Hello all,

I will make a book with the titel: "Dark Folk Heimskringla" The concept of this book is to determine the subculture Dark Folk through text, pictures and all things what can be in a book. I will emphasise that it is about the subculture, not about the music Dark Folk - Neo Folk.

In short: For me the Dark Folk subculture is about to experience or evoke pre-industrial/pre-baptizing times, influenced by the timeframe where we live now in: without believing in gods, spirits, ideologies or morals (the 'Dark' aspect in Dark Folk).

This does not mean that this is the starting point of the book, I put it just here to give somehow a grip what the book is about. You are free to question this position or to create an all other concept of what Dark Folk is.

You can send:

- Philosophical text
- a little story
- poetic stuff
- copies of photo's, drawings, paintings of your own making (in digital format)
- a series of pictures you found on the net (or elsewhere) that you find very interesting for the subject. max.5 (don't forget to mention the author)
- other stuff you think it has to be in the book

Texts has to be in correct English. If needed, let it correct by other people.
(As you might read, my English is not that good, and I don't want to overburden my brother or my friends to correct your texts.)

The texts and pictures will be selected by to be grounded, by originality - authenticity - quality and by the closeness to the subject.

The book will be available for free on my website in pdf format. If the market have interest it could later on be published...
I will begin to work on the book around the 15th of October. Till then you have the time to send stuff you made. Don't forget your name or your nickname (if you prefer so) when sending your stuff to me. The book will become in A5 format.

You can send all your stuff to: p0248@hotmail.com
If you have further questions: send me an e-mail too.
Website: www.pietervn.be/blog/
-> go to "Theoretical Development"
Here you will also find the cover proposal of the book.
I can speak English, but my mother tongue is Dutch (Flanders).

About me and the book:
I'm an artist (1981-Leuven), graduated on the university of Art (Sint-Lukas Brussel). At this time my main occupation as artist is to make books about different subjects, but always on the same path so to say. Potential collaboration was always a very important subject in my work. With the book "Dark Folk Heimskringla" I hope to close down this book project, that's why it is important to make this book with you. "Dark Folk Heimskringla" will become the 11th book I work on. It will become part of project "Library", that will be displayed on art exhibitions.

My own contribution in the content of the book is a philosophical text to determine Dark Folk. (next to the cover)

All the best and I hope that there are people over here that can contribute on this project.

Pieter Van Nieuwenhuyse
(aka Rauk Ullgard)

Nee.

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Op 18 augustus 2011 12:36 schreef Onweerwolf het volgende:
Nee.

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:')

Dit.

Come there also Hobbits in front?

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Op 18 augustus 2011 11:36 schreef Ulgard het volgende:
Texts has to be in correct English.

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Godver, zover had ik nog niet eens gelezen.

Graag verder alleen serieuze reacties.

Serieuze reacties? Hij vraagt om aangeleverd materiaal in goed Engels, terwijl dat hele stuk in gruwelijks houtskolen-engels is opgesteld? Mag toch heel hard hopen dat het uiteindelijke produkt in zijn moerstaal is, want als het voor de Engelse markt bedoeld is dan zal het blijven bij een exemplaar voor paps en mams en eentje voor oma. Het doet gewoon pijn om het te lezen, zoveel kromme zinnen als erin staan.

[Dit bericht is gewijzigd door Mark op 18-08-2011 12:58]

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Op 18 augustus 2011 12:57 schreef Mark het volgende:
Serieuze reacties? Hij vraagt om aangeleverd materiaal in goed Engels, terwijl dat hele stuk in gruwelijks houtskolen-engels is opgesteld? Mag toch heel hard hopen dat het uiteindelijke produkt in zijn moerstaal is, want als het voor de Engelse markt bedoeld is dan zal het blijven bij een exemplaar voor paps en mams en eentje voor oma. Het doet gewoon pijn om het te lezen, zoveel kromme zinnen als erin staan.

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Klopt. Daarom zegt hij zelf al dat zijn Engels niet zo goed is, en suggereert/zegt hij dat z'n broer zijn stuk op niveau zal brengen

Ik ben nog niet echt siked.

Vraag het hier dan gewoon in het Nederlands, denk ik dan, en zet erbij dat je de stukken graag in het Engels aangelverd krijgt.

Ik like het nog niet.

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Op 18 augustus 2011 13:01 schreef Mark het volgende:
Vraag het hier dan gewoon in het Nederlands, denk ik dan, en zet erbij dat je de stukken graag in het Engels aangelverd krijgt.

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Ja, terecht Maar goed, we doen het nu hiermee

Never heard about dark folk, but I'd love a cup of light folk to accompany my early mourning cigarette.

Did you create other books or is this your first one??

I'd love to read some work by you you know.

What is the concept of Dark Folk?

[edit]Folk noir
Folk noir was a term originally coined by photographer David Mearns in the 1980s to describe the music of mid-period Sol Invictus[citation needed]. It is generally related to Tursa Records-related bands. It is sometimes found on webzines as a more neutral term, without the specific connotations of "neofolk", but the meaning is largely the same though the usage of the term noir hints at an overall dark subject matter.[citation needed]
Other vague terms sometimes used to describe artists of this genre include "dark folk" and "pagan folk". These terms are umbrella terms that also describe various other forms of unrelated music.[1]

Mijn excuses voor het Engelse voorstel, ik was te lui om een Nederlands voorstel te schrijven: ik heb het namelijk ook in Engelse en Duitse forums gepost, vandaar.

Black Jew asked: Did you create other books or is this your first one??

--> Yes, go to www.pietervn.be/blog/ there you will find 9 other books (pdf).

