most diverse political and religious persuasions. No doubt such personal qualities as charm, ready conversation, and energy played their part in his success, but a deeper reason would seem to lie in his commitment to beliefs that transcended the exclusive interests of any particular faction. From the first to the last, all his writings advocate scientific and religious views that by the time of his death had proved that they represented the temper of the times. The new science had triumphed ...
Hooke, who had worked closely with Wilkins, wrote the following fine tribute to him in the Preface to Micrographia (1665):-
There is scarce one invention, which this nation has produced in our age, but it has some way or other been set forward by his assistance. ... He is indeed a man born for the good of mankind, and for the honour of his country. in the sweetness of whose behaviour, in the calmness of his mind, in the unbounded goodness of his heart, we have an evident instance, what the true and primitive unpassionate religion was, before it was soured by particular factions.
Source: http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Biographies/Wilkins.html
 
John Wilkins is one of the men throughout the ages that has acted as a positive intermediary between people with different views (be they royalist vs. republican, or religious vs. agnostic).  He encouraged them to communicate with each other and therefore encouraged them to work together, to find common ground that they could both agree on.  This is in total juxtaposition to proverbial shit-stirrers who enjoy provoking enmity between groups of people (be it in the office or on the international scene).  People of different views can live in a degree of harmony so long as they are willing to work together rather than against each other.  To this end he attempted to develop a universal language that all people throughout the world could use for communication.  Related to this universal language is his idea on universal measures, which was later developed in France as the metric system (kilogrammes, litres, metres etc).
 
Another aspect of his character was his focus on practical science, and his efforts to promote experimental science over purely academic science which dominated academia during his day.
 
 
[End.]
 

Wednesday 12 March 2014

Havamal Snippets 130: How to 'take pleasure with a woman'

This stanza is one of the many in Havamal that explains how to, ahem, ‘get your end away’ with a woman.  Notice the emphasis on ‘pleasure’ rather than ‘love’ in this verse.  According to THIS website (which is unfortunately experiencing a network error; a cached version is HERE), this is a common occurrence throughout the Havamal, stressing that carnal love (like someone who engages in a one night stand might experience) is different to platonic love (like someone who get’s married might experience).  There is a good page on the topic of different types of relationships between humans in Viking society, and how they honor them which can be found HERE in a cached version.  (If you ever come across a page that is inaccessible or ‘down’, then enter the website address into Bing or Google and simply view the cached version).
 
 
130
Ráðumk þér Loddfáfnir
en þú ráð nemir
njóta mundu ef þú nemr
þér munu góð ef þú getr
ef þú vilt þér góða konu
kveðja at gamanrúnum
ok fá fögnuð af
fögru skaltu heita
ok láta fast vera
leiðisk manngi gott ef getr       
 
I advise you, Loddfafnir,
to take advice;
you would benefit, it you took it,
good will come to you, if you accept it:
if you want [6] to attract
[5] a good woman to you [6] with pleasant talk
and take pleasure with her,
you must make a fair promise
and stick fast to it
-- no one loathes the good, if he gets it.
 
 
[End.]

Sunday 9 March 2014

Havamal Snippets 129: When in battle, fight, do not think, just fight

This stanza talks about the importance of being Single-Minded in battle.  When in battle, you must shut your mind off to outside influence, you must become like Hod, the blind God of War (who is like the blind Roman goddess Lady Justice in the respect that she delivers justice indiscriminately, impartially).  If not, then you are vulnerable to psychological attacks (referred to in the stanza as 'men casting spells upon you', spells being witchcraft), which will only cause you to doubt yourself.  Single-Minded is what this particular state of mind is.  It's about being focussed on one thing in particular.

Single-Mindedness is like 'being in the zone' when you are running on a race track, or driving a car, or when you are doing something so repetitive that you are totally engrossed in that activity to the point that you forget yourself, you become absent minded.  It's called 'flow' in psychological terms.  It's about doing rather than thinking, and this doing rather than thinking brings with it a degree of certainty, and certainty is essential in battle situations because as soon as you doubt yourself you give the enemy an opportunity to strike.

