Made in Norway

1,703 words

I watched American History X with my roommate last night. Watching the film brought back memories and nostalgia for my teenage years. When I first saw the movie as a teen, I was obsessed with Scandinavia due to my passion for heavy metal and my own Danish roots. Having recently traveled to Norway last year for some concerts, I realized that many of the issues discussed in the film 20 years ago are the same issues that are plaguing many European countries today. Yet just as the Norwegian artists and writers of the 19th century shaped the modern Norwegian identity and nation, so too can the Dissident Right build a positive identity that includes ethic sovereignty and white solidarity.

American History X was released in 1998. While there have been other movies and TV shows about white racial gangs, American History X was a film that portrayed the subject matter and characters with depth and nuance (despite the well-known objections from the director). Many of the arguments and concerns made by the “racist” white characters sound completely sensible and reasonable. When Derek (Edward Norton’s character) talks about black crime statistics, illegal immigration, and changing demographics, it sounds like he could be commenting on my Twitter feed from this morning. None of the “normie” characters have any real arguments or convincing reasons why white people should not unite and organize as a group to protect their own families, neighborhoods, and communities. When Derek decides to put his past life behind him, he cannot do the same for crime statistics or changing demographics. All he can say about his past ideology was that he was “angry and frustrated.”  Yet all the disavowals in the world would not bring Derek’s father or brother back to life, both of whom were killed by blacks in the film.

Despite the second half of the film being unrealistic in regards to prison politics, I always enjoy watching American History X as it reminds me of being a teenager in the late 90s. I was obsessed with this movie along with all the Norwegian black metal bands such as Burzum, Darkthrone, Immortal, Emperor, and Satyricon. I translated all the lyrics and song titles from Norwegian and studied the history of Norway. After reading various books about the Vikings, I decided to read the Heimskringla.

The Heimskringla (“Earth’s orb” in old Norse) is a collection of stories compiled by Snorri Sturluson about the first Norwegian kings between the ninth and twelfth centuries. The stories are a mix of myth, folklore, and history that chronicle the beginnings of the Norwegian kingdom, the conquests of the various kings, and the Viking expeditions throughout Europe. While containing 16 sagas, the Heimskringla focuses on three main stories: the lineage of the early Norse rulers up to Halfdan the Black (Ynglinga Saga), the 15-year reign of Olaf II Haraldsson (who would later become St. Olaf), and the various adventures of Harald Hardrada to Constantinople, Sicily, and eventually England where he would die at the Battle of Stamford Bridge in 1066.

I greatly enjoyed reading the Heimskringla as a teenager. While many modern historians claim that the Heimskringla is unreliable as it inserts myth and folklore into historic events, those were the parts that I enjoyed the most. One such example is the saga of Harald Fairhair. Harald Fairhair is portrayed in the Heimskringla as the first king of a united Norwegian kingdom who reigned from 872 to 930. Before he was king, Harald proposed to Gyda, the daughter of King Eirik of Hordaland. She refused to marry Harald until he became the “king of Norway.” Harald, therefore, vowed not to cut or comb his hair until he conquered all of Norway. A year and a head full of hair later, Harald became king, married Gyda, and was known from then on as Harald Fairhair.

I grew my hair out in my late teens to fit in with all the metalheads during my first visit to Norway in 2002. I took a bus from the airport to downtown Oslo, and when I stepped out of the bus station, I thought I was in Africa. There were groups of Africans standing around asking for money. On my way to the hotel, I was approached by Middle Easterners asking me if I wanted to buy drugs from them. I eventually got out of the non-white areas and started sightseeing around the city. I even got to spend my nights at the Elm Street bar, the place where the local metalheads used to congregate before closing permanently a few years ago.