Hieronder de tekst die ik zelf heb geschreven voor het boek (dat mijn broer al verbeterd heeft), hopelijk dus beter dan mijn voorstel Zoals ik in mijn voorstel schrijf is dit mijn mening, weliswaar gefundeerd in een theorie. Dus is dit niet noodzakelijk waarover Dark Folk of het boek hoeft te gaan, dat bepalen de mensen die iets gefundeerd opsturen.

Groeten,
Ullgard

Dark Folk Heimskringla

Dark Folk
Essay by Pieter Van Nieuwenhuyse

Philosophy of the false belief

It’s all about false belief or about shaping a nonsensical foolish world to approach a particular atmosphere. Which has to be subjective. As long as it is not dogmatic, it shouldn’t be a problem. The question is: if the false belief is supported by many people, is it still a false belief, or has the false belief become the real world?

Dark Folk versus Neofolk

Neofolk is mainly known as a musical genre, but has also a philosophical and esthetical meaning. There is no big difference between Neofolk and Dark Folk as musical genres. But it’s not about the music in this Heimskringla, it’s all about the (sub)culture, which is more like a collection of an amount of treated themes and certain aesthetics than of musical styles: therefore bands in Neofolk as well as in other genres like Black Metal or Ambient can become part of the same cultural collection.
To discriminate between the Neofolk and Dark Folk subculture, we need to know the difference between the adjectives neo, post, contemporary and traditional; whose definitions are not always clear today. Here, I try to establish a stable framework and definitions to all these different adjectives. And then you will notice that another folk approach hides within Dark Folk than within Neofolk:
A contemporary movement is a movement that represents the most recent timeframe. There can be elements of post, neo or traditional in it, it is framed by the way we think today. Opposed to contemporary we may place historical as that which is from another timeframe. Historical is however always a closed timeframe that comes from what has occurred.
Certain groups want to recall and enforce historical timeframes in the present day; this is the neo movement. As such it is a recall of ancient norms, values and aesthetics. This is however a nostalgic consideration. The past is unknown; we know only how we think about the past. Neo therefore always resides in the realm of clichés. The cultivation of these kinds of clichés does not only bring us subcultures, but is also responsible for the creation of an imaginary world. It is therefore more about imagining a time than about the facts, but facts are the food of imagination.
Traditional is a restricted continuation of a passed timeframe. It has lost its power to restore its original timeframe and is therefore what remains of a past glory. Alone the neo can restore, but only on its conditions. Some individuals can come in course with a historical timeframe (or work in the ways of those days), on the condition that they can stand the rest of the world and keep working on their own. The outcome of their activities shall probably be closer to the contemporary than to the traditional.
The evolution from one timeframe into another confers many possibilities with many possible branches. The cultural collections of new timeframes are more often each other’s opponents than an evolution. (And thus a slow evolution.) With the insights gained from the evolving timeframes, post grasps back to a historical timeframe, to create with these insights a new timeframe. The historical timeframe comes as such back to blossom, but in a new-branched form. This is the germ for a new timeframe that can succeed a series of opposing timeframes.
In spite of the importance of the aesthetical and the philosophical to measure subcultures, we can only measure subcultures today by the expressions of bands and all of the music related world around them. Visual artists fulfil in this contemporary timeframe a more observing and researching role and so they don’t lie on the basics of what can be researched. Thus they lost the leading role. The visual artists who are active in aesthetic production concerning subcultures on the other hand are working practically completely for the musical world. They are more designers than artists, as they imagine the feeling and philosophy behind the music. If one wants to make a distinction between the many branches of subcultures cognizable and give them a definition, one has to do a research into the aesthetical and philosophical production of the musical world. These designers have captured the leading role in this timeframe.
Neofolk could refer to a folkloristic timeframe in a preindustrial society. Today, the main branch of the Neofolk subculture however goes to the historical timeframe before Christianization, it refers to a heathen belief and mythology that baptizing destroyed almost completely. Together with an aesthetical frame, there is in the Neofolk also a strong sense of philosophy based on religion and ideology (paganism). The aesthetical is about paganish symbols and the surrounding world of that particular timeframe: a natural – primal world without cities and pollution. It’s not clear in which of the two frames (the philosophical or the aesthetical) the motivation lies. But that is not the issue; the two frames are in such a way braided; that is what Neofolk is today.
Dark Folk and Neofolk made an intermediate stop in the nineteenth century, at which time romanticism brought paganism and the primal world back to life. Romanticism was thus also a neo movement, but there where also post influences. Neofolk and Dark Folk can be seen as a second romantic period.
Dark Folk is however a post movement. Dark is the insight that is been captured during the process of different timeframes since the folk period it refers to. Although, honestly, it refers to the same primeval world as the Neofolk, it swears off any doubt about religion or ideology. Dark stands for the insight that life is only surrounded by darkness: man stands alone and can only find liberation in the self. The Dark Folk subculture tries to find this liberation in the creation of a world of experience. The primal is in this creation process very important, because it remembers us of a liberating experience when we saw primeval landscapes and sceneries. The folk in the Dark Folk is as such not the point of departure, but rather the solution to the post problem.
We can come across religious/paganish references in Dark Folk, but those will have only a theatrical function that gives the idealistic Dark Folk timeframe an extra atmosphere.
Neofolk and Dark Folk share utterly the same aesthetical world. But where for the one it is a world of liberation, it is for the other a sacred world that can also feel liberating, but the forms of their subculture subdue the individual. That depends of course on the degree to which the individual follows the religious or ideological parts of Neofolk. As such, there is a grey zone between the two brotherhood cultures, a brotherhood because the two subcultures could live in the same world without bothering the aesthetical or sacral experience of each other.

