I. Gone a'Viking
"Gone a' Viking" started my second song cycle, which focused on the ocean rather than the desert. The North Atlantic was known for its dangerous waters, including icebergs and northern latitudes of darkness, changes in weather and certainty of death if one capsized in frigid waters.
The song itself spoke indirectly of Vikings who took to the sea, a strategy called "landnam," or simply, "land take." The Old Norse understood all too well the value of land, considering their own arctic climates and minimal resources. If land was not available, they took to the sea (gone a'Viking) to pillage and plunder.
I wanted to create an old Norse impression for the rest of the song cycle: "in the arctic lights burning/ spellbound afar" as well as "in the arctic winds blowing/icebound ashore." New found land was the treasure the Norsemen hoped to gain and fought ferociosly to take.
II. The North Altantic Graveyard
The North Atlantic Ocean was well-known for treachery in shipping lanes. The Old Norse navigated the unknown waters before modern technology was available. Instead of sonar, they used very primitive instruments as well as celestial risings and settings of moons, stars and planets.
I once observed a map of coastline in Nova Scotia and was shocked to see every mile around the island was marked by a shipwreck. If the North Atlantic Ocean produced so many shipwrecks, so many souls likewise must have been "drowned in the depths" with the "what if's" about their music...what if the seamen's drownings were"where the music always plays" or "where the song never ends," sounded by the eternal call of a "the depths, below." The lyrics were meant to send a chill to the flesh and thrill to the spine regarding death that never dies.
Many years ago, I played in my first and only "open mike" night, where I started the bill. Most of my songs were not finished, but I soldiered on with hope and a few hours preparation.
I found out stage fright was not my fright, that I could hold an audience with waitresses, bar glasses clinking and small talk yammering away. It went off, as they say, somewhat okay for the first and only time.
At the end of my performance, an old salt in the back of the hall yelled, "That was a good Gordon Lightfoot song!" I really appreciated the call-out and compliment, but the songs. It was "The Dirge and Free Jig," not one of Gord's sea-faring epics, but the future (to be renamed), "The North Atlantic Graveyard." Nevertheless, I was very touched by my an old mentor being heard in my song.
The song went through many re-writes, mainly to capture the oddites of the Viking culture: boarsteeds, wolfcoats, gripping beasts, narwhal staves, dragon ships. The song "never ending" and "always playing" suggested the power of the the depths to be heard when it favored the listener with its power and immensity.
III. In Old Norse Tongue
Leif Ericson was the little known discover of North America, a few centuries before Columbus. His father was Eric the Red, who was exiled to Iceland where Leif began his explorations of Greenland and the eastern provices of Canada. His landing at L'anse de Meadows in Newfoundland was later named a world heritage site.
The song was intended to be upbeat and an easier turn in the "Graveyard" cycle. An instrumental opening with a middle break was even included, rare for me. There was a subtle attempt at humor hidden in the verses: "sea legs and deck hands."
Not only was a Leif Ericson stamp issued on Leif Ericson Day in the United states, a striking statue of him stood proudly in front of a well-photographed church in Oslo, Norway. His likeness demonstrated the spirit and strength of the Norse explorers.
IV. The Evergreen Tree
I became interested in a Norse song cycle in part due to the Vikings' history of ship burials. Ship burials were curious in that ships were given the dignity of souls. It made sense to any craftsman, including myself, who valued his tools as much as his self and family.
In the tradition of Tolkien with swords, my family of instruments, four guitars and a piano, were much more than objects. They themselves had names, or souls: El Sombrero, Starbeard, or Stars-Be-Oared, Salmon Berry, or Sea Bear and Sagebrush, who were living parts of my music, to the point to where we had deep conversations artistically about the the direction of the music and who should be played on which songs. The piano was named in a dream, "Yosemite."
With "The Evergreen Tree," I hoped to develop a dialogue between self and soul, the craft and the person: "Foundered the ship / the soul set free / Ferried over the ocean blue sea...Foundered the soul / the ship to be / Buried under the evergreen tree." I wished to poeticize the paradox of ship burials, sea vessels buried beneath ground as well as the foundations of Christian churches who disavowed and exorcised paganism, yet, were built upon the site of pagan idolatry, dependant as they were on the ley lines of power of ancient deities.
It was the evergreen tree, which ever thrived. It was dead to the winter, yet alive in the greenstock, throughout the sunless time of winter. The evergreen testified to the eternal nature of the return of spirit, like songs to come in my song cycle, "The Wedding of Squash Blossom," with "The Grass Returns."
Promise was hopeful and often delivered. There was neither yea nor nay. Life was fertile yet empty, with a landscape of potentiality to come, for those who could wait to see beyond and contemplate its existence. Its beauty was glimpsed with a sense of the living and the dead, the paradox of existence.
V. Of Standing Stones
A somewhat difficult subject, standing stones were ubiquitous throughout the old world. Like acupuncture needles on meridian points of energy, I understood the wisdom to insert stones in environmental planes of the subtle body or the saluatory nexuses in the world of sentient life. Somehow, they marked spots as power points with earth energy.
The song was an invocation of an ancient way which used oblong, angled or straight stones to mark the ley lines of the landscape. People sensed the power points of these man-made designations to behold the presence of the sacred, like Stonehenge or Glastonbury in England.
