It's been a year today since you left this world behind. Now you're resting in Valhalla, my fallen hero, my only love...

Books II

Here are some more books he'd told me about often, books that he really liked, apart from the ones in a pervious post:

"Master And Commander" by Patrick O'Brien, he read all the books in the serie and really loved it.

A book we both really loved as kids, "Neverending Story" by Michael Ende.

 "When it was published more than a decade ago, this special story within a story captured the hearts and imaginations of millions of readers worldwide. A lonely boy named Bastian is drawn into a beautiful but doomed world. Only Bastian can save this enchanted place of dragons, giants, monsters, and mysteries . . . but will he have to stay there forever? This beautifully repackaged hardcover classic will lure even more readers into its wondrous world."

He really liked old, mythological sagas as well: The Nibelungs, Elder Edda, Beowulf, The Ulster Cycles

He also adored the works of H.P. Lovecraft:

And Edgar Allan Poe:

The Bhagavad Gita was also a book that influenced his way of thinking:

 "The eighteen chapters of The Bhagavad Gita (c. 500 b.c.), the glory of Sanskrit literature, encompass the whole spiritual struggle of a human soul. Its three central themes—love, light, and life—arise from the symphonic vision of God in all things and of all things in God."

A book which influenced his favorite author Otto Rahn, a medieval German Arthurian tale, Parzival by Wolfram von Eschenbach:

"Composed in the early thirteenth century, Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival is the re-creation and completion of the story left unfinished by its initiator Chretien de Troyes. It follows Parzival from his boyhood and career as a knight in the court of King Arthur to his ultimate achievement as King of the Temple of the Grail, which Wolfram describes as a life-giving Stone. As a knight serving the German nobility in the imperial Hohenstauffen period, the author was uniquely placed to describe the zest and colour of his hero's world, with dazzling depictions of courtly luxury, jousting and adventure. Yet this is not simply a tale of chivalry, but an epic quest for spiritual education, as Parzival must conquer his ignorance and pride and learn humility before he can finally win the Holy Grail."

Lastly, his other favorite Tolkien book, The Silmarillion:

"The tales of The Silmarillion were the underlying inspiration and source of J.R.R. Tolkien's imaginative writing; he worked on the book throughout his life but never brought it to a final form. Long preceding in its origins The Lord of the Rings, it is the story of the First Age of Tolkien's world, the ancient drama to which characters in The Lord of the RIngs look back and in which some of them, such as Elrond and Galadriel, took part.

The title Silmarillion is shortened from Quenta Silmarillion, "The History of the Silmarils," the three great jewels created by Feanor, most gifted of the Elves, in which he imprisoned the light of the Two Trees that illumined Valinor, the land of the gods. When Morgoth, the first Dark Lord, destroyed the Trees, that light lived on only in the Silmarils; Morgoth seized them and set them in his crown, guarded in the impenetrable fortress of Angband in the north of Middle-earth. The Silmarillion is the history of the rebellion of Feanor and his people against the gods, their exile in Middle-earth, and their war, hopeless despite all the heroisim of Elves and Men, against the great Enemy.

The book includes several other, shorter works beside The Silmarillion proper. Preceding it are "Ainulindale," the myth of Creation, and "Valaquenta," in which the nature and powers of each of the gods is set forth. After The Silmarillion is "Akallabeth," the story of the downfall of the great island kingdom of Numenor at the end of the Second Age; completing the volume is "Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age," in which the events of The Lord of the Rings are treated in the manner of The Silmarillion."

Music-Metal

Robert used to like various genres of music. In this post I'm introducing some of his biggest favorites in the metal genre.

First of all, his biggest influence ever, Bathory, and a song he covered as well, Man Of Iron:

Falkenbach,  with the song Walhall:

Temnozor, with the song Where The Lazure Skies Tear The Hearts Apart:

 

Another one of his favorites,  Graveland, Impaler Of Wallachia:

lkl

An old favorite, Burzum, and the song Hvis Lyset Tar Oss:

A Nargaroth song he made me like as well, Abschiedsbrief Des Prometheus:

 

Bilskirnir, and a song he made a cover of, Final Winter War:

kgkg

A band we both really liked and seen together live, Arkona with the song Rus:

kgkgk

Manowar, a heavy metal band, and a song we both liked, Master Of The Wind:

Blind Guardian, Follow The Blind:

 

Carved In Stone, Lady Of The Wood:

 

This Polish movie, Stara Basn, is a beautiful story about Slavic Heathens, their gods, and true love. This beautiful video is a tribute to true Pagan love, the kind of love that described our love we shared with Robert.