Dark Folk utopia

“Dark stands for the insight that life is only surrounded by darkness: man stands alone and can only find liberation in the self.”
Real freedom is impossible, because liberation is temporally. The one and only thing a person can do is to heighten or lower the frequency of temporal liberation; by trying to fit in society or estrange from it. I believe strongly in progression as an aim for the individual and for society. This progression is for me the same as trying to find liberation. The finding is not the liberation itself, it is to find the insight how to come to liberation; or to find which content we need. If the insight is found then the pathway in which the content has to be realized just begins to start. But before all that can happen, one has to become aware of all ideological and cultural fixed reference points that try to foist preferences.
Liberation is to have a good feeling; we don’t need to explain that feeling. Everyone knows what it means. It is the opposite of feeling bad. The key to a good feeling is passion or to be passionate about something. The research into the process of progression is a research into the moments of being passionate. It is a goal to repeat these moments and its conditions as often as possible, so that the experience will become ever deeper.
Dark Folk is such a construction that creates the conditions to be a structure where a specific kind of passionateness can be expressed. Members of the Dark Folk movement think that they can find passion by a folk construction that looks likes or is based around a preindustrial or pre-Christian timeframe when primeval forces still had a meaning and could express themselves aesthetically.
The most important thing in Dark Folk is therefore the aesthetical (the expression of all senses). An ideological or religious frame works contra-productive if this frame becomes the criterion of aesthetical expression. Dark is the individual way. If the Dark Folker has the need to put ideological or religious stuff in his/her world, then this stuff always takes the second place: it has more a theatrical function that lays not more than some associations. If the subjective/aesthetical takes the second place we could speak of Neofolk or another subculture. Aesthetics are important because they are needed to create a world of experience: it’s from the recognition of ourselves in the other (environment or person) that a good feeling originates. Besides the aesthetic, the personal contact is of course of the same level. The progressive pathway is probably a long way of which we will never see the end in our short lives.
The expression of the Dark Folk timeframe can however occur in three different ways:
Probably the most known and most walked way is that of the cultural expression. With symbols and clothing on one side and with decoration in the domestic atmosphere on the other, the world of the Dark Folker is clothed with Dark Folk elements. It is about the clothing of daily life; as such the daily life does not adapt the Dark Folk frame. But for most people it’s not a necessity, they need just that little bit subculture to go through life and be satisfied. We could say that people who express themselves only utterly don’t follow the essence of their subculture. But ok, everyone knows what is best for him or her and how deep they will go. It would also be wrong to just follow, if there is no deeper need to go into the deep. I will examine here however where the life of a Dark Folker goes to if he/she wants to complete the pathway of Dark Folk.
Then we come to the second way of expression. This is about the creation of an ideal or utopian world into which the Dark Folker can put all his/her passion. I think that the closest way we can come to our utopia is to place it in a restricted scale: appropriated on the individual, not on society. The choice is then rapidly made: the creation of a folk related environment encircled by a primeval scene or a scene with a primeval feeling. Thus it is about a concrete expression: a house from primal elements encircled by forest, mountains, the sea, an abandoned industrial site etc. Which elements can be used depends on the preferences of the individual and belongs to the discussion of the aesthetical branches. The consequences of utopian desire can have the result (but not necessary have) that one has to live a more primitive life to fulfil the aesthetical desires of the Dark Folker. The concrete making of the Dark Folk utopia is here in line with the hippie and survival movements. From the hippie movement we can learn the feasibility of certain projects and of the knowledge they have about materials we could use to build our ideal aesthetic house. Of the survival movement we can learn for example how we can provide in secondary needs to provide ourselves with water and electricity if we choose to move to a place far away from an urban environment.
Dark Folk comes to life in cultural and concrete expressions. Over these expressions hangs a mental network where the social interaction can blossom. This mental network is of course the fundament of every subculture. But there is more. When we name this mental world and we weave certain stories on it then this mental world becomes more concrete. I name the creation of such stories and the naming of certain aspects of this mental world the mental expression. This mental expression gives a feeling of connectedness, that together with the cultural and concrete expression are needed to deepen the conditions to get passionate. The mental expression raises the individual to a mythical world; the individual becomes part of a living legend. Certain individuals will come more to the front than others, but everyone can have the feeling to be part of a bigger entirety. Also if they live isolated.

III Aesthetic branches

The aesthetic branches are not my invention, I just analysed the existing cultural expressions in the music world; which grouped together in smaller Dark Folk branches. It’s not my intention to split up the Dark Folk subculture further in different factions, I want to bring the Dark Folk aesthetics more to the conscious and as such give the tools to be helpful in developing individual aesthetics in the cultural, concrete and mental expressions. Different branches can be mingled lustfully. It certainly is about the individual or about what can be made personal by assimilating the subcultural expressions into one’s own world.
To make the aesthetical branches more lyrical, I translated them into five landscapes. Those five are brought together into the misty Mirkwoods, what matches in my opinion the regular Dark Folk atmosphere. The following ‘Mirky Realms’ give a regular feeling that has yet to be deepened out:
Iceheim (Dark Primordial): Not for humanity, occasionally disturbed by avalanches and falling stones. This realm exists in planes of ice, high mountain ranges, glaciers, chilly tundra and frosted lakes. Only on the border of Iceheim are hunting huts and old mines. Deep ravines and caverns, icy winds, darkness and blinding light.
Bleakwood (Dark Primeval): Think here on vast coniferous forests in a harsh and dark climate, where chilly winds blow over hills and mountain flanks and where icy brooks gurgle through the silent woods. Constantly one has to challenge the elements of nature when journeying through this realm, where dark fortresses cast their shadows over the land. At some places one will find lonely huts raised from primitive materials. The journeyer will be startled during the night by howling wolves, mostly far away, sometimes alarmingly close.
Waldheim (Primeval Folk): Where Bleakwood is more a harsh forest, Waldheim is a more gentle forest. Have here in mind an oak and beech forest with rivers and lakes. In the winter thick packages of snow cover the irregular woods in a sinister atmosphere, in the summer one hears birds whistle, thick green leaves wave in the evening wind. The inhabitants of Waldheim are leading an isolated life in their huts on the border of the forest or deep in the woods of old. They taste each day from the scent and colour of their environment.
Folkheim (Dark Folk): In a community in a village surrounded by heathland or silent forests. Depending on the region people inhabit houses of wood, stone or loam. During the different seasons there is a picturesque atmosphere. Not kitsch, but the rough reality and the somehow abandoned side of a closed autonomous community that strives more for proud romantic values than for economic welfare, connected with agriculture and the rough elements of nature.
Postheim (Industrial Folk): Around abandoned industry there is often a dark draught, which does recall dark prehistoric times where man had to struggle the rough and pesky nature. In Postheim the Dark Folker combines elements of abandoned industry with elements of Folkheim: industrial elements are used to bring forth the ideal environment. In a more extreme Postheim climate one could build a more rural Postheim inside an old industrial environment.

