Transcript: 31. Black Metal Mayhem | Norway

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Jessheim, Norway 1990. The room is dark and smoky, and the crowd is waiting and chanting with restless anticipation. A pig’s head, pegged on a stake, stares at the crowd from its position next to the speakers on stage. 

Tension rises as the first members of the band, Mayhem, strut onto stage, ready for theatrics and anarchy. All band members are dressed in black. They have long hair and their faces are masked with make-up, white to make them look like the Undead, with black patterns around the eyes and mouths, a look better known as ‘corpse paint’.

Lead singer, known by fans as ‘Dead’, belts out some death growls as lead guitarist, Euronymous and bass guitarist Necrobutcher punch the metal on their instruments and drummer Hellhammer attacks the drums. Dead’s prop is a 3ft (or 1 metre) wooden crucifix, which he throws onto the front of the stage as the crowd cheers and head bangs to the beat. The music builds up into a frenzy of metal, drums and lyrical growls from Dead. 

Darkness is growing, the eternity opens
The cemetery lights up again
As in ancient times
Fallen souls, die behind my steps
By following the freezing moon, yeah

Then the moment everyone came to see. Dead grabs a hunting knife, while the music booms on. He lifts it into the air as the crowd screams. Then he holds out his right arm and cuts himself: once, another time and a third, blood gushing from the wounds. He cuts his other arm too and sprays his blood onto the crowd. They go insane – loud cheers and growls with open mouths and licking tongues. Dead did it again! 

The sound and performance style Mayhem created, became synonymous with Norwegian Black Metal in the 1990s, which was a sound that influenced the genre across the world. Norway was to Black Metal what Seattle was to Grunge.

But behind all the smoke and mirrors of evil theatrics, bigger problems were brewing. Within less than two years, the band would lose two of its most important members: Dead and Euronymous. What led to the violent deaths of two of Mayhem’s band members in the early 1990’s? 

>>Intro Music

Kristian Larssøn Vikernes was born on the 11th of February 1973 in Bergen, Norway. He had a brother who was one and a half years older than him and his parents were well-educated, professionals. His father was an electronics engineer and his mom worked for a large oil company. 

Later in his life he changed his name to Varg Vikernes, he also had the stage name of Count Gryshnackh – we’ll elaborate on all that a bit later. But to avoid confusion, we shall refer to him as Varg Vikernes throughout the episode.

When he was six years old, Varg’s family moved to Iraq. According to Varg’s own account, his father worked for Saddam Hussein as a computer programmer. As there was no international school in the area where the family were situated, Varg had to go to an Iraqi elementary school. He would later remember that it was there where he “became aware of racial matters”, having been the only blond and blue-eyed European boy in his class. 

At this school, as at most Iraqi schools, especially in the late 1970’s, early 1980’s, corporal punishment was an acceptable form of disciplining kids. But because Varg was culturally different, the teachers did not hit him. This created problems between the other kids and Varg. Varg stood up to a teacher and called him a monkey. He was not punished for this and perhaps had his first taste of ridiculing authority. 

When the family returned to Norway, Varg blended back into society, but a fire had bit lit inside of him. He felt superior to others but did not quite know how to channel it. When he was about 12 years old, his parents divorced. He never talked much about his father later in his life, but he did remember his old man had a swastika flag at home and recalled during an interview that he “Became pissed about all the coloured people he saw in town.” 

Varg felt his mother, Lene Bore was also quite race-conscious, fearing that Varg would one day come home with a black girl. The chances of this would have been slim, as in 1986, when Varg was in his early teens, non-Western migrants only made up about 3% of Bergen’s total population.  

When he was 14, Varg started playing the guitar. He had short hair, liked dressing in army fatigues and took a keen interest in weapons. He liked Germans and hated the British and Americans. He was considered to be a skinhead, although he would later comment that there were no skinheads in Bergen.

