The Nine-headed and magic number 9

The Nine-headedIn Skyforger’s album Kurbads (2010), there is a song called The Nine- headed. Who is this Nine-headed?

In tale of Kurbads and many other epic folk tales, hero always fights huge evil creatures that have lot of heads. Such fights mostly happens by formula: in the first day hero meets monster (ogre or devil) with one head, next day monster with three heads and finally one with nine heads and this battle is always the hardest. The monster itself is a manifestation of some old evil deity, like Jods or Velns for example, and whole fight is poetically concealed representation of the ritual of initiation. Continue reading

Kokle

Those of you, who had seen Skyforger live, have noticed strange wooden box with strings we use on stage: it is called KOKLE!

Kokle (Kankles in Lithuanian) is an ancient Baltic string instrument, which with a time became one of our national symbols here in Latvia! It has specific sound and therefore sometimes is lovely called Zelta kokles (The Golden kokle) or Dieva kokles (Kokle of Dievs). Dievs is main God – Creator, one who made this world. Continue reading