LB

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Op 22 augustus 2011 12:32 schreef MR. N het volgende:
LB

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Lazy Bastard

Nee.... LB.

quote:

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Op 22 augustus 2011 12:36 schreef MR. N het volgende:
Nee.... LB.

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Geen idee wat je er mee bedoelt maar + 1

Ik gok op 'Lekker belangrijk' of 'Lekker boeiend'.

Dat zou het voor mij namelijk betekenen.

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Op 22 augustus 2011 13:14 schreef Illusione het volgende:
Ik gok op 'Lekker belangrijk' of 'Lekker boeiend'.

Dat zou het voor mij namelijk betekenen.

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Ah, in dat geval nog een keer +1

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Op 22 augustus 2011 12:24 schreef Ulgard het volgende:
Mijn excuses voor het Engelse voorstel, ik was te lui om een Nederlands voorstel te schrijven: ik heb het namelijk ook in Engelse en Duitse forums gepost, vandaar.

Black Jew asked: Did you create other books or is this your first one??

--> Yes, go to www.pietervn.be/blog/ there you will find 9 other books (pdf).

Hieronder de tekst die ik zelf heb geschreven voor het boek (dat mijn broer al verbeterd heeft), hopelijk dus beter dan mijn voorstel Zoals ik in mijn voorstel schrijf is dit mijn mening, weliswaar gefundeerd in een theorie. Dus is dit niet noodzakelijk waarover Dark Folk of het boek hoeft te gaan, dat bepalen de mensen die iets gefundeerd opsturen.

Groeten,
Ullgard

Dark Folk Heimskringla

Dark Folk
Essay by Pieter Van Nieuwenhuyse

Philosophy of the false belief

It’s all about false belief or about shaping a nonsensical foolish world to approach a particular atmosphere. Which has to be subjective. As long as it is not dogmatic, it shouldn’t be a problem. The question is: if the false belief is supported by many people, is it still a false belief, or has the false belief become the real world?

Dark Folk versus Neofolk

Neofolk is mainly known as a musical genre, but has also a philosophical and esthetical meaning. There is no big difference between Neofolk and Dark Folk as musical genres. But it’s not about the music in this Heimskringla, it’s all about the (sub)culture, which is more like a collection of an amount of treated themes and certain aesthetics than of musical styles: therefore bands in Neofolk as well as in other genres like Black Metal or Ambient can become part of the same cultural collection.
To discriminate between the Neofolk and Dark Folk subculture, we need to know the difference between the adjectives neo, post, contemporary and traditional; whose definitions are not always clear today. Here, I try to establish a stable framework and definitions to all these different adjectives. And then you will notice that another folk approach hides within Dark Folk than within Neofolk:
A contemporary movement is a movement that represents the most recent timeframe. There can be elements of post, neo or traditional in it, it is framed by the way we think today. Opposed to contemporary we may place historical as that which is from another timeframe. Historical is however always a closed timeframe that comes from what has occurred.
Certain groups want to recall and enforce historical timeframes in the present day; this is the neo movement. As such it is a recall of ancient norms, values and aesthetics. This is however a nostalgic consideration. The past is unknown; we know only how we think about the past. Neo therefore always resides in the realm of clichés. The cultivation of these kinds of clichés does not only bring us subcultures, but is also responsible for the creation of an imaginary world. It is therefore more about imagining a time than about the facts, but facts are the food of imagination.
Traditional is a restricted continuation of a passed timeframe. It has lost its power to restore its original timeframe and is therefore what remains of a past glory. Alone the neo can restore, but only on its conditions. Some individuals can come in course with a historical timeframe (or work in the ways of those days), on the condition that they can stand the rest of the world and keep working on their own. The outcome of their activities shall probably be closer to the contemporary than to the traditional.
The evolution from one timeframe into another confers many possibilities with many possible branches. The cultural collections of new timeframes are more often each other’s opponents than an evolution. (And thus a slow evolution.) With the insights gained from the evolving timeframes, post grasps back to a historical timeframe, to create with these insights a new timeframe. The historical timeframe comes as such back to blossom, but in a new-branched form. This is the germ for a new timeframe that can succeed a series of opposing timeframes.
In spite of the importance of the aesthetical and the philosophical to measure subcultures, we can only measure subcultures today by the expressions of bands and all of the music related world around them. Visual artists fulfil in this contemporary timeframe a more observing and researching role and so they don’t lie on the basics of what can be researched. Thus they lost the leading role. The visual artists who are active in aesthetic production concerning subcultures on the other hand are working practically completely for the musical world. They are more designers than artists, as they imagine the feeling and philosophy behind the music. If one wants to make a distinction between the many branches of subcultures cognizable and give them a definition, one has to do a research into the aesthetical and philosophical production of the musical world. These designers have captured the leading role in this timeframe.
Neofolk could refer to a folkloristic timeframe in a preindustrial society. Today, the main branch of the Neofolk subculture however goes to the historical timeframe before Christianization, it refers to a heathen belief and mythology that baptizing destroyed almost completely. Together with an aesthetical frame, there is in the Neofolk also a strong sense of philosophy based on religion and ideology (paganism). The aesthetical is about paganish symbols and the surrounding world of that particular timeframe: a natural – primal world without cities and pollution. It’s not clear in which of the two frames (the philosophical or the aesthetical) the motivation lies. But that is not the issue; the two frames are in such a way braided; that is what Neofolk is today.
Dark Folk and Neofolk made an intermediate stop in the nineteenth century, at which time romanticism brought paganism and the primal world back to life. Romanticism was thus also a neo movement, but there where also post influences. Neofolk and Dark Folk can be seen as a second romantic period.
Dark Folk is however a post movement. Dark is the insight that is been captured during the process of different timeframes since the folk period it refers to. Although, honestly, it refers to the same primeval world as the Neofolk, it swears off any doubt about religion or ideology. Dark stands for the insight that life is only surrounded by darkness: man stands alone and can only find liberation in the self. The Dark Folk subculture tries to find this liberation in the creation of a world of experience. The primal is in this creation process very important, because it remembers us of a liberating experience when we saw primeval landscapes and sceneries. The folk in the Dark Folk is as such not the point of departure, but rather the solution to the post problem.
We can come across religious/paganish references in Dark Folk, but those will have only a theatrical function that gives the idealistic Dark Folk timeframe an extra atmosphere.
Neofolk and Dark Folk share utterly the same aesthetical world. But where for the one it is a world of liberation, it is for the other a sacred world that can also feel liberating, but the forms of their subculture subdue the individual. That depends of course on the degree to which the individual follows the religious or ideological parts of Neofolk. As such, there is a grey zone between the two brotherhood cultures, a brotherhood because the two subcultures could live in the same world without bothering the aesthetical or sacral experience of each other.