Bergen is Norway’s second largest city, after Oslo. It is not a very big city – in the mid-1980’s it’s population was just over 200,000. It is a beautiful harbour city, with colourful wooden buildings dotting the waterfront. The city is known for its university, making it a breeding ground for free thought and radical ideas. 

Varg Vikernes was intelligent and ambitious, but also very much non-conformist. Although Bergen has a strong Protestant, church-going community, it wasn’t quite Varg’s scene. He loved old Norse mythology, a complex pagan religion that was practiced by the Vikings. The world of Norse Mythology consisted of nine worlds, connected by one central tree, called Yggdrasil. There are multiple gods, of which the most well-known ones are Odin, Frigg, Thor and Freya.

The world of Norse Mythology came alive for Varg in the fictional realm of Middle-earth in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. The character of Gandalf was influenced by Odin, god of wisdom and poetry, truth and knowledge.

Varg liked drawing symbols, like Odin’s eye, Valknut (a symbol associated with the transition between life and death) and the swastika or sun wheel, a Norse symbol of luck, holiness and power, that was documented long before it was used by the Nazi’s. 

When he was 17, he became acquainted with Bergen Death Metal band ‘Old Funeral’. He played guitar on their EP, Devoured Carcass. It was the beginning of a prolific career as a musician. 

In 1991, Varg was ready to do his own thing. He started a one-man music project, which he called Burzum. The name Burzum, which means ‘darkness’, was inspired by Lord of the Rings. The fictional Black Speech, inscribed on the One Ring read:

“One Ring to rule them all, One ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the Darkness bind them.”

His musical style is a rebellion against traditional song structure. He also insisted on recording while using the cheapest and crappiest microphone he could find. Anti-establishment defined.

In 1992 to 1993, Varg Vikernes recorded four albums as Burzum. Some music historians say his albums played a key role in the development of black metal. Sam Dunn, director of the documentary Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey described Varg as “the most notorious metal musician of all time”. Which, in an environment of Satan-worship and on-stage self-mutilation, is no small feat. 

Varg was also asked to join Mayhem, one of Norway’s biggest Black Metal bands at the time. Burzum was still alive and well, but now he was part of the main game. Again, calling on Lord of the Rings for inspiration, Varg chose his stage name: Count Grishnackh. Grishnackh was an orc in The Two Towers. Orcs were evil and hated everything and everybody, especially the orderly and prosperous. He became known simply as ‘Greven’, Norwegian for Count. Varg commented on his stage name:

“It’s an arrogant name. Setting yourself above all others. Telling everybody what to do.”

Unfortunately, when it came to working with Mayhem, he could definitely not tell everybody what to do. The founder of the band was Øystein Aaseth (aka Euronymous). His stage name was inspired by the Greek Mythological underworld demon who served as the spirit of rotting corpses.

Øystein owned the label that produced Mayhem’s albums (Deathlike Silence Productions) and he also had a shop in Oslo called Helvete – Norwegian for hell. The store mainly sold records and CD’s from Øystein’s own label and band members of Mayhem worked in shifts behind the counter. 

But Helvete was more than just a record store, it was a place where Black Metal musicians and fans congregated. The term this Black Metal inner circle used to describe themselves was: The Black Circle. All of them, in the chaos of anarchic belief, led by Øystein. He was definitely a dominant figure and most people were quite scared of him.

Most people, except the young guitarist, Count Grishnackh, Varg Vikernes. He saw through Øystein’s mean image and felt that he wasn’t a good businessman. Varg saw opportunities to promote Black Metal and boost sales, but Øystein did not want to hear him out. In fact, he was afraid that Black Metal was in danger of losing its underground status and that Varg or the next young and ambitious musician would make it more commercial than it was ever meant to be.

But their differences were put aside when tragedy struck in 1991. Lead singer of Mayhem, Swedish-born Per Ohlin, known as Dead, took his own life. He was always obsessed with death, since childhood when he had a near-death experience. After an ice-skating accident when he was 10-years old, he suffered a ruptured spleen and literally saw the light at the end of the tunnel before he was resuscitated. 