Self-Awareness is the opposite of Single-Mindedness.  Self-Awareness is being aware of yourself in relation to other things (be they material things or immaterial things).  It means being at calm and being aware of things around you and in you.  It's like being on top of a mountain (mount Noos) surveying all things things going on beneath you (on the Plains of Phusis).  Sat up here you have the ability to choose how you want to act in the future.  You can see the options available to you and then decide how to act.  It's this state of mind that the Havamal advises against while in battle because being Self-Aware means you are thinking about 'what ifs' and other possibilities, which tends towards uncertainty.

This is why Single-Mindedness (being Hod like) is better in a battle situation, because you do not succumb to any neurotic seizure which would strip you of the ability to act/fight.  Your seizure would cause you to be indecisive and not make the 'killer blow' against your enemy, or even be able to defend yourself.  Hence this is why you need to be what the Havamal calls 'blind' (which is not physically blind so that your eyes don't work, but mentally blind so that your brain isn't contemplating the images that it's seeing) in a battle situation, so that you do not 'have a spell' (a psychological attack) cast upon you.

If you want to think about Single-Mindedness and Self-Awareness in a real life situation then you might want to think about a two-man sniper team: a sniper and a spotter.  The Sniper is Single-Minded because he is totally focused on the target that he is shooting,  He has tunnel vision to such an extent that he is oblivious to all other things going on around him.  The Spotter on the other hand IS aware of what is happening all over the horizon.  He has Self-Awareness and decides what target the Sniper should shoot at next.  This means that he must be aware of options and then choose one.  Both men work together and benefit from the partnership.

While the two men in the sniper team may have chosen to be either Single-Minded or Self-Aware, they need not be those roles for their entire life.  Indeed they may, certainly will, make use of both states of mind throughout their lives, to their own betterment.  Sometimes thinking more, sometimes doing more.  Using both states of mind benefits them, and can benefit us also if we choose to do it.


129
Ráðumk þér Loddfáfnir
en þú ráð nemir
njóta mundu ef þú nemr
þér munu góð ef þú getr
upp líta
skalattu í orrostu
gjalti glíkir
verða gumna synir
síðr þitt um heilli halir        
 
I advise you, Loddfafnir,
to take advice;
you would benefit, it you took it,
good will come to you, if you accept it:
[6] you must not [5] look up
in battle
-- [8] the sons of men become
[7] like men terror-crazed --
lest men cast spells upon you. *


[End.]

Saturday 8 March 2014

Men of Yore: Roald Amundsen

This is another in a series of posts about men from history who have either achieved great things in one form or another by pushing boundaries: either in themselves or in society or science or exploration of some form. Boundary pushing and growth is what men do, it's their nature: to grow and push outwards. We, as men, are the frontiers men, the first to discover/uncover new territory, in a metaphysical sense (i.e. including both material and the immaterial) that is later colonised and 'civilised' by the rest of humanity.

Roald Amundsen, ~1904 (aged ~32)

Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen (July 16, 1872--June 18, 1928) was a Norwegian explorer of polar regions. He led the Antarctic expedition in 1911--1912 which first reached the South Pole.

Amundsen was born to a family of Norwegian shipowners and captains. Inspired by Fridtjof Nansen's crossing of Greenland in 1888 he decided on a life of exploration.

First expeditions
He joined the Belgian Antarctic Expedition (1897--1899) as second mate. Led by Adrien de Gerlache, their ship the Belgica became the first to winter in Antarctica. Also on board was an American doctor, Frederick Cook. Cook probably saved the crew from scurvy, an important lesson for Amundsen's future expeditions.

In 1903 Amundsen led the first expedition to traverse the Northwest Passage between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, with 6 others in the ship Gjøa. They traveled via Baffin Bay, Lancaster and Peel Sounds, and James Ross and Rae Straits to spend two winters exploring over land and ice from the place today called Gjoa Haven, Nunavut, Canada. During this time Amundsen studied the local Netsilik people in order to learn Arctic survival skills and soon adopted their dress. From them he learned to use sled dogs. Continuing to the south of Victoria Island, the ship cleared the Arctic Archipelago on August 17, 1905, but had to stop for the winter before going on to Nome on the Alaska Territory's Pacific coast. 500 miles (800 km) away, Eagle City, Alaska, had a telegraph station; Amundsen traveled there (and back) overland to wire a success message (collect) on December 5, 1905. Nome was reached in 1906. Due to water as shallow as 3 feet (1 m), a larger ship could never have used the route.

