Abstrakt
Listening to folk and pagan metal songs allows us not only to escape from everyday boredom and travel in time to marvellous places full of various deities, cultural heroes, and mythological creatures but also to deepen our knowledge of the history and culture of different nations, thereby prompting us to think of our roots and shaping our unique national identities. Very often, this self-discovery process is led by means of various culturally constructed binary oppositions, for instance, we - they, friends - enemies, pagans - Christians, humans - gods.
Such binary oppositions not only help us to orient ourselves in the world and find suitable communities to belong to but also give us information on how to be functional members of one or perhaps even more communities. My paper aims to look for such binary oppositions in the creative work of the Latvian folk metal band Skyforger.
Given that most of their songs are about Baltic mythology and historical events that were once taking place in the current-day territories of Latvia and Lithuania, I hope, by analysing the lyrics of their songs, to reconstruct the ancient Baltic world with its inhabitants who had their own peculiar religion and customs. My goal is to assess who was considered by the Balts to be a friend or threat to their system.