Dark Folk utopia

“Dark stands for the insight that life is only surrounded by darkness: man stands alone and can only find liberation in the self.”
Real freedom is impossible, because liberation is temporally. The one and only thing a person can do is to heighten or lower the frequency of temporal liberation; by trying to fit in society or estrange from it. I believe strongly in progression as an aim for the individual and for society. This progression is for me the same as trying to find liberation. The finding is not the liberation itself, it is to find the insight how to come to liberation; or to find which content we need. If the insight is found then the pathway in which the content has to be realized just begins to start. But before all that can happen, one has to become aware of all ideological and cultural fixed reference points that try to foist preferences.
Liberation is to have a good feeling; we don’t need to explain that feeling. Everyone knows what it means. It is the opposite of feeling bad. The key to a good feeling is passion or to be passionate about something. The research into the process of progression is a research into the moments of being passionate. It is a goal to repeat these moments and its conditions as often as possible, so that the experience will become ever deeper.
Dark Folk is such a construction that creates the conditions to be a structure where a specific kind of passionateness can be expressed. Members of the Dark Folk movement think that they can find passion by a folk construction that looks likes or is based around a preindustrial or pre-Christian timeframe when primeval forces still had a meaning and could express themselves aesthetically.
The most important thing in Dark Folk is therefore the aesthetical (the expression of all senses). An ideological or religious frame works contra-productive if this frame becomes the criterion of aesthetical expression. Dark is the individual way. If the Dark Folker has the need to put ideological or religious stuff in his/her world, then this stuff always takes the second place: it has more a theatrical function that lays not more than some associations. If the subjective/aesthetical takes the second place we could speak of Neofolk or another subculture. Aesthetics are important because they are needed to create a world of experience: it’s from the recognition of ourselves in the other (environment or person) that a good feeling originates. Besides the aesthetic, the personal contact is of course of the same level. The progressive pathway is probably a long way of which we will never see the end in our short lives.
The expression of the Dark Folk timeframe can however occur in three different ways:
Probably the most known and most walked way is that of the cultural expression. With symbols and clothing on one side and with decoration in the domestic atmosphere on the other, the world of the Dark Folker is clothed with Dark Folk elements. It is about the clothing of daily life; as such the daily life does not adapt the Dark Folk frame. But for most people it’s not a necessity, they need just that little bit subculture to go through life and be satisfied. We could say that people who express themselves only utterly don’t follow the essence of their subculture. But ok, everyone knows what is best for him or her and how deep they will go. It would also be wrong to just follow, if there is no deeper need to go into the deep. I will examine here however where the life of a Dark Folker goes to if he/she wants to complete the pathway of Dark Folk.
Then we come to the second way of expression. This is about the creation of an ideal or utopian world into which the Dark Folker can put all his/her passion. I think that the closest way we can come to our utopia is to place it in a restricted scale: appropriated on the individual, not on society. The choice is then rapidly made: the creation of a folk related environment encircled by a primeval scene or a scene with a primeval feeling. Thus it is about a concrete expression: a house from primal elements encircled by forest, mountains, the sea, an abandoned industrial site etc. Which elements can be used depends on the preferences of the individual and belongs to the discussion of the aesthetical branches. The consequences of utopian desire can have the result (but not necessary have) that one has to live a more primitive life to fulfil the aesthetical desires of the Dark Folker. The concrete making of the Dark Folk utopia is here in line with the hippie and survival movements. From the hippie movement we can learn the feasibility of certain projects and of the knowledge they have about materials we could use to build our ideal aesthetic house. Of the survival movement we can learn for example how we can provide in secondary needs to provide ourselves with water and electricity if we choose to move to a place far away from an urban environment.
Dark Folk comes to life in cultural and concrete expressions. Over these expressions hangs a mental network where the social interaction can blossom. This mental network is of course the fundament of every subculture. But there is more. When we name this mental world and we weave certain stories on it then this mental world becomes more concrete. I name the creation of such stories and the naming of certain aspects of this mental world the mental expression. This mental expression gives a feeling of connectedness, that together with the cultural and concrete expression are needed to deepen the conditions to get passionate. The mental expression raises the individual to a mythical world; the individual becomes part of a living legend. Certain individuals will come more to the front than others, but everyone can have the feeling to be part of a bigger entirety. Also if they live isolated.

