Music Reviews

Hagalaz’ Runedance

The Winds That Sang of Midgard’s Fate

Elfenblut

Not at all what I expected. See, these “nordic” CDs come to me and I’m thinking “death metal” but it turns out that more than a few artists are recording “traditional” Nordic music, like Hagalaz’ Runedance. I really wish they’d put more information with the CD, as this is pretty interesting.

Is Hagalaz’ Runedance a dance or the attractive pagan babe on the cover? Don’t know, but she sounds like a Viking or German Enya. Half the songs are in English, the other half in German, so maybe these are Anglo-Saxon chants. The imagery is too Viking, though. The songs, accompanied on what sounds like bagpipes, fife and drum, and other traditional instruments, I’m sure, have neat titles like “When the Trees Were Silenced,” “Behold the Passionate Ways of Nature,” and “Serenade of the Last Wolf.” Hmmm, that last one has me thinking Hagalaz’ Runedance might be a wood nymph lamenting the destruction of the European wolf’s natural habitat. The songs, those in English, seem to tell either of haunting love or lovers lost in battle. It’s cool to be sung about `round the fire, I suppose. So, for those who seek out the obscure, the hard-to-find, you’ll have some interesting times with Hagalaz’ Runedance. Elfenblut, P.O. Box 9, Hadleigh, Suffolk, England IP7 5AU


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