I eventually left Oslo and took the famous Bergensbanen train to Bergen. I immediately fell in love with Bergen. Bergen had everything I could ever want in a European city: a medieval fortress, a fish market, and a heavy metal bar called Garage. I would return to Bergen after college and spend most of my mid-20s there. Sadly, it would be over a decade until I would return to Norway in 2019 for two metal festivals. A lot had changed in Norway in just ten years.

In August 2019 I went to the Midgardsblot festival in Horten, Norway. This festival has a Viking-pagan theme and reminded me of a mix between a metal concert and a renaissance faire. I heard there was a local beer brewery in Horten, and on my way to the brewery, I passed by a mosque filled with African Muslims. Many of the women were wearing burkas and had lots of children. I was later told by the hotel staff that I should stay away from that area and only go to the festival area.

A week later I returned to Bergen for the Beyond the Gates festival. I was hoping that Bergen would look and feel the same way as I experienced it in the 2000s. While the weather was still cloudy and rainy, the demographics had changed considerably. There were far more Africans and Middle Easterners there, and they were clearly not tourists. There were still plenty of native Norwegians around, but the atmosphere had changed for me. The Garage bar had also shut down. Across the bar was a Kebab shop where middle easterners were playing loud rap music while cursing at all the white people who passed by.

When I watched American History X as a teenager, I related to the film in numerous ways. Like Derek, I was tired of being shamed, guilted, and threatened for being white. I was tired of all the anti-white propaganda being pushed in my school and the media. I wanted to go to Norway where I could listen to heavy metal, celebrate Scandinavian history, and be around people that look like me. Now white Scandinavian children are becoming minorities in their own schools. Now white teens throughout Scandinavia are being attacked, raped, and murdered by African and Middle Eastern immigrants. Now, all white Scandinavians get bombarded by commercials that tell them that they have no culture.

Africans, Middle-Easterners, and other non-white groups did not create Norwegian culture. Norwegians created Norwegian culture. Norwegian romantic nationalism was a movement in the mid-19th century where ethnic Norwegian artists created art and literature that helped shape the Norwegian spirit and national identity. Jørgen Moe and Peter Christen Asbjørnsen created and compiled a collection of folk tales that are known today as Norske Folkeeventyr (Norwegian Fairytales). Olea Crøger and Magnus Landstad collected and transcribed folk songs that are still performed today by artists in various genres. Various painters like Hans Gude painted landscapes of majestic fjords and winter forests. Ivar Aasen even studied and compared various Norwegian dialects to create a standardized version of the language called Nynorsk. From Edvard Munch’s The Scream to 90’s black metal, Norwegians have a rich culture that only they can create.

Non-whites cannot create the cultures or civilizations that white people create, so they can only destroy our culture through subversion and violence. That is why they want to destroy the various cultures of white people all around the world. Unfortunately, the anti-whites control our mainstream culture because they wield unchecked power in academia, the media, most corporations, and nearly all branches of government. They might control mainstream culture, but we are the counterculture. We are the true rebels. We are the dissident right and only we create culture that matters.

We must continue creating art for our community and our people. We must continue writing, drawing, recording, and working on art that reflects our ideas. For those who are not artistically inclined, you can support the artists and content creators in our community by donating to them and purchasing their products. Creating art builds our culture and expands our community. In these difficult times, sometimes I need a fantasy book to read, a heavy metal album to listen to, or an RPG to play to simply take my mind off all the craziness in the world. And there is no better way to relax and have fun than by supporting our own culture, community, and identity.

I want Norwegian culture to survive. I want future generations to enjoy all the Norwegian music, history, and literature that I enjoyed as a teenager. Yet if Sweden or Denmark falls, it will only be a matter of time before Norway falls. Unlike our enemies, only we care about the differences between a Dane, a Norwegian, or a Swede.  Only we want to preserve those differences. To do that, we must unite as white people under a common identity and cause. We can have it all. We can have ethnic sovereignty with white solidarity. Let this be a community of white romantic nationalism. Let this be the culture and history that a Danish-American made in Norway.

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