III Aesthetic branches

The aesthetic branches are not my invention, I just analysed the existing cultural expressions in the music world; which grouped together in smaller Dark Folk branches. It’s not my intention to split up the Dark Folk subculture further in different factions, I want to bring the Dark Folk aesthetics more to the conscious and as such give the tools to be helpful in developing individual aesthetics in the cultural, concrete and mental expressions. Different branches can be mingled lustfully. It certainly is about the individual or about what can be made personal by assimilating the subcultural expressions into one’s own world.
To make the aesthetical branches more lyrical, I translated them into five landscapes. Those five are brought together into the misty Mirkwoods, what matches in my opinion the regular Dark Folk atmosphere. The following ‘Mirky Realms’ give a regular feeling that has yet to be deepened out:
Iceheim (Dark Primordial): Not for humanity, occasionally disturbed by avalanches and falling stones. This realm exists in planes of ice, high mountain ranges, glaciers, chilly tundra and frosted lakes. Only on the border of Iceheim are hunting huts and old mines. Deep ravines and caverns, icy winds, darkness and blinding light.
Bleakwood (Dark Primeval): Think here on vast coniferous forests in a harsh and dark climate, where chilly winds blow over hills and mountain flanks and where icy brooks gurgle through the silent woods. Constantly one has to challenge the elements of nature when journeying through this realm, where dark fortresses cast their shadows over the land. At some places one will find lonely huts raised from primitive materials. The journeyer will be startled during the night by howling wolves, mostly far away, sometimes alarmingly close.
Waldheim (Primeval Folk): Where Bleakwood is more a harsh forest, Waldheim is a more gentle forest. Have here in mind an oak and beech forest with rivers and lakes. In the winter thick packages of snow cover the irregular woods in a sinister atmosphere, in the summer one hears birds whistle, thick green leaves wave in the evening wind. The inhabitants of Waldheim are leading an isolated life in their huts on the border of the forest or deep in the woods of old. They taste each day from the scent and colour of their environment.
Folkheim (Dark Folk): In a community in a village surrounded by heathland or silent forests. Depending on the region people inhabit houses of wood, stone or loam. During the different seasons there is a picturesque atmosphere. Not kitsch, but the rough reality and the somehow abandoned side of a closed autonomous community that strives more for proud romantic values than for economic welfare, connected with agriculture and the rough elements of nature.
Postheim (Industrial Folk): Around abandoned industry there is often a dark draught, which does recall dark prehistoric times where man had to struggle the rough and pesky nature. In Postheim the Dark Folker combines elements of abandoned industry with elements of Folkheim: industrial elements are used to bring forth the ideal environment. In a more extreme Postheim climate one could build a more rural Postheim inside an old industrial environment.

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tl;dr

quote:

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Op 22 augustus 2011 12:24 schreef Ulgard het volgende:
...letters and words...

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Summary? It isn't attractive to read at all.

quote:

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Op 22 augustus 2011 12:24 schreef Ulgard het volgende:
Mijn excuses voor het Engelse voorstel, ik was te lui om een Nederlands voorstel te schrijven: ik heb het namelijk ook in Engelse en Duitse forums gepost, vandaar.

Black Jew asked: Did you create other books or is this your first one??

--> Yes, go to www.pietervn.be/blog/ there you will find 9 other books (pdf).

Hieronder de tekst die ik zelf heb geschreven voor het boek (dat mijn broer al verbeterd heeft), hopelijk dus beter dan mijn voorstel Zoals ik in mijn voorstel schrijf is dit mijn mening, weliswaar gefundeerd in een theorie. Dus is dit niet noodzakelijk waarover Dark Folk of het boek hoeft te gaan, dat bepalen de mensen die iets gefundeerd opsturen.

Groeten,
Ullgard

Dark Folk Heimskringla

Dark Folk
Essay by Pieter Van Nieuwenhuyse

Philosophy of the false belief

It’s all about false belief or about shaping a nonsensical foolish world to approach a particular atmosphere. Which has to be subjective. As long as it is not dogmatic, it shouldn’t be a problem. The question is: if the false belief is supported by many people, is it still a false belief, or has the false belief become the real world?

