The Pagan Music List #6: Rúnahild, QNTAL, In Extremo, Wolcensmen
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The PAGAN MUSIC LIST is an attempt to create a comprehensive list of Pagan, Heathen, Esoteric, Animist, and related music that we listen to and love. We include embedded YouTube, Soundcloud, or Bandcamp links when possible for each artist.
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Collection 6: Rúnahild, QNTAL, In Extremo, Wolcensmen
Rúnahild
Traditional, Nordic, Folk, Chant
Recommended Album: All, but especially Seidrúnar
Artist Website: https://runahild.com/home
Read My full interview with Rúnahild Here
Perhaps one of the most authentic and haunting animist musicians I’ve come across in the last decade is Rúnahild. Ethereal and earthly vocals that sound both like ancient stone and mossy forests, intoxicating lyrics, and expert musicianship are all ways to describe her music, yet even this feels inadequate.
Originally from France, Rúnahild now lives in a small cottage in Northern Norway. Unlike many other pagan or animist themed music projects where the singers lament the modern world in the hopes of returning to an ancient way of life, she is literally living that life. This comes out profoundly in her music: her chanting and drumming don’t just sound like attempts to recreate something old, but actually feel ancient and otherworldly.
The music of Rúnahild is everything you’ve ever been looking for in pagan music. Read my in-depth interview (including discussions of the three songs I’ve chosen to feature) with her here.
Ørnedans:
Seidrúnar:
Urseid:
QNTAL
Electro, Ambient, Medieval
Recommended Album: QNTAL III Tristan und Isolde
Artist Website: http://qntal.de/band/
Formed in 1996, Qntal is one of the many fascinating projects birthed by a group of rather brilliant German musicians with a deep love of medieval, Arabic, and pagan music: Michael Popp and Sigrid Hausen/Syrah (Estampie, Al Andaluz Project), as well as Ernst Horn (Deine Lakaien, Helium Vola).
Qntal (the name for which is said to have come to lead singer Syrah in burning letters during a dream) weaves Syrah’s rich operatic voice in with minimal electronic beats, ethereal synths, and traditional instruments to create often danceable and always mythic songs.
Their absolute best album is their third (Qntal III—Tristan und Isolde), which stands as a complete experience best listened to while staring wistfully through a window or making love. From that album, the track Name Der Rose is probably the best, but again the entire album should be listened as one opus. The lyrics come from Alain de Lile, a 12th century Neo-Platonist writer:
Omnis mundi creatura
quasi liber et pictura
nobis est in speculum:
nostrae vitae, nostrae mortis,
nostri status, nostrae sortis
fidele signaculum.
All the world's creatures
as a book and a picture,
are to us as a mirror;
in it our life, our death,
our present condition and our passing
are faithfully signified.
My second favourite album of theirs is Qntal V: Silver Swan. The track Lingua Mendex is quite great, but I chose to feature one of their most popular songs instead: Von den Elben (From the Elves), a song in old German by the minnesinger (medieval German troubadours) Heinrich von Morungen. The accompanying video was illustrated and directed by famous fairy illustrator Brian Froud.
Vón den elben wirt entsén vil manic man.
Só bin ich von grózer liebe entsén
Von der besten die ie man ze friunt gewan.
Wil si aber mich darumbe vên,
Mir zunstaten stên, mac sied an rechen sich,
Tuo des ich si bite: si fröut sô sêre mich,
Daz min lip vor wunne muoz zergênMany a man is bewitched by the elves.
Thus have I also been bewitched
By those of greatest charm towards a man.
But if she'd rather spite me for it,
And vent it, might she boil to take revenge,
But does she what I ask her: she would so pleasure me
That I would well dissolve in bliss.
In Extremo
Medieval, Rock, Metal
Recommended Album:Sieben
Artist Website: https://www.inextremo.de/de/ (German)
There is nothing in the world that can compare to a live performance by In Extremo, the most popular German medieval rock band in existence. Imagine a stage full of shirtless sweating men, some playing bagpipes, some playing harps, some playing electric guitars, and all the while the stage (and some of the instruments) are on fire.
Really, In Extremo is a lot of fun. And their music is really great too, though I honestly prefer their older albums to their latest release. My all-time favourite of theirs (unfortunately unavailable on Spotify) is Liam, an Irish Gaelic song about a lover lost at sea. And while the song is about a woman mourning her husband, it’s particularly erotic to hear rather manly muscled German medieval musicians sing the chorus:
Liam, Liam, bím I gcónai I do theannta
Liam, Liam, Tá grá agam don mhuir
Liam, Liam, Liam, Liam, Liam, Liam
Beidh mé cout gan mhoillLiam, Liam, I will always be forlorn for you
Liam, Liam, I have love for the sea
Liam, Liam, Liam, Liam, Liam, Liam
I'll be with you soon
Also really good is Ave Maria, which is their rendition of the 14th century medieval song Cuncti Simus Concanentes (Let us sing together) from the Catalonian medieval manuscript Llibre Vermell de Montserrat, a collection compiled for pilgrims to the Black Madonna shrine in Montserrat. Black Madonnas, as many pagan readers are probably aware, were often sites of hidden pagan worship of older chthonic goddesses.
Clara facieque
Facieque dixit
Audite karissimi
En cocipies
Cocipies Maria
Ave MariaAnd shining
Shining he said
Listen my dear
You are with child
You are with child Maria
Hail to you Maria.
Wolcensmen
Neo-folk
Recommended Album
Artist Website: https://wolcensmen.com/about-wolcensmen/
Dan Cap (formerly of Black Metal band Winterfylleth), who is the solo artist behind Wolcensmen (wolcen is old English for “cloud” or “sky”), describes his music as “mythological dark folk,” which feels like a pretty accurate description. The music is simple, a bit dark and wistful, with lyrics making use of archaic English expressions and words.
Wolcensmen’s most well-known song is Lorn & Loathe, a mourning song for a dead woman:
Hoary wildwood,
Where within, a rood,
Bends its bough to lift me.
Lithely moonlight,
Name a path and I'll ride.
Fleet of foot, whitherto.
Have I faltered?
Am I shorn from my wyrd?
Hewn of hope, lorn and loath.
Also good is Lady of the Depe, about a sovereignty goddess behind the ‘lady of the lake.’
Through the myst,
There I sawe,
Her blacke robe
Lapynge at the shor.
Schale and shene,
Wrought by time,
Stille unwav'ryng,
Stedy in Her ryme.
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