Varg Vikernes - Biography - Arson of Churches

Arson of Churches

On 6 June 1992, the Fantoft stave church, dating from the 12th century and considered architecturally significant, was burned to the ground by arson. By January 1993, arson attacks had occurred on at least seven other major stave churches, including one on Christmas Eve of 1992. Vikernes was found guilty of several of these cases: the arson and attempted arson of Åsane Church and Storetveit Church, respectively, in Bergen, the arson of Skjold Church in Vindafjord, and the arson of Holmenkollen Chapel in Oslo. He was also charged with the arson of Fantoft stave church, although the jurors voted not guilty. The judges called this an error but did not overthrow the whole case.

Vikernes was rumored to have been motivated both by paganism and theistic Satanism, but has denied he was ever a Satanist.

In an interview with Michael Moynihan, Vikernes made a statement about the church burnings that hints at a heathen rather than a Satanist motivation:

I am not going to say that I burnt any churches. But let me put it this way: There was one person who started it. I was not found guilty of burning the Fantoft stave church, but anyway, that was what triggered the whole thing. That was the 6th of June and everyone linked it to Satanism ... What everyone overlooked was that on the 6th June, 793, in Lindesfarne in Britain was the site of the first known Viking raid in history, with Vikings from Hordaland, which is my county ... They desecrated our graves, our burial mounds, so it's revenge.

Echoing this sentiment, he writes in Vargsmål: "For each devastated graveyard, one heathen grave is avenged, for each ten churches burnt to ashes, one heathen hof is avenged, for each ten priests or freemasons assassinated, one heathen is avenged."

When asked whether the church burnings were linked to Odinism or Ásatrú he replied: "The point is that all these churches are linked to one person ... who was not Øystein obviously. All the church burnings, with the exception of Stavanger, because that was another group (who, by the way, have also turned into nationalistic pagans)."