His obsession with death was the driving force behind his on-stage persona Dead. He would bury clothes in soil before a show, then dug it up and wore it. Even off-stage he was exploring elements of death, reading about it, finding dead birds… He loved everything about death: the shock, the stench, the horror.

On April 8th, 1991, Øystein returned home, to the house the band shared outside of Oslo. Dead slit his wrists and then somehow managed to shoot himself in the head. It was a violent and bloody scene. Øystein realised the importance of the incident for posterity, so instead of calling police, he went into town to buy a camera, returned to the scene and took multiple photos. 

Although Black Metal celebrated death and used names and symbols depicting elements of death, most artists knew that it was just an act, theatrics to invoke fear. When Mayhem’s bass guitarist Necrobutcher heard about Øystein’s actions, he was disgusted:

“Øystein called me up the next day ... and says, "Dead has done something really cool! He killed himself". I thought, have you lost it? What do you mean cool? He says, "Relax, I have photos of everything". I was in shock and grief. He was just thinking how to exploit it. So, I told him, "OK. Don't even fucking call me before you destroy those pictures.”

Some people in the Black Metal community believed that Øystein actually killed Dead, but those closest to both of them were adamant that that was not what happened, as Øystein was out of town at the time of Dead’s death. Dead left a brief, polite suicide note which included an apology for all the blood. The note read:

“Excuse the blood, but I have slit my wrists and neck. It was the intention that I would die in the woods so that it would take a few days before I was possibly found. I belong in the woods and have always done so. No one will understand the reason for this anyway. To give some semblance of an explanation, I’m not a human, this is just a dream and soon I will awaken. It was too cold, and the blood kept clotting, plus my new knife is too blunt. If I don’t succeed dying to the knife I Will blow the shit out of my skull.” 

He then proceeds to give instructions about money and songs that he had written. One of the actual photos taken by Øystein were later used on the cover of Mayhem’s album “Dawn of the Black Hearts”.

These guys took the fear a lack of respect for the dead (and the living for that matter) to the next level. Their concerts were frightening, but their fans loved it. To become recognised as a movement, the Norwegian ‘Black Circle’ decided it was time to take the terror off the stage and into society.

On the 6th of June 1992 Fantoft Stave church in Bergen burnt down to the ground. An architectural treasure, dating from the 12th century was reduced to a heap of ash. It was only to be the first in a trail of churches that would set the Norwegian night sky ablaze in 1992. Between August and October churches were burnt down in Stavanger, Oslo, Vindafjord… But the greatest statement was the attack on Åsane church in Bergen on Christmas Eve. Hours later, on Christmas day a church in Sarpsborg was set alight. This fire took the life of a firefighter.

By January 1993 – seven major wooden medieval Christian churches (or stave churches) had been burnt down.

The Black Circle knew that Count Grishnackh/Varg Vikernes was the instigator behind the church burnings. Øystein was supposed to be the leader, but he never did anything near as bold and daring as that. The metal community revelled in it, found it entertaining. Øystein should have been the metaphorical fuel to the fires, but everyone knew he never really did anything. He was all talk no action. He loved the image of being a fearless leader, but he was neither fearless, nor was he a leader.

Norwegian media tried to make sense of the burnings that scarred their country’s heritage. The assumption was that the fires were started by Satanists. They hate Christians enough to burn down their churches, right? 

Young teenagers who followed Mayhem and Burzum and other Black Metal bands were drawn in by the notion that the band members were Satanists and they were taking over Norway. Everyone with long hair and dark clothes playing in a metal band, or just listening to the music, was labelled to be a Satanist. And they were proud of it.

It was rumoured that Bård Guldvik Eithun, or Faust as he was known, the drummer for the band Emperor joined Varg and Øystein on several missions to burn churches down. Faust would later claim that he was no Satanist. He burnt churches because he was angry. 