Books

Robert was inspired by many great books that he also recommended me to read. So far, I've managed to read a few of these books to understand him and his way of thinking better. His favorite book of all was "Lucifer's Court: A Heretic's Journey In Search Of The Light Bringers" by Otto Rahn. His personality impressed him and all that he lived for; as it's described on Goodreads:

"Rahn's personal diary from his travels as occult investigator for the Third Reich - First English translation of the author's journeys in search of a Nordic equivalent to Mt. Sinai - Explains why Lucifer the Light Bringer, god of the heretics, is a positive figure Otto Rahn's lifelong search for the Grail brought him to the attention of the SS leader Himmler, who shared his esoteric interests. Induced by Himmler to become the chief investigator of the occult for the Nazis, Rahn traveled throughout Europe--from Spain to Iceland--in the mid 1930s pursuing leads to the Grail and other mysteries. Lucifer's Court is the travel diary he kept while searching for "the ghosts of the pagans and heretics who were his] ancestors." It was during this time that Rahn grasped the positive role Lucifer plays in these forbidden religions as the bearer of true illumination, similar to Apollo and other sun gods in pagan worship.This journey was also one of self-discovery for Rahn. He found such a faithful echo of his own innermost beliefs in the lives of the heretics of the past that he eventually called himself a Cathar and nurtured ambitions of restoring that faith, which had been cruelly destroyed in the fires of the Inquisition. His journeys on assignment for the Reich--including researching an alleged entrance to Hollow Earth in Iceland and searching for the true mission of Lucifer in the caves of southern France that served as refuge for the Cathars during the Inquisition--also led to his disenchantment with his employers and his mysterious death in the mountains after his break with the Nazis."

It's not easy to add anything more. This book is definietly a must-read. The first book I've finished reading in 2012.

Another book he strongly recommended to read is "The Lightning And The Sun"   by Savitri Devi. This book really says it all. Not an easy read but those who it's addressed to, can definietly understand. Goodreads says:

"A classic philosophical work about the historical inevitability of cultural decay and rebirth, written by one of Adolf Hitler's most devoted admirers. Savitri Devi couches her arguments in metaphor, using "lightning" to refer to forces of destruction and "sun" to refer to building in accordance with nature's eternal laws. Both are necessary, says Devi, since to build the pure and new one must first sweep away the rotting debris of the corrupt old order. Violence, per se, has no moral assignment; it's either worth its while or not, depending on what it aims for. For illustration, the author examines in detail the lives of three figures from history: Akhnaton, Genghis Khan, and Adolf Hitler. She argues that we are at the end of a cycle of history in which corruption and lies prevail over honor and truth, and that the time is ripe for the storm of violence that will precede the next golden age."

My own thoughts:

"Savitri Devi, Hitler's priestess. There can be a lot to be said about her. The Woman Against Time who influenced not only her contemporaries involved in National Socialism but as well as many modern day thinkers, Pagans, whether one agrees with her completely or not. She was insanely obsessed with Hitler, Nazism and esoteric Aryanism, and her most influental book, The Ligtning And The Sun, is dedicated to Hitler as well. Insane or not, she was a very intelligent and brilliant thinker.

This book - in which she explains not only about esoteric Aryanism and her thoughts about vegetarian radicalism (she was a devout defender of animal rights that it can be called like that)- contains three main parts about three historical figures: Genghis Khan, the Lightning, the survivor, fighter and destroyer; Akhnaton, the Sun, the one who creates; and Hitler, both Lightning and Sun, who destroys and creates.

Strange ideas she has sometimes and I personally don't agree with all of them 100%, no one really have to, actually, to realise that this book, neverthless, is full of great thoughts. It makes people think, who can look past her obvious insanity and discover the genious and philosopher. This great book is definietly worths reading, although it's not at all an easy read and I daresay not for everyone. Once read it, history is seen differently. Modern life as well, is seen differently. This book is brilliantly synthetizing Hinduism, refering to the Book of Books, the Bhagavad Gita many times, with National Socialist philosophy, which she sees not as a political movement but as "the true religion" of all those of Aryan ancestry. NS or not, everyone can find truth in this book.

The book dedicated to Hitler is obvious for that the chapter written about him, is clearly obsessive, the longest part of The Lightning And The Sun. She saw him as an Avatar of God. Everyone who reads this book can decide for him/herself how to take this." 