Dark Folk versus Neofolk

Neofolk is mainly known as a musical genre, but has also a philosophical and esthetical meaning. There is no big difference between Neofolk and Dark Folk as musical genres. But it’s not about the music in this Heimskringla, it’s all about the (sub)culture, which is more like a collection of an amount of treated themes and certain aesthetics than of musical styles: therefore bands in Neofolk as well as in other genres like Black Metal or Ambient can become part of the same cultural collection.
To discriminate between the Neofolk and Dark Folk subculture, we need to know the difference between the adjectives neo, post, contemporary and traditional; whose definitions are not always clear today. Here, I try to establish a stable framework and definitions to all these different adjectives. And then you will notice that another folk approach hides within Dark Folk than within Neofolk:
A contemporary movement is a movement that represents the most recent timeframe. There can be elements of post, neo or traditional in it, it is framed by the way we think today. Opposed to contemporary we may place historical as that which is from another timeframe. Historical is however always a closed timeframe that comes from what has occurred.
Certain groups want to recall and enforce historical timeframes in the present day; this is the neo movement. As such it is a recall of ancient norms, values and aesthetics. This is however a nostalgic consideration. The past is unknown; we know only how we think about the past. Neo therefore always resides in the realm of clichés. The cultivation of these kinds of clichés does not only bring us subcultures, but is also responsible for the creation of an imaginary world. It is therefore more about imagining a time than about the facts, but facts are the food of imagination.
Traditional is a restricted continuation of a passed timeframe. It has lost its power to restore its original timeframe and is therefore what remains of a past glory. Alone the neo can restore, but only on its conditions. Some individuals can come in course with a historical timeframe (or work in the ways of those days), on the condition that they can stand the rest of the world and keep working on their own. The outcome of their activities shall probably be closer to the contemporary than to the traditional.
The evolution from one timeframe into another confers many possibilities with many possible branches. The cultural collections of new timeframes are more often each other’s opponents than an evolution. (And thus a slow evolution.) With the insights gained from the evolving timeframes, post grasps back to a historical timeframe, to create with these insights a new timeframe. The historical timeframe comes as such back to blossom, but in a new-branched form. This is the germ for a new timeframe that can succeed a series of opposing timeframes.
In spite of the importance of the aesthetical and the philosophical to measure subcultures, we can only measure subcultures today by the expressions of bands and all of the music related world around them. Visual artists fulfil in this contemporary timeframe a more observing and researching role and so they don’t lie on the basics of what can be researched. Thus they lost the leading role. The visual artists who are active in aesthetic production concerning subcultures on the other hand are working practically completely for the musical world. They are more designers than artists, as they imagine the feeling and philosophy behind the music. If one wants to make a distinction between the many branches of subcultures cognizable and give them a definition, one has to do a research into the aesthetical and philosophical production of the musical world. These designers have captured the leading role in this timeframe.
Neofolk could refer to a folkloristic timeframe in a preindustrial society. Today, the main branch of the Neofolk subculture however goes to the historical timeframe before Christianization, it refers to a heathen belief and mythology that baptizing destroyed almost completely. Together with an aesthetical frame, there is in the Neofolk also a strong sense of philosophy based on religion and ideology (paganism). The aesthetical is about paganish symbols and the surrounding world of that particular timeframe: a natural – primal world without cities and pollution. It’s not clear in which of the two frames (the philosophical or the aesthetical) the motivation lies. But that is not the issue; the two frames are in such a way braided; that is what Neofolk is today.
Dark Folk and Neofolk made an intermediate stop in the nineteenth century, at which time romanticism brought paganism and the primal world back to life. Romanticism was thus also a neo movement, but there where also post influences. Neofolk and Dark Folk can be seen as a second romantic period.
Dark Folk is however a post movement. Dark is the insight that is been captured during the process of different timeframes since the folk period it refers to. Although, honestly, it refers to the same primeval world as the Neofolk, it swears off any doubt about religion or ideology. Dark stands for the insight that life is only surrounded by darkness: man stands alone and can only find liberation in the self. The Dark Folk subculture tries to find this liberation in the creation of a world of experience. The primal is in this creation process very important, because it remembers us of a liberating experience when we saw primeval landscapes and sceneries. The folk in the Dark Folk is as such not the point of departure, but rather the solution to the post problem.
We can come across religious/paganish references in Dark Folk, but those will have only a theatrical function that gives the idealistic Dark Folk timeframe an extra atmosphere.
Neofolk and Dark Folk share utterly the same aesthetical world. But where for the one it is a world of liberation, it is for the other a sacred world that can also feel liberating, but the forms of their subculture subdue the individual. That depends of course on the degree to which the individual follows the religious or ideological parts of Neofolk. As such, there is a grey zone between the two brotherhood cultures, a brotherhood because the two subcultures could live in the same world without bothering the aesthetical or sacral experience of each other.