In August 1992, with churches burning down every other week, Faust also killed a man in Lillehammer. According to Faust, 40-year-old Magne Andreassen propositioned him as he was walking home one night. Faust agreed, but as soon as they reached the woods in Olympic Park, he took out a knife and stabbed Magne. Again, and again and again – 37 times. With Magne bleeding out on the ground, Faust then kicked his head. 

The day after the killing, he burnt down Holmenkollen Chapel with Varg and Øystein. He told them what he had done and soon rumours about the murder started floating around the Black Circle.

Police suspected Magne’s murder had something to do with the Black Metal community, but it took them a year to get enough evidence to arrest Faust. He had no remorse and described the incident as an impulse killing - he simply wanted to know what it felt like to murder someone. 

"I was outside, just waiting to get out some aggression. It's not easy to describe why it happened. It was meant to happen, and if it was this man or another man, that's not really important.”

In January 1993, a month after the Christmas church burnings, Varg arranged an anonymous interview with one of Norway’s biggest newspapers, Bergens Tidende. The idea was to promote Helvete and Black Metal in general by scaring people. In the interview he said that he was responsible for burning down the churches and one of his friends killed a man in Lillehammer. About this interview, Varg would later comment:

"I exaggerated a lot and when the journalist left we had a good laugh, because he didn't seem to understand that I was pulling his leg"

The interview landed in him jail for six weeks. Varg could not be happier – this kind of publicity was exactly what Norwegian Black Metal needed. Although he denied any involvement on his arrest and blamed the journalist for informing police about his anonymous interview, he was suddenly Norway’s most notorious man. Photos of Varg with his long hair and pale skin, posing in chainmail, holding knives and other weapons were in all the newspapers.

The media declared in jubilation: Satanists caught! It was simply assumed that Varg and the Black Circle were Satanists. Like their British counterparts, extreme metal band Venom. To quote Varg Vikernes: 

“It was all about demonising a movement, they wanted us to be Satanists.”

The result was horrific. A whole new movement grew out of the terror spread by the media, 15-year-old copy cats joined in and burnt down more churches. They would graffiti hexagons or 666, but they didn’t get what the burnings were actually about.

Because there was no evidence against Varg, police had to release him. He denied involvement in the arsons but said that he supported it. He also denied being a Satanist, his philosophy aligned more with paganism. Odin, Freya, Thor… That is Norwegian tradition, not the old churches. Varg felt that Norwegian history had nothing to do with Christianity and he was simply righting the wrongs of the past.

Varg claimed that Fantoft stave was built on top of a place where Norwegian ancestors used to welcome the sun. Christians chased the pagans out and built the church right on top of the original site.

An interview with Michael Moynihan explains Varg’s Norwegian Nationalist rage:

“I’m not going to say that I burnt any churches. But let me put it this way: there was one person who started it. I was found not guilty of burning the Fantoft stave church, but anyway, that was what triggered the whole thing. That was the 6th of June and everyone linked it to Satanism. What everyone overlooked was that on the 6th of June, year 793, Lindisfarne in Britain was the first known Viking raid in history, with Vikings from Hordaland, which is my county. [The Christians] desecrated our graves, out burial mounds, so it’s revenge…. For each devastated graveyard, one heathen grave is avenged, for each ten churches burnt to ashes, one heathen hof is avenged, for each ten priests or freemasons assassinated, one heathen is avenged.”

He denied it, but Varg and other members of the Black Circle were behind the fires. They knew it, police knew it, the Norwegian people knew it. Years after the fact, Faust, who was with Varg and Øystein when they burnt down Hel echoed Varg’s philosophy: 

“It was like taking back the land. It was no worse doing now than what it was in the year 900.”

It was after his release that he changed his ironic name of Kristian Vikernes to Varg, Kvisling Larsson Vikernes. The name Varg is an old Norse world that, loosely translated means ‘wolf, evil-doer or destroyer.’ The Kvisling pays homage to Vidkun Quisling, Norwegian prime minister in Nazi-occupied Norway. After the war he was tried for high treason against the Norwegian State. ‘Quisling’ has become a substitute word for ‘traitor’ in Norway. When asked about the name-change, Varg said: 

"I am a man of many names, and I like that. It is a Norse tradition to give names to people as they suit them, as you view them. Thus, we all have many names. Odin as an example has 149 different names in the Edda poems alone."

