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Is that it? I could never get people, men and women, to explain why they did not like "Vikings" except my sister who said, "They're dirty", meaning literally not bathed, greasy hair. That's not a good reason. - - Very interesting about Hitler! I knew the higher up Nazi's were into non-Christian things, and as a keyboard person, I'd been forbidden to play 'The Wedding March' as a wedding musician by priests of course - but I don't know enough about it.

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There's no statute, but there's an agreement not to play Wagner publicly in Israel. He was certainly antisemitic, and Hitler's favorite composer. There's nothing antisemitic about Lohengrin, which is where the Wedding March comes from--the villainess worships "Wodan". It's funny, the wedding Recessional is by Mendelssohn, who was of Jewish heritage, although the family converted.

I have a horror of barbarism.

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Conductor Daniel Barenboim played Wagner in Israel in 2001. Upset some folks, naturally, but it happened.

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Barbarism? I gotta challenge disliking the Norse and Vikings on that. Look at us. We conquered our lands in the USA (Yes, I know, attacks were mutual). The north people could not farm well, they had to do something. The Norman conquest (OK, many of those had Norse ancestors). Just....war...why are Vikings always supposed to be the most brutal?

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I'm not getting into this. But I know barbarism when I see it.

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OK, thank - you probably spared me. The chicken fight description was hard for me yesterday.

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Sorry. Just the facts, ma'am. I was interested to hear that the escaped cocks had made it all the way down to 96th St. But then they used to hang out in Riverside Park.

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<<"Yet it seems that the ritualized violence of the Vikings, their slave-taking, and all the rest is not contrary to their religious beliefs at all, no more than Aztec slaving and human sacrifice was a violation of theirs">>

OK, but speaking of these things a bit, having read Sullivan's book, spent a lot of time among Mexicans and in Mexico, and having had weeks in Norse countries, I think the Aztecs were far more brutal that the Vikings, from what I know.

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100% by an order of magnitude.

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Contemporary to the Norse were the Magyars who were also pretty awful back then. while the Vikings raided by sea, the Magyars raided by land until Otto the Great put a firm stop to that at Lechfield-- and also required the Magyars convert to Christianity.

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I remember reading about some part of France that within about 10 years was ravaged by the Vikings, the Arabs, and the Magyars.

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I had a music theory professor way back in the day who was an Israeli. I remember him telling the class that he was disappointed when he found out that Brahms was antisemitic. Someone in the class asked him about Wagner, and he replied that for him Wagner’s antisemitism was merely one facet of an overall awful personality.

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That's interesting. I don't know that about Brahms. I do know that Hitler used to bang on about how Brahms was the darling of the moneyed Vienna Jews in comparison to local-boy-makes-good Bruckner (whom I can't listen to).

Two stories about Brahms. Hans von Bülow (he later recanted, handsomely, to Verdi himself) wrote that Verdi's Requiem was trashy. Brahms was intrigued, went out and bought the score and said, "Von Bülow has made a fool of himself. It's a work of genius."

Once on holiday in Italy his train passed through Pesaro and he made the men in the compartment stand and bare their heads. It's Rossini's hometown.

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As in the one from ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream” by Mendelssohn?

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Yes--or rather, that's the recessional.

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One of my favorite ballets.

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You mean the Balanchine? It's great, yes.

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