Dark Folk utopia

“Dark stands for the insight that life is only surrounded by darkness: man stands alone and can only find liberation in the self.”
Real freedom is impossible, because liberation is temporally. The one and only thing a person can do is to heighten or lower the frequency of temporal liberation; by trying to fit in society or estrange from it. I believe strongly in progression as an aim for the individual and for society. This progression is for me the same as trying to find liberation. The finding is not the liberation itself, it is to find the insight how to come to liberation; or to find which content we need. If the insight is found then the pathway in which the content has to be realized just begins to start. But before all that can happen, one has to become aware of all ideological and cultural fixed reference points that try to foist preferences.
Liberation is to have a good feeling; we don’t need to explain that feeling. Everyone knows what it means. It is the opposite of feeling bad. The key to a good feeling is passion or to be passionate about something. The research into the process of progression is a research into the moments of being passionate. It is a goal to repeat these moments and its conditions as often as possible, so that the experience will become ever deeper.
Dark Folk is such a construction that creates the conditions to be a structure where a specific kind of passionateness can be expressed. Members of the Dark Folk movement think that they can find passion by a folk construction that looks likes or is based around a preindustrial or pre-Christian timeframe when primeval forces still had a meaning and could express themselves aesthetically.
The most important thing in Dark Folk is therefore the aesthetical (the expression of all senses). An ideological or religious frame works contra-productive if this frame becomes the criterion of aesthetical expression. Dark is the individual way. If the Dark Folker has the need to put ideological or religious stuff in his/her world, then this stuff always takes the second place: it has more a theatrical function that lays not more than some associations. If the subjective/aesthetical takes the second place we could speak of Neofolk or another subculture. Aesthetics are important because they are needed to create a world of experience: it’s from the recognition of ourselves in the other (environment or person) that a good feeling originates. Besides the aesthetic, the personal contact is of course of the same level. The progressive pathway is probably a long way of which we will never see the end in our short lives.
The expression of the Dark Folk timeframe can however occur in three different ways:
Probably the most known and most walked way is that of the cultural expression. With symbols and clothing on one side and with decoration in the domestic atmosphere on the other, the world of the Dark Folker is clothed with Dark Folk elements. It is about the clothing of daily life; as such the daily life does not adapt the Dark Folk frame. But for most people it’s not a necessity, they need just that little bit subculture to go through life and be satisfied. We could say that people who express themselves only utterly don’t follow the essence of their subculture. But ok, everyone knows what is best for him or her and how deep they will go. It would also be wrong to just follow, if there is no deeper need to go into the deep. I will examine here however where the life of a Dark Folker goes to if he/she wants to complete the pathway of Dark Folk.
Then we come to the second way of expression. This is about the creation of an ideal or utopian world into which the Dark Folker can put all his/her passion. I think that the closest way we can come to our utopia is to place it in a restricted scale: appropriated on the individual, not on society. The choice is then rapidly made: the creation of a folk related environment encircled by a primeval scene or a scene with a primeval feeling. Thus it is about a concrete expression: a house from primal elements encircled by forest, mountains, the sea, an abandoned industrial site etc. Which elements can be used depends on the preferences of the individual and belongs to the discussion of the aesthetical branches. The consequences of utopian desire can have the result (but not necessary have) that one has to live a more primitive life to fulfil the aesthetical desires of the Dark Folker. The concrete making of the Dark Folk utopia is here in line with the hippie and survival movements. From the hippie movement we can learn the feasibility of certain projects and of the knowledge they have about materials we could use to build our ideal aesthetic house. Of the survival movement we can learn for example how we can provide in secondary needs to provide ourselves with water and electricity if we choose to move to a place far away from an urban environment.
Dark Folk comes to life in cultural and concrete expressions. Over these expressions hangs a mental network where the social interaction can blossom. This mental network is of course the fundament of every subculture. But there is more. When we name this mental world and we weave certain stories on it then this mental world becomes more concrete. I name the creation of such stories and the naming of certain aspects of this mental world the mental expression. This mental expression gives a feeling of connectedness, that together with the cultural and concrete expression are needed to deepen the conditions to get passionate. The mental expression raises the individual to a mythical world; the individual becomes part of a living legend. Certain individuals will come more to the front than others, but everyone can have the feeling to be part of a bigger entirety. Also if they live isolated.

III Aesthetic branches

The aesthetic branches are not my invention, I just analysed the existing cultural expressions in the music world; which grouped together in smaller Dark Folk branches. It’s not my intention to split up the Dark Folk subculture further in different factions, I want to bring the Dark Folk aesthetics more to the conscious and as such give the tools to be helpful in developing individual aesthetics in the cultural, concrete and mental expressions. Different branches can be mingled lustfully. It certainly is about the individual or about what can be made personal by assimilating the subcultural expressions into one’s own world.
To make the aesthetical branches more lyrical, I translated them into five landscapes. Those five are brought together into the misty Mirkwoods, what matches in my opinion the regular Dark Folk atmosphere. The following ‘Mirky Realms’ give a regular feeling that has yet to be deepened out:
Iceheim (Dark Primordial): Not for humanity, occasionally disturbed by avalanches and falling stones. This realm exists in planes of ice, high mountain ranges, glaciers, chilly tundra and frosted lakes. Only on the border of Iceheim are hunting huts and old mines. Deep ravines and caverns, icy winds, darkness and blinding light.
Bleakwood (Dark Primeval): Think here on vast coniferous forests in a harsh and dark climate, where chilly winds blow over hills and mountain flanks and where icy brooks gurgle through the silent woods. Constantly one has to challenge the elements of nature when journeying through this realm, where dark fortresses cast their shadows over the land. At some places one will find lonely huts raised from primitive materials. The journeyer will be startled during the night by howling wolves, mostly far away, sometimes alarmingly close.
Waldheim (Primeval Folk): Where Bleakwood is more a harsh forest, Waldheim is a more gentle forest. Have here in mind an oak and beech forest with rivers and lakes. In the winter thick packages of snow cover the irregular woods in a sinister atmosphere, in the summer one hears birds whistle, thick green leaves wave in the evening wind. The inhabitants of Waldheim are leading an isolated life in their huts on the border of the forest or deep in the woods of old. They taste each day from the scent and colour of their environment.
Folkheim (Dark Folk): In a community in a village surrounded by heathland or silent forests. Depending on the region people inhabit houses of wood, stone or loam. During the different seasons there is a picturesque atmosphere. Not kitsch, but the rough reality and the somehow abandoned side of a closed autonomous community that strives more for proud romantic values than for economic welfare, connected with agriculture and the rough elements of nature.
Postheim (Industrial Folk): Around abandoned industry there is often a dark draught, which does recall dark prehistoric times where man had to struggle the rough and pesky nature. In Postheim the Dark Folker combines elements of abandoned industry with elements of Folkheim: industrial elements are used to bring forth the ideal environment. In a more extreme Postheim climate one could build a more rural Postheim inside an old industrial environment.

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Zo ongeveer wel.