Øystein, on the other hand, wasn’t quite as nationalistic as Varg. He also never denied being a Satanist, and as the original leader of the Black Circle, most people still believed that Satanism was the main motive in burning down the churches. 

Everyone was paying attention to Black Metal and all eyes were on the mothership, Øystein Aarseth’s store, Helvete. But instead of reaping the benefits and boosting sales in the wake of the negative attention, Øystein decided to close the store. Varg later said that Øystein was pressured by his parents to do so. Øystein’s reaction to the interview and Varg’s incarceration infuriated Varg – the interview and the consequences thereof was all part of a big publicity stunt and Øystein didn’t follow through. Varg felt that he went to prison for nothing. 

Øystein made a public apology for the destruction on behalf of the Black Metal community. This did not go down well with hard core Black Metal fans, as they felt the foundation of Black Metal was to go AGAINST societal niceties like apologising. Øystein had egg on his face, felt embarrassed and blamed Varg for being in the position he was in. He never wanted to be a big commercialised movement, rather an underground, closed group, a cult even. 

Varg had decided to start his own label for future albums, which meant he was moving away from Øystein’s label, Deathlike Silence. Øystein owed him money and Varg felt he wasn’t doing enough to promote Burzum. Varg threatened to leave Øystein’s label, but Øystein screwed him over and found a loophole in their contract proving that Øystein owned the rights to Burzum. The only way Varg could get out of the deal, was to produce his next four albums under Deathlike Silence’s label. 

Varg was furious and Øystein wouldn’t budge. He had had enough of Count Grishnackh, Varg Vikernes. He mentioned to many people around him, that because of Varg’s drive to commercialise the Black Metal movement, he ‘had to go’. Most of them thought that Øystein was serious, that it wasn’t simply an idle threat. 

At the time, there was a rumour that he had poisoned a Polish journalist who wanted to do a story about Mayhem for a fanzine. The guy went to stay at the Mayhem house outside Oslo. When a month had passed, they realised that he was a freeloader and was squatting with them. So Øystein started giving him poison. Before long, the man was gone and no-one (in Norway at least) ever saw him or heard from him again.

So, when threats were made against Varg, many people from the Black Metal scene felt that he had good reason to fear for his life. Øystein’s plan was to capture Varg, immobilise him with a taser gun, put him in the trunk of his car, drive him deep into a forest where he would tie him to a tree and torture him while recording the whole thing, making a snuff film.

Varg overheard a phone conversation between Snorre Ruch and Øystein in August 1993. Snorre was one of Mayhem’s guitarists at the time and was also known as Blackthorn. He lived with Varg in Bergen and allowed Varg lo listen in on the call. Øystein said that ‘Varg had to disappear for good’. He had a couple of ideas about how he would do it, confirming stories Varg had heard from other metal people. 

When Øystein insisted that Varg signed his next contract in his presence, Varg believed that was part of the plot to kill him, to create an opportunity to be alone with him. Varg wasn’t about to back down and decided to confront Øystein about the threats, to shut him up for good.

On the 10th of August 1993, Varg and Snorre Ruch travelled from Bergen to Oslo and went to Øystein’s apartment on Tøyen Street. They arrived at 3am in the morning. Øystein was sleeping and at first, he did not want to buzz them into his apartment building. When Varg said that he had brought a signed contract with him, the gate buzzed, and the two metal guitarists went upstairs.

When Varg went into Øystein’s 4th floor apartment, Snorre stayed outside to smoke a cigarette. Varg shoved the contract into Øystein’s face and told him to F-#*% off. Øystein responded by kicking Varg in the chest. Then he turned to go into the kitchen. Varg thought he was fetching a weapon, so he drew his own knife, stopping him. A scuffle ensued, and they knocked over a glass lamp. Øystein fell onto the glass, cutting himself, bleeding everywhere. 

