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Death and Valhalla before/after Listening to Wagner, Gotterdammerung, Sigfried's funeral march. I remember reading the old Norse myths as a child, thinking of Ragnorok, and the particular way that the northmen veiwed death and Valhalla. I always thought it a bit odd, and not really heroic, perhaps the ignominy of being slaughtered at the hands of another and not veiwing Valhalla as much of an appropriate honor for the supreme sacrifice. Hell, they got cheated. Nowadays a fool can blow himself up on the promise of seventy two nubile virgins awaiting him at the door of the afterlife. And not a one of them knows how to suck a cock. Some reward. I remember thinking about how my favorite deity, Thor, (of course) died, at the maw of Jormungand, defeating the vile world serpent, taking three steps away from the incredible conflict and dying. Did he manage a sheepish shrug and a smile at his sons, Modi and Magni? We'll never know. Odds are, being a gruff viking type he didn't, but all the old mythologies were so fatally human. How could he not, if only to say that he had no explanation, no rhyme nor meaning for all of this. When I first heard Gotterdammerung, I imagined the first beats were those three steps. Never seen the opera, just that's what was, and is, in my mind. Hearing it now, as it builds to a feverish pitch...it sounds like victory. I can almost see his funeral train bearing him gloriously to Valhalla, to eat and drink, carouse with the Einherrar. Imagine that being played at your funeral. Of course, it all ends well, and Thor's sons champion the new era of mankind and everything is refashioned and reborn. A real tale of hope. And, at its time, as legitimately accepted and believed as many of the modern fairy tales now circulating amongst us, in its apocolyptic end and 'from the earth' beginning very similar to them all. Boo is asleep next to my laptop, curled up and quiet. He says 'hi'.
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