The South Pole
After the Northwest Passage Amundsen made plans to go to the North Pole. On hearing in 1909 that first Cook and then Robert Peary claimed the Pole, he changed his plans. Using Fridtjof Nansen's ship Fram he set out for Antarctica instead in 1910. His party wintered on the Ross Ice Shelf at a location known as the Bay of Whales. Amundsen named the base "Framheim", literally, "Home of the Fram." It was 60 miles closer to the Pole than McMurdo Sound where the rival British expedition led by Robert Falcon Scott stayed. But Scott had a route, discovered by Ernest Shackleton, up the Beardmore Glacier to the Antarctic Plateau. Amundsen would have to find his own path through the Trans-Antarctic Mountains.

Amundsen began his drive for the pole on October 20, 1911, and along with Olav Bjaaland, Helmer Hanssen, Sverre Hassel, and Oscar Wisting, arrived at the Pole on December 14, 1911, 35 days before Scott. Scott had the misfortune to find Amundsen's tent and his letter upon arrival. Amundsen's extensive experience, preparation, and use of the best sled dogs available paid off in the end. In contrast to the misfortunes of the Scott expedition, the Amundsen expedition proved rather smooth and uneventful.

As neither expedition carried the very bulky wireless telegraphy equipment which would then have been the only way to communicate directly from the Pole, Amundsen's success was not publicly announced until March 7, 1912. Amundsen recounted his journey in the book The South Pole: An Account of the Norwegian Antarctic Expedition in the "Fram", 1910--1912.

Later life
In 1918 Amundsen began an expedition with a new ship Maud to explore the North East Passage. It did not meet its goals and was considered a failure. In 1925 with Lincoln Ellsworth and four others he flew to 87° 44' north in two airplanes. It was the northernmost latitude reached by airplane up to that time. The following year Amundsen, Ellsworth and Italian aeronautical engineer Umberto Nobile made the first crossing of the Arctic in the airship Norge designed by Nobile. They left Spitzbergen May 11, 1926 and landed in Alaska two days later.

Amundsen died in 1928 in an airplane crash in the Arctic Ocean while on a rescue mission for Nobile, whose next airship the Italia had crashed. Amundsen's airplane was never found.

Source: http://www.biographybase.com/biography/Amundsen_Roald.html

From what little I've read of the era, explorers from the 19th century used one of three different approaches to meet their physiological needs (e.g. food, warmth, water) as they travelled into unknown terrain.  Each approach has it's pros and cons (like all things in this heavily, but not totally, dualistic universe), and so each are superior in one regard and inferior in another.  Swings and roundabouts as they say; much like the various polytheistic gods around the world.
  • Men like Roald Amundsen learnt existing bush-craft methods from locals (the Netsilik people).  Which shows that he respects other peoples culture and is humble enough to learn from them; it also shows that he is less willing to try his own methods and learn for himself.
  • Men like John MacDouall Stuart learnt new bush-craft methods by himself.  Which shows that he is willing to take risks even if it means suffering in the process; it also shows a certain stubbornness and sense of superiority that he is less willing to humble himself before other people and learn from them.
  • Men like Sir John Franklin didn't learn any bush-craft methods, but relied on the latest technology.  Which shows that he is willing to use the best technology to keep himself and his crewmen alive throughout the expedition; it also shows a total unwillingness to interact with the physical terrain itself (a certain aloofness you might say), which in the case of Sir Franklin case was his undoing (as his expedition to find the Northwest Passage was a total disaster).
These three (there are almost certainly more) methods are not only applicable to explorers, they are applicable when ever you want to travel somewhere new, be it travel in a physical sense (e.g. to a tropical country) or a mental sense (e.g. learn pure mathematics).


[End.]

Monday 3 March 2014

Alternative Lyrics to Well Known Songs 20 - Vlad the Impaler

Prince Vlad of Wallachia was one of the many regional heroes from the Balkans who stood up for their country against the invading Ottoman-Turkic army during the Medieval period.  A period which is more often remembered in mainstream Western culture as the period of the 'Western Crusades against the Muslim world' rather than vice-versa.  He is also remembered for his acts of barbarity, although the acts of barbarity committed by the invading Turks are conveniently forgotten by Politically Correct elite in the West.  Whether one considers his cruelty against the Turks as excessive or not, the important point to consider is that they worked.  Physical force works, and for that reason it should never be discarded as a means of resolving conflict.  Alexander broke the Gordian knot using force, Magni has/is/will kill Nidhoggr the dragon using force, the Berlin wall was taken down using force, mosquito infested Venice was drained using force.  Physical force is useful and thus should not be discarded for Christian-style turning the other cheek, or Ghandi-style soul-force, or Occupy Wall Street-style peaceful-protesting; because meekness will not help you against certain foes, only physical force will.

