One Rode to Asa Bay (Bathory)

Canzone: One Rode to Asa Bay
Artista: Bathory
Album: Hammerheart (1990)

Va premesso che il testo sembra un po’ una traduzione dallo svedese. Allo stesso tempo, però, la narrazione è molto poetica ed evocativa. Nonostante il genere estremo della band (o di Quorthon, visto che faceva quasi tutto lui), non c’è nessuna volgarità nel testo. Anzi, a mente aperta ci si lascia trascinare dal racconto. La tematica è la cristianizzazione dei popoli scandinavi e spiega, tra l’altro, perché in quei paesi il cristianesimo è diverso rispetto a quello da noi. Ha infatti più elementi pagani, che non sono mai stati sradicati del tutto e, anzi, sono ancora forti nella tradizione. Questo dovrebbe far riflettere coloro che credono che esista una sola religione “vera”. Quorthon descrive bene la contraddizione della religione cristiana che, arrivata in Scandinavia per salvare tutti, reagiva con violenza verso chi non si convertiva. Diciamo che c’è un po’ di mitizzazione sulle violenze dei “conquistatori” cristiani in Scandinavia (non erano i conquistadores spagnoli nell’America latina, per intenderci), ma si comprende come viene vissuta la conversione dalla parte opposta. Quello che è vero è che comunque si parlava di salvezza, ma poi la fede non portava la gloria come gli dei scandinavi, bensì sudore, fatica e sofferenza. Ed ecco l’incoerenza, perché Odino offriva la gloria, un posto nel Valhalla. Il cristianesimo offriva la salvezza attraverso la conversione e il battesimo, ma era una religione con tanti divieti e bigottismo.

Testo

One man rode the way through the woods
Down to Asa bay
Where dragon ships had sailed to sea
More times than one could say
To see with own eyes the wonder
People told of from man to man
The God of all almightyness
Had arrived from a foreign land

The rumours told of a man
Who had come from the other side the seas
Carrying gold cross around neck in chain
And spoke in strange tongue of peace
He had come with strange men in armour
Dressed in purple shirts and lace
Smelling not of beer but flowers
And with no hair in face

And the bold man carrying cross
Had told all one of Asa bay
The God of all man woman child had come
To them all save
And to thank Lord of Heaven
One should build to God a house
And to save one’s soul from Hell
One should be baptised and say vows

A man of pride with the Hammer told new God
To build his house on own
And spoke loud of the Gods of their fathers
Not too long time gone
The rumours said the man with a beard like fire
And the Hammer in chain
By men in armour silenced was and by
Their swords was slain

Those who did not pay the one coin
Of four to man of new God
Whipped was twenty and put in chains then locked
By their neck to the log (To the log…)
And so all of Asa bay did build
A house of the cross
Every hour of daylight they did sweat
Limbs ached because faith does cost

And on the day two hundred
There it stood white to the sky
The house of the God of the cross
Big enough to take two dragon ships inside
And all of Asa bay did watch
The wonder raise to the sky
Now must the God of the cross be pleased
And satisfied

Just outside the circle of the crowd
One old man did stand
He looked across the waters
And blotted the sun out of his eyes with one hand
And his old eyes could almost see
The dragon ships set sail
And his old ears could almost hear
Men of great numbers call out Oden’s hail

And though he did know already
Though he turned face towards sky
And whispered silent words forgotten
Spoken only way up high
Now this house of a foreign God does stand
Now must they leave us alone
Still he heard from somewhere in the woods
Old crow of wisdom say
“People of Asa land, it’s only just begun”