On Friday, September 17, we will release a new single entitled 'De Vloek Van Het Goud'. The song was recorded during the 'Banners Of Blood' sessions, but not included on the album. The title means 'The Curse Of The Gold' and the song tells how greed, symbolized by gold, came into the world. Its main sources are stanzas 21-22 of Völuspá. The idea that the thrice-burned witch and goddess was reborn each time as one of the three Norns – which I find very compelling – was first put forth by Freya Aswynn if I am not mistaken (in Leaves Of Yggdrasil, p.77-78).
As for the translation of her name, ‘Gullveig’, in the two Dutch translations of the poetic Edda, by Jan de Vries (1938) and Marcel Otten (1994), two different options are chosen. De Vries does not translate her name at all and simply ‘dutchifies’ it as ‘Gulweig’ while Otten translates it as ‘Goudroes’ (literally ‘Gold Fever’). I decided to differ and translate her name as ‘Gouddronk’, which sounds good to my ears and is quite literal (‘gull’ meaning ‘gold’ and ‘veig’ possibly meaning ‘drink’).
