The Mythic Island

Salamis is mostly (and rightfully) famous today for the naval battle that took place between Hellas (the allied city-states) and Persians. It was there that Asia took the fatal blow and Europe saved. But apart from that, Salamis has much more for a visitor to see. It was also the birthplace of the great tragedian Euripides and also the famous Nationalist Heathen poet and father of the Delphic Festivals  Aggelos Sikelianos had also a house there as the place was inspired him on his writtings.

And so, one really grey and rainy day found me on the boat from Piraeus to Salamis.

Some photos from this visit follows below

 1. On The Way With the Ferry Boat

2. The Museum

3. The House of the Poet

4. The Naval Battle Monument

8th of May 1945 - Finis Europae

 

Shining Hellas

LEUCHTENDES HELLAS 

directed by 

Hans Bröcker 

 Release Date : February 1941

  

On Walpurgis Night

Who fears to-day

His rites to pay,

Deserves his chains to wear.

The forest's free!

This wood take we,

And straight a pile prepare!

Yet in the wood

To stay 'tis good

By day, till all is still,

With watchers all around us plac'd

Protecting you from ill.

With courage fresh, then let us haste

Our duties to fulfil.

Johann Wolfgang Von Gothe - Die Erste Walpurgisnacht 

Ashes of The Desert God

 

Here is the full story of how the burned (in June 1992) Fantoft Stave church photo taken and then became a cover in the iconic ASKE EP. One of the most cult Black Metal releases ever!

Answered by Are Mundal

You took the photos of Fantoft Stave Church in ashes used on the cover of the Aske mini-LP. Would you please share some of the details of this very fascinating story?

Yes, for instance I went to see Varg in Ibsensgt. to deliver some guitar equipment, and he asked me if I could take a picture of the Fantoft stave church that had just burned down. He lent me his camera and I went there on my way home to take the pictures I was asked too. This was later that day, and there were some bystanders and fire fighters still on the premises. They were doing some post fire security work, and the heat was still radiating from the ruins and the ground. I definitely stood out in the crowd of bystanders which made me a little uneasy, and I was concerned the people there would find it suspicious that I was photographing the remains of the church. I definitely did not look anything like a reporter either. When I next saw Varg I returned the camera to him with the film in it. One of these pictures made it to the album cover of the Aske EP. To me it's a very symbolic picture, because this was my Lutheran, bigot, sorrow and misery inflicting grandfathers favourite church.

Anyway, one day a police car stood outside my home place in Fana, and the police man said: "Hi, you know what this is all about don’t you? Just get dressed and get in the car!". Apparently I was a suspect of the fire or something, because I was taken into custody and they took my mugshot and my fingerprints and interrogated me for hours. The interrogations started with screaming and threats, waving Varg's camera in front of my face. It lasted for hours until they let me go. I was also called in for a second round of this, and when the interviews were finished, I heard nothing more from the police, and I never testified to anything in his court case.

Source: https://aremundalinterview.blogspot.com/

The Knight as Medium of Art

 “The knight is a man of blood and iron, a man familiar with the sight of smashed faces and the ragged stumps of lopped-off limbs; he is also a demure, almost maidenlike, guest in a hall, a gentle, modest, unobtrusive man. He is not compromise or happy mean between ferocity and meekness; he is fierce to the nth and meek to the nth. The man who combines both characters – the knight – is not a work of nature but of art; of that art which has human beings, instead of canvas or marble, for its medium.”

C. S. Lewis

I Was Born at The 20th of April

 

"It has turned out fortunate for me to-day that destiny appointed Braunau-on-the-Inn to be my birthplace. For that little town is situated just on the frontier between those two states the reunion of which seems, at least to us of the younger generation, a task to which should devote our lives and in the pursuit of which every possible means should be employed...."