On a completely different note, although this song kind portrays Vlad as a Romanian national hero I'm not 100% certain that this is how the Romanian people themselves view him.  During the 1970s the Communist rulers elevated Vlad to the status of National hero (building statues, making films, and putting him on a postage stamp).  But that is the opinion of the rulers rather than the people themselves.  Alas it's quite tricky to find any modern first hand opinions of Vlad from Romanians themselves, so I've been forced to quote some second hand opinions which were from foreigners living in Romania:
In Romania, Dracula is seen in two ways. One view is of a mishmash caricature of history and fiction which serves as a generator of tourist dollars. The other view is of a national hero who fought to preserve Romanian identity and independence.
And the second:
Ask a modern Romanian today what they think of Vlad Tepes and they will answer that he was a man to be feared, yet respected. He protected their religion and kept a dangerous enemy from their gates
Source: http://www.runawaybrit.com/2012/11/03/dracula-romanias-national-hero/ 
Without further ado let's move on to the song itself.
 

Play the music video above and sing along (in your head at least) using the alternative lyrics below.


# Vlad the Impaler #
Vlad the Impaler.
 
Ottoman's Turkic forces,
invaded with their horses.
Ottoman's Turkic forces,
invaded with their horses.
Ottoman's Turkic forces,
invaded with their horses.
Ottoman's Turkic forces,
invaded with their horses.
 
Uhh.
 
Enter the deliverer
Enter the deliverer:
 
Prince Vlad of Wallachia.
Prince Vlad of Wallachia.
Prince Vlad of Wallachia.
Prince Vlad of Wallachia.
Prince Vlad of Wallachia.
Prince Vlad of Wallachia.
Prince Vlad of Wallachia.
Prince Vlad of Wallachia.
 
"You Turks will die,
your time is nigh.
You violate Wallach with your unclean mind."

"You Turks will die,
your time is nigh.
You violate Wallach with your unclean mind."
"You Turks will die,
your time is nigh.
You violate Wallach with your unclean mind."
"You Turks will die,
your time is nigh.
You violate Wallach with your unclean mind."
 
Ottoman's Turkic forces,
invaded with their horses.
Ottoman's Turkic forces,
invaded with their horses.
Ottoman's Turkic forces,
invaded with their horses.
Ottoman's Turkic forces,
invaded with their horses.
 
Uhh.
 
Enter the deliverer:
Enter the deliverer:
 
Prince Vlad of Wallachia.
Prince Vlad of Wallachia.
Prince Vlad of Wallachia.
Prince Vlad of Wallachia.
Prince Vlad of Wallachia.
Prince Vlad of Wallachia.
Prince Vlad of Wallachia.
Prince Vlad of Wallachia.
 
"You Turks will die,
your time is nigh.
You violate Wallach with your unclean mind."
"You Turks will die,
your time is nigh.
You violate Wallach with your unclean mind."
"You Turks will die,
your time is nigh.
You violate Wallach with your unclean mind."
"You Turks will die,
your time is nigh.
You violate Wallach with your unclean mind."
 
Come on.
 
Uhh.
 
Yeah.
 
Come on.
 
"Fuck you I am Vlad the Impaler."
"Fuck you I am Vlad the Impaler."
"Fuck you I am Vlad the Impaler."
"Fuck you I am Vlad the Impaler."
"Fuck you I am Vlad the Impaler."
"Fuck you I am Vlad the Impaler."
"Fuck you I am Vlad the Impaler."
"Fuck you I am Vlad the Impaler."
"Fuck you I am Vlad the Impaler."
"Fuck you I am Vlad the Impaler."
"Fuck you I am Vlad the Impaler."
"Fuck you I am Vlad the Impaler."
 
"Turkic fucker."
 
Uhh.


[End.]