Snorre was at a loss and could not believe what he had witnessed. It all happened so quickly. The two strongest figures of the Black Circle were coming head to head and this was clearly going to be a fight to death.

All the rage and hatred between the two welled up inside Varg and he attacked the man that used to be his friend and fellow band-member. The fight moved outside the apartment, onto the stairwell. In the end, Øystein had 23 stab wounds: 16 to the back, 5 to the neck and the final 2 to his head. The knife was so deeply embedded into his skull that Varg had to use his foot to lever it out. He left the 25-year-old Øystein’s body on the stairs where he died. 

Varg and Snorre went to Varg’s car and drove off. They stopped at a lake to dispose of Varg’s bloodied clothes before they returned to Bergen. 

The next morning Øystein’s death was headline news in Norway. At first, the general feeling was that Swedish Black Metallers were responsible for the murder. Øystein had sent a number of death threats to some of the more 'mainstream' death metal groups in Europe. There was also a story that a group of Norwegian Black Metal fans plotted to kidnap and murder certain Swedish death metal musicians. 

Police suspected Varg, as everyone knew about the bad blood between him and Øystein. But Varg had an alibi: Snorre Ruch lied and said that Varg was in Bergen at the time of the murder. Bergen is over 300 miles (that’s more than 500 kilometres) away.

Police backed off, but in the end, Snorre buckled under the pressure and told police the truth about what had happened that fateful night on Tøyen Street in Oslo. Crime scene technicians also found a bloody fingerprint on a stairway railing outside Øystein’s apartment. The print that matched Varg’s fingerprint. 

Nine days after the murder, Varg was arrested. A newspaper heading read: “Count’s fingerprint found in blood.”

Varg did not deny killing Øystein. He admitted:

“Initially it was self-defence, but when he started to flee I was no longer in a life-threatening situation, so at that point it was no longer self-defence, but voluntary manslaughter, and I saw it as a pre-emptive strike to prevent him from getting a second chance to kill me.”

Arrest, Trial and Incarceration 

On the day of Varg’s arrest, police found 150kg of explosives and 3,000 rounds of ammunition at his home in Bergen. Varg said the explosives were intended for Blitz House – a radical leftist and anarchist enclave in Oslo. Some people in the Black Circle believed that Varg had killed Øystein because Øystein would have prevented him from bombing Blitz house, because he was a communist. 

Varg Vikernes and Snorre Ruch were tried together. Snorre was charged for his part in Øystein’s murder, as he was the one who drove Varg to Oslo and he also did nothing to prevent the murder from happening. For his part, he was sentenced to eight years in prison. 

Snorre’s case was wrapped up in three days and all eyes were on the devil incarnate: Count Grishnackh, Varg Vikernes. Firstly, the court addressed the church arsons. He was found guilty of burning down Storetveit and Åsane Churches in Bergen, Skjold Church in Vindofjord and Holmenkollen Chapel in Oslo. Although he was charged with the first church arson back in 1992, that of Fantoft, the jury found him not guilty as there was not enough evidence against him. 

The trial lasted for three weeks and in the end, Varg was convicted of the murder of Euronymous, Øystein Aarseth. He was sentenced to 21 years in prison – the maximum penalty for murder in Norway. In a moment that defined the trial, when the verdict was read, Varg gave a sardonic smile, looking straight at all the cameras pointed at him.

The same month Varg was sentenced, Mayhem's album De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas was released. The album features Euronymous on guitar and Count Grishnackh on bass guitar. Øystein’s family had asked Mayhem's drummer, Hellhammer, to remove the bass tracks recorded by Vikernes, but he refused, and said in true Black Metal style: 

"I thought it was appropriate that the murderer and victim were on the same record."

