13 March 2011

Valhalla Bound

A friend sent me a link to this fun animated film, The Saga of Biorn, a few weeks ago - I like it better each time I see it. It is technically accomplished for a student film, which is apparently what it is. It eschews clichés successfully and has some good visual jokes. I would even venture to say that its insights into Viking concepts of death and the afterlife for warriors are not entirely to be sniffed at. Well done to those at Animation Studio in Denmark who made it.

8 comments:

  1. That was excellent, oh the irony my teenage son loved it

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  2. Anonymous25/3/11 20:47

    Can I ask something unrelated: is the phrase `Valhalla Bound' a quotation or reference of some sort? I have a (very bad) song in my music collection which uses the phrase in the chorus, and it doesn't make a great deal of sense, I've always wondered if I was supposed to be getting something I'm not.

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  3. Well spotted, Jonathan! It's from 'The Lay of the Surfers' on Robert Calvert's 1975 album 'Lucky Leif and the Longships', an early 'concept' album (Calvert was in Hawkwind previously, but you are probably too young to know about all these guys). 'The Lay' is, as you would guess, a Beach Boys parody, and has the line that I've always liked, 'hydro heroes, Valhalla bound'. Is that the song you have? See also http://norseandviking.blogspot.com/2008/04/back-to-seventies.html

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  4. Anonymous26/3/11 22:20

    Good gods, that makes me feel silly. I own it (and I've seen Hawkwind, er, about twenty times). I had forgotten, though, and I probably shouldn't be surprised you know it as well. I was actually thinking of `You're a Hero' from The New World's Fair by Michael Moorcock and the Deep Fix, but this is as you may know not an entirely separate thing given as Moorcock's on Lucky Leif, as Calvert was about to run off with Moorcock's then-wife and as the two albums were actually released in the same year. I wonder which of them was riff/pping off the other... Thankyou for placing it for me.

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  5. I love this film! I liked the wheel of the afterlife that spins before Bjorn with Anubis, the Buddha etc. Very clever. BUT I want a sequal. Bjorn deserves his place in Valhalla darn it. I think an archeaologist should come along, dig him up and release him from his Christian bonds.
    Love your blog by the way, I always learn something when I come here.

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  6. Thanks for your kind comments, Heidianne!

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  7. Great animation, very accomplished and enjoyable.
    I thought you might like my Viking themed machinima film
    The Helmsman;
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8EMllaymqo

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  8. Anonymous1/7/13 16:14

    For the record, Calvert didn't run off with Jill. They took up together after Moorcock and Jill split up. Jill and Moorcock hadn't been together long when Lucky Lief and New Worlds Fair came out.

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