Svetlana's (sv_iv) Blog

Today I want to bring for your attention my second post about the international musical project  FOLKEART.

The first post and information about the project you can find here:http://blog.bitcomet.com/svetlana/post_41853/

And, as yesterday, when I prepared the information for the post, was 7th July, and it was my friend's monti http://blog.bitcomet.com/monti84metal/) birthday, I want to dedicate this post for him. (

Happy birthday, my dear friend and thank you for all your help and great patience in teaching us about metal music!

This post is about another FOLKEARTH's song Wolfsong In Moonlight (Fenris Unbound) and the story about this mythological character:

According to one myth, Loki secretly married a hideous giantess Angur-boda (anguish boding), who bore him three monstrous children: the wolf Fenris(Fenrir); Hel, the goddess of death; and Iormungandr, a terrible serpent.

The worst of all Loki offspring is the Fenris Wolf. 

 His most frequent form is that of a wolf, a wolf so monstrous that when he opens his mouth, his jaws reach to both Heaven and Earth.

Odin decided to take Fenris to Asgard, where he hoped, that with kind treatment, the wolf would become gentle and be safely under control.

At first, of course, it was a lovely little wolf cub, and the gods played games with it, especially the god Tyr, who was afraid of nothing.

But the wolf cub grew and grew, until it was so big, that is was able to swallow the world of gods and men.

Of course the gods were very frightened, so they did exactly, what we should have done. They made a chain to hold the wolf. The gods went with the chain to the wolf and asked "Do you want to play a game?"

- Oh, yes, the wolf said. What is the idea?

- We simply put the chain around your neck, and you must try to break it.

- Okay, the wolf said, and the gods placed the chain around its neck.

Of course it was broken in a second. The gods now were trembling with fear, and although they didn't know the word measurable, because the word is connected with our modern world of science, they went round their world and collected all measurable materials and melted them to a new chain.

Everything, which you can measure and weigh, was in that chain.

With this second chain they went forward to the Fenris Wolf. It took days to drag the heavy chain, and far away the gods could hear the Fenris Wolf laughing and shouting: - If you once reach me, it will be an honor to break that chain.

After some days the gods succeeded and placed the chain around the neck of the wolf, but again the chain was broken in a second.

Now a cold sweat of fear hit the gods, and they went to the dwarfs in the hills. 

So the gods asked the dwarfs to make a third chain, and they got the strangest chain you ever heard of.

IThe dark elves used their magic arts to make a slender silken rope from such materials as the sound of a cat's footsteps, a woman's beard, the roots of a mountain, the longings of the bear, the voice of fishes, and the spittle of birds; and when it was finished they sent it to the gods with the assurance that no strength would be able to break it, and that the more it was strained the stronger it would become.

Taking this thin rope, the gods again proposed to test his strength. Although Fenris had grown even stronger, he didn't trust the cord that looked so thin.

He refused to allow himself to be tied up unless one of the gods would agree to put his hand in his mouth, and leave it there, as a pledge of good faith, that no magic arts were to be used against him.

But then the god Tyr, who had played with the wolf, when it was a cub, stepped forward and promised to put his arm into the mouth of the monster.

The chain was not broken. That gave the gods a big laugh. But not Tyr. He was an arm shorter.

The old Norse people knew, that the real strength in life  comes from, what you'll never find under a microscope or what you can touch, such as love, attitude, belief, feeling and hope.

With Fenris now bound by Gleipner, the magickal bond was attached to a chain called Gelgia, which was pushed into a hole in a massive rock sunk deep in the earth called Gjall. As a final indignity, Fenris's mouth was prised open with a sword, and there he remained until Ragnarok. Blood and saliva flowed from the open jaws of Fenris, and this formed the great rushing river of Von, with its two stream of Wil and Wan.

At Ragnarok Fenris was indeed unleashed, and as Wyrd broke his chain, he ran onto the plain of Vigrid, where he killed his blood-uncle and nemesis, Odin; as it is written in the Voluspa: for there dies Frigg's delight. However, Fenris suffered retribution too, and was killed by Odin's vengeful son Vidar, who tore his jaws asunder, and drove his spear into his heart.

Fenris, like the Wolf's Hook Cross, is a representation of unchangeable fate. There is an aura of fatality surrounding him that the gods sense, and none more so than Odin, because it is primarily his existence which is subject to Fenris's whim. 

And now you know what it is about the playing song of the band FOLKEARTH's album "A Nordic Poem"