ON BARBARIANISM and VIKINGISM

We get some very interesting items come down the pike on the email machine . . . S.L.

Mr. Linnane,

Thank you for your excellent blog. I really enjoy reading your posts. I especially enjoyed your re-post, What is Stormbringer. I found your assertion that the civilization of ancient Rome still exists and prevails intriguing. Whereas I would agree that the classical world of Greece and Rome still have an influence on our civilization I would argue that it is much less than you and others assert.

More influential, although far less recognized, is the cultural inheritance the West received from the Northern Germanic barbarian cultures. For instance, the highly individualistic and democratic cultures of the Saxons and the Scandinavians had far more influence over the common law traditions and parliamentarian development of England, and thus by extension America, than did the Greeks or Romans. Although the Founding Fathers were quite taken with Classical writers such as Cicero, the vast majority of those classical works were not even discovered by Western Europeans until the Renaissance, long after the aforementioned common law and parliamentary traditions had taken root.

You might find the following article and book interesting reading on this subject.

Tolkien, Hitler, and Nordic Heroism




OK I'll go with this and I'll buy this premise. While I am mostly Celtic, there is a significant amount of Anglo-Saxon and even Viking blood coursing through my veins. This certainly explains while I'm drawn to the influences of Ancient Greece and Rome, I have always considered myself a Barbarian from the outlying provinces - S.L.


From Plato To NATO: The Idea of the West and Its Opponents




Excerpt: "The Modern Barbarians: It is ironic that even as Tolkien wrote to immortalize the great synthesis of Northern heroism with Biblical morality, modern barbarians labored to reverse it. The proto-Nazi "Völkisch" movement, born in the blood and humiliation of Napoleon’s conquest of Germany, had for a century agitated against Judaeo-Christian "softness," in favor of pagan ruthlessness."


Thanks again for your excellent blog. It makes being in Afghanistan a little less sucky.

S/F
Major Joel T. Leggett
Deputy Staff Judge Advocate
II MEF (FWD)


Of course there's only one way to conclude this gentleman's awesome contribution; Led Zep's immortal homage to the Norsemen who ranged far and wide during the great Viking & Saxon Era:

A-ah-ahh-ah, ah-ah-ahh-ah

We come from the land of the ice and snow

from the midnight sun where the hot springs blow

The hammer of the gods will drive our ships to new lands

To fight the horde and sing and cry

VALHALLA I AM COMING

On we sweep with, with threshing oar

Our only goal will be the western shore

Ah-ah-ahh-ah, ah-ah-ahh-ah

We come from the land of the ice and snow

from the midnight sun where the hot springs flow

How soft your fields, so green

can whisper tales of gore, of how we calmed the tides of war

We are your OVERLORDS!

On we sweep with, with threshing oar

Our only goal will be the western shore

S-so now you better stop and rebuild all your ruins

for peace and trust can winthe day despite of all you're losin'

Ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh

Ahh, ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh

Ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh

Last I heard I was blocked on the DOD net - I guess somebody high up there likes me enough to lift the blockade.

- STORMBRINGER SENDS