The Viking culture adapted the logic of standing stones as both religious and pragmatic indicators. Runes were frequently enscribed on the stones, which graced both churchyards and gravesites.
VI. By the Midnight Sun
Scandanavia - Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark - are known for their high longitude and therefore more arctic climate, including a short summer, long winter and "midnight sun," a sun that never sets completely in the summer. The high sun may lead to "seasonal affective disorder" in summer, with depression, since no night exists for sleep. With winter's return, people may sleep better, like bears in dens who hibernate, as the sun sets in darkness in the southern hemisphere.
The song's music was written years before Big Hand, yet the idea of "whales migrating," "salmon runs," "icebergs drifting" and "snowstorms lifting" cinched the choice for title and lyrics. It comminucated the physical reality of the north without life and deep isolation.
"The Land of the Midnight Sun" is yet another wierd site for a Big Hand song. Imagine no sleep, no circadian cycle of day and night, no change in the calendar. Some would say that might lead to a disorder of mind, and perhaps they are right!
VII. Cooking the Heart
The Siegfried myth played a strong role in the archetype of Scandanavia. The god Odin obviously was important as a hero and mythic figure, the one-eyed magician and war chieftain, who found and held the runes at Ygdrassil as well as being Siegfried's greybearded protector. The song of the "Greybeard"dealt with him directly.
My interest in him centered on the turning point of his story. After slaying the dragon, his mentor, a dragon in disguise as a dwarf, suggested they cook the heart of the beast to celebrate. When Siegfriend tasted the dragon meat turning on the spit, he suddenly acquired the sense of the dragon, including the ability to understand bird's songs above in terms of Old Norse language. Thus, he discovered his mentor was plotting to kill him.
The Siegfried myth was not originally a concern for me as it was for Tolkien or Jung. No doubt, the myth of the dragon slayer was a large source of inspiration for "The Lord of the Rings." Gandalf was an Odin figure. Iceland, the runes, dragon mythology including ships, volcanoes and the Norsemen pulled the power of myths together. Nevertheless, I found myself writing a chapter in the saga of Siegfried, much to my surprise.
Siegfried was quite significant. If he hadn't cooked the heart and tasted the blood of the dragon, the powers of the other world would not have emerged in him. The hero of the Norse sagas had to be transformed and born again in dragon-slaying. He went through hardships such as apprentices share to dragons, both hero and lord. He testified to what happened when character was molded and tested by fate or destiny.
VIII. Greybeard
The Old One, Greybeard, the One-Eyed, dominated the Norse landscape. The God of Wolves and Ravens foresaw everything. He was forbidden and foreboden. He was the literary inspiration for Gandalf and probably Merlin in the saga of King Arthur. All were wizards, from northern Europe and the culture of standing stones.
I wanted to create in the cycle of of Greybeard a good day for him, "pondering" or "wandering." His finds would be important observations and accounts, which woul serve his alchemy: "markings unknown," "roots of the trees," "lines in the stone." These landmarks would give him guidance, despite foul weather or a dank wood.
"Greybeard," faced directly was a happy song for he was about his ways and so were we: free to be with becoming. The wizard was our magical self, not inflamed or bogged down, but one of determination for the four directions fate designated that we may call upon and visit. In the end, with the wolves bedside him and the ravens above on his shoulders, he was his self.
IX. Bear-Pelted, Wolf-Coated
It must be understood the Vikings were not normal in the ways they went to war. They went "beserkir" in their hair-fleeced coats or "hair shirts." They drank horns of mead and self-medicated themselves with hallucinogens which prompted them to fight with a frenzy more like beasts than humans. Savage and ferocious, they rarely showed their enemies mercy. The hallucinognic states provided them a psychological shield of invulnerability in addition to a distorted perception of power.
The song attempted to address the vulnerable states all beings must confront at some crisis with a berserker-like mentality. Whether "it rains or it snows" or "the cold wind blows," we must be prepared for hardship and intense suffering. The pessimism of non-denial says, "This will happen, this will happen, it is so. There is no choice"
When there is a blizzard, one must wrap oneself in the "bear pelt;" when there is a storm, one find protection in one's "wolf coat." A psychophysiologic state accompanied the conflict at hand. If the wolf or the bear was brought to them, they must likewise bring the wolf or the bear to confront them also. So thought and behaved the Vikings.
X. Lindisfarne
Lindisfarne was the beginning of the Vikings' Age, but the song ended the "Graveyard" album as a work of art. The Viking Age was launched in 793 at the time of the attack on Lindisfarne, yet two to three hundred years later it was spent when King Olaf of Norway becane christianized.
Gone were the plundering and pillaging, the land-takes and extreme frenzies of battle. The Vikings agreed to be civilized into the culture of their time; to become one of several European states. Lindisfarne gave way to the end of the heroic age and "twilight of the gods."
The Vikings appeared unexpectantly at the Scottish monastery without warning or expectation. The warfare of "gone a'Viking" had not appeared before that day of invasion. Monks were studying or debating scriptures with fellow cloistered abbots a few hours before the marauders landed to pillage and plunder the church sanctuary, as well as capture slaves and ravage women attendants.
Lindisfarne opened the sea channels to North Atlantic Viking exploration as well as their captivity of others. The ocean's storm of thunder and lightning purified the old ways before the centralization of state was possible. The tribal chieftain of many gods yielded to one god and government.