His interest in Germanic Paganism and Runes made him read "The Secret Of The Runes" by Guido von List. Those who are interested in esoteric nazism and occultism are definietly familiar with the name. I ordered a copy and read this book too:

"A classic work by List, founder of the Armanian Order. A fine work about the Rune symbology synthetised with German linguistics and pre-Christian Aryan language, about the magical meanings of the Runes and it was interesting to learn about how the hooked cross and Aryan Runes in general, were hidden in Christian symbols during the Christianisation of the German people. I learned a lot about how the Runes are one with the Aryan culture, from pre-Christian times to modern days, although very often I got lost in what I was reading and the book being a hard read, it was hard to understand sometimes. "  

Yes hard to understand. Definietly needs attention. But this book gives knowledge.

And also not to forget that Robert was a great Tolkien-fan. This year, so far, I've read "The Hobbit", one of his favorites. I'm so sad that he's no longer alive to see the upcoming movie...

Our love and relationship was like this wonderful movie about wolves, that we once watched together... The Mountains Of The Wolf... beautiful...

In this scene, Lobo and Luna find each other. Wolves choose partners for life.

The following memorial was written by Robert's dear friend Dani... A beautiful way to honour a lost friend!

"

I've been invited to join this pagan group in memory of my lost friend Robert. Just for one second I've been thinking about it because I am no longer linked to paganism in a social way since years from now. But the next second, I have immediately realized that this is for Robert, the friend whom I shared so many views on music and books which made us grow in a philosophycal way and the most important, the experiences we lived together as the friends we were. There were many reasons for us to proudly call each other "brother" besides our common tastes in art. He held a very important support on me in my lowest moments and that's something I could never forget. He never cared about where is was going in my constant changes of paths, ways and moods. He was just there with me, happy to stay next to show me his incredible ability to make me laugh (and believe when I say that that's something few people can get to achieve). Don't misstake it: he was not a joker but actually a very smart and naturally elegant person, with a great sense of humour but also conscious and intellectually worried about social and methaphysical matters which few people understand or cares of. Not like the most, indeed.

Able to think of himself in a critical way, he was awared of his faults and always tried to offset them with a strong possitive attittude towards himself and specially to the others who he liked. I remember his big blue eyes... Anyone who met him would agree that his penetrating gaze was fair, bright and lovely honest. Not like the most, indeed...

We had long conversations on topics such as Nietzsche's übermensch and Wagner's redemption through mercy. He was not stubborn or set in his ways but an open-minded person whose thirst of knowledge lead him through different paths to walk and learn to build him up a solid character, I could quote a few books we shared, like Rahn's Lucifer's Court, The Lightning and the Sun by Savitri Devi or Das Drama Richard Wagners by Houston Stewart Chamberlain, for instance, as well as Wagner's biography and many Nietzsche's works. Concerning music, we used to listen everything from classical and folk to electro and black metal, but those days when we met we were exploring Wagner's works, neo-folk and dark-militia especially.

Life happens and he moved from my city to walk his own path (not a straight one, certainly) but we stayed in touch by phone. The last time that we saw each other I had the chance to

met his beloved Anna whom he happily spent his last years. Unfortunately death also happens and I'll never met Robert again... Not here, at least.

Thank you, Anna, for being the perfect girlfriend for my dear fellow. And thank you for doing all this in his name. I know he would be very proud of you.

These next words are for Robert:

Mi querido amigo... mi hermano...

Ha sido un verdadero honor haber tenido la oportunidad de conocerte y haber compartido tantas vivencias contigo. Nos han quedado algunas cosas importantes por hacer aqui, pero la imprevisibilidad de tu partida lo ha impedido y nos ha privado a todos de la posibilidad de realizar más proyectos juntos así como de seguir disfrutando del regalo de tu amistad. Personalmente siempre te estaré agradecido y me considero en deuda contigo por muchos motivos, más allá de tu ayuda con mi obra; has sido mi fiel amigo y recordarte me llena de orgullo y me entristece a partes iguales. Solo espero y deseo que te traten bien, como tú mereces, allá donde ahora te encuentres, más allá de los límites de lo perecedero. Tú ya has sido liberado de las cadenas de la esclavitud del tiempo, mi querido amigo Robert. Mi querido hermano lobo, corre libre y aulla a los cuatro vientos desde el mundo de los muertos; que volveremos a encontranos y volveremos a reir juntos como siempre, para siempre. Tienes mi palabra, mi querido amigo, mi hermano.."

Dani.

Europagans is dedicated to my Fallen Hero, my one and only Love, Robert Lechuga McCracken (1980-2011), who left to Valhalla too soon...

Europagans will come soon!