Do you remember Steppenwolfe? The rock band, that is? I do. But to be honest, I wasn’t much of a fan of theirs. I didn’t like the name, didn’t like the music, didn’t like the concept; a bit too primal for me (although I guess that’s what rock is supposed to be). And I especially didn’t like the nasty looking beast with the long teeth on the cover of their albums. (Footnote — they were originally called “The Sparrows” — but who would take seriously a song from The Sparrows entitled “Born to Be Wild”?)

Well, I was reminded of Steppenwolfe the other day while reading a short article about the Vikings and their metaphysical beliefs (not the NFL team from Minnesota — their metaphysical beliefs are no doubt mostly financial in nature). The ancient Norsemen did indeed believe in an afterlife, and your status in that afterlife depended on how tough you were here on earth. That’s not too surprising. If you were a brave and valiant warrior here on earth, you’d go to the best place in heaven, a place called “Valhalla”. Notice the word within that word: Val – HALL – a. (Only the tough guys went to Valhalla; dweebs like me got put off on some ice-covered island out near the celestial Arctic Circle, something like Spitsbergen.) The Vikings literally saw heaven as a great big banquet hall. A place where the great warriors would gather with their valiant king in a continuous eating and drinking festival. There might even be some bawdy women there too. All kinds of action up there in that great hall in the sky. Sounds like a place that a wolf could appreciate.

And actually, that was part of the legend. The great legendary king of Valhalla (I forgot his name) was fond of saying that “the wolf is watching the hall”. Just because someone got to heaven doesn’t mean that their days of war are over. Not for the Vikings! A great battle between the primal forces of nature, represented by some big wolves, and the men of the hall, was yet to come, according to the Nordic mythology. And it wasn’t gonna be a little scuffle either. Men were going to get killed – once again! Dang those Vikings; even heaven for them was a place of great battles and bloody death.

That’s what the whole Steppenwolfe concept seemed to be about (to me, anyway). Thus, I was relieved the day that I was in some record aisle of some department store, and I saw the cover of Steppenwolfe’s break-up album, “Rest In Peace” It showed a gravestone saying “Steppenwolfe, 1967 – 1972”, with a little picture of that toothy wolf on it. The wolf was dead now; it wouldn’t menace us any more. (Actually, Steppenwolfe did come back together, but it wasn’t the same wolf anymore. No one took them or their albums seriously at that point.)

But if the Vikings were right, Steppenwolfe is still out there, lying in wait in the snows outside that great party hall way up in the sky. Yes, one can almost hear “Magic Carpet Ride” playing as burly warriors feast on sides of beef and mutton, brandishing huge pewter mugs of ale . . . . arg, greasy meat, sweaty guys with horned helmets, and early 1970’s rock. If there is an afterlife, I sure hope to avoid that part of it!