With Varg in prison, the Norwegian public felt safe to sleep at night again. At least the church burnings could stop, and they could put the time of terror behind them. Unfortunately, they were wrong. After Varg’s conviction, the burnings intensified, with as many as seven churches burnt down in a space of five weeks. Between 1992-1996 a total of 50 churches were burnt down in the whole of Norway, scarring its landscape forever.

Aftermath

While in prison, Varg released two albums. As he was denied access to instruments, he only used a synthesizer. In 2000 he decided to stop recording, blaming his ‘ignorant fan base’, saying his philosophy was constantly misinterpreted as Black Metal and Satanism. 

He spent his time in prison reading and developing his ideologies. He said that it was like living in a monastery, which is ironic, as that would make the him a monk who burnt down churches. 

Either way, Varg crafted his own ideology: it is a blend of Norse Mythology, racism and occult National Socialism. In 1997 he published a book (financed by his mother), called Vårgsmal. He later said that the book was written in anger. He was young and isolated, and the book reflects his state of mind at the time. He coined the term ‘Odalism’, which he describes like this: 

“In it lies Paganism, traditional nationalism, racialism and environmentalism.”

Where modern civilisation exists, fuelled by capitalism, materialism and globalisation, Odalism has not been tainted by history. It is a pure form of living, returning to traditional paganism and native European values and belief systems. Not imposed Christianity, which he sees as ‘the spiritual plague, mass psychosis…that is like handcuffs to the mind and spirit.’

Varg was considered by some as the founder of the Norwegian Heathen Front – an organisation that promotes traditionalism. He denied ever being involved with the organisation, let alone starting it up.

In 1997, Varg’s mother, Lene Bore, and four known National Socialists were arrested for allegedly conspiring against the state of Norway. A year later, she was in hot water again when a plot to break her son out of prison was exposed. 

In October 2003, Varg decided to take action himself. A family was travelling through the Buskerud County when a man flagged them down. The man was Varg Vikernes. He forced them out of the car at gunpoint and once they surrendered the vehicle, he drove off, leaving them stranded on the side of the road. 

When Varg failed to return to low-security prison in Tønsberg police were alerted and it did not take look to track down the stolen Volvo. At first the car wouldn’t stop, but pressed between two police vehicles, he was pushed off the road and forced to stop.

Varg was found in the car with a knife, a gas mask, camouflage clothing, a laptop, a compass, a GPS and a fake passport. Varg said that he feared for his life in prison as another inmate tried to strangle him. He did not receive any leniency for his escape attempt and an additional 13 months were added to his sentence. He was also moved to the maximum-security prison in Trondheim. 

In May 2009, after serving 16 years of his 21-year sentence, Varg Vikernes was released on parole. On his release he went to live on a small farm in Bø, Telemark with his family. He had a wife and two kids at the time, with a third on the way.

His wife is French national, Marie Cachet. Before leaving Norway to live in Limousin, France, Varg changed his name once more, to Louis Cachet. In France they expanded their family. The man of many names – Kristian, Varg, Louis, The Count – has fathered seven children. 

Varg and his wife were arrested in Corrèze on suspicion of terrorism in 2013, when she bought four rifles. She had a legal permit and they were both released. A year later, Varg was convicted of inciting racial hatred against Jews and Muslims. He was sentenced to six months of probation and fined EURO 8,000.

He is a teetotaller and claims to have never used alcohol, drugs or used pharmaceutical drugs unnecessarily. He is very vocal about his views and speaks openly about the conflict between him and Øystein Aarseth (and even about killing Øystein) on his YouTube channel, called Thulean Perspective. The channel has over 200,000 subscribers.

In the end, one question remains: who is the real Varg Vikernes? Is he an intellectual who has lost the plot with his far-out philosophies? Is he a blatant racist, or a Nazi, a Satanist? Or could he perhaps simply be the last angry Viking of Norway, displaced, alive in the wrong historical climate?

If you’d like to read more about this case, have a look at the resources used for this episode in the show notes. 

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