mythopoeia — Brute Norse

When the soldiers of the 4th Mechanized Infantry Company of the Telemark Battalion rallied around Major Rune Wenneberg, their battle cry was a rite that solidified a sense of camaraderie between them, and helped them adjust to the reality of putting their bodies at the disposal of the international war machine. But as the words "To Valhalla!" rang out between the hills of northern Afghanistan, they did not yet know that this was the cry that would awaken Norway, almost a decade too late, to the reality of Norway's role in military operations abroad. The public erupted in a series of debates, wrestling to make sense of a warrior ideology that had apparently operated in secrecy under their very noses. Everyone from the tabloids to the Church, and the Defence Authority itself, poked at everything from toxic masculinity to the Nazi occult for answers. When perhaps what they should have done first of all, was look themselves in the mirror.

This episode also explores the myth and reality of appropriation of Norse mythology by the National Socialists during WW2.

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Some citations for this episode:
— Brunborg, Ole Martin. 2015. På sporet av en norsk krigerkultur: Holdninger til militærmakt før og nå. Militære sudier 1/2015. Forsvarets stabskole
— Dyvik, Synne. 2016. "Valhalla rising: Gender, embodiment and experience in military memoirs." In: Security Dialogue 47, 2016.
— Eggen, Torbjørn & Torleif Vik. 1944. Stiklestad valplass og symbol. In: Olavstanken. Centralforlaget: Oslo.
— Emberland, Terje. 2012. Himmlers Norge. Aschehoug: Oslo.
— Goodrich-Clarke, Nicholas. 2005. The Occult Roots of Nazism. Tauris Parke: London.
— Hagesæther, Alf Petter. 2010. "Norsk krigerkultur forankret i norrøn myologi eller i naturretten?" In: PACEM 13.
— Langeland, Fredrik. 2012. Soldater med lyst til å drepe - krigermaskulinitet i mannebladet Alfa. Norsk medietidsskrift vol. 19.