top of page
Ragna Dögg Ólafsdóttir

Cheesy but easy (to remember). The headache of choosing a domain.

After days of brainstorming, I think I might end up with the obvious choice: www.ragnarock.com. I know! I hate it. But everything is taken. Literally everything. I didn´t really want to use my name. Or the association to RagnaRök, even though it has a little twist to it by turning rök into rock (which I like). I don´t know how many times I´ve heard the following response (mostly in Norway, but also in Sweden) when introducing myself to someone: „ahh.. like in RagnaRök“. Referring to the Viking term for the end of the world. I am frequently associated with the end of the world. That´s great. Excellent. That´s exactly what I would like to stand for (I´m being sarcastic in case anybody missed that). But hey, I might as well take it and run with it even thought I hate it. It might be cheesy. But it´s easy to remember and apparently something people associate with me. So win win. That´s pretty much what you want out of a domain.


But speaking of RagnaRök, if you cross my children, I will actually bring the end of the world upon you. No not really. I will just quietly obsess and feel bad about it, loose sleep and never forgive you. I have the memory of an elephant. Apparently they have good memories. I haven´t fact checked that. But it is a saying I´ve heard quite a bit. Bear in mind (now I have a bear in my mind) I´ve often heard „sweating like a pig“ as well. And I´m not sure pigs sweat. I might have to fact check that as well. The perfectionist in me is having a strong urge to do that right know, but I am trying to counteract my need to do everything perfectly.


I´m off track. When I sit down and start writing, I never know where I might end up. I started off talking about my domain and ended up going to the zoo (feel free to fact-check those animal statements for me if you like).


„Blessed is he who in the name of charity and good will shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers.“. That reference just sprang to mind right now. Probably because it paints the picture of the end of the world in my head. You might think I´m quoting the Bible. I´m not. It´s from Pulp Fiction. Yes, it´s originally from the Bible. According to Samuel L. Jackson anyway. Not Viking stuff, even though the second sentence could be. Or should be! We might just take it. We Vikings tend to that. Plunder. Take what we want. Maybe we´ll snatch that sentence and make it ours. No just kidding. Don´t get mad. I´m sorry. I wouldn´t do that.


Great. I´ve just googled ragnarock a little bit more. It´s not registered as a company here in Sweden and the domain is available but apparently there was a Nazi record label in Helsingborg, called Ragnarock. Ragnarock Records, according to my research, being one of the world´s largest production companies in the white power industry. The label was started by a guy who was a SS volunteer in the second World War, Lars Magnus Westrup, who used the record label for spreading propaganda. After Westrups death in 1995, Ragnarock Records got a new owner, Erik Blücher, who continued running the company. Erik had, since moving to Sweden from Norway in the early 1980s, had a large number of mail-order companies selling everything from Nazi marching music to bomb making manuals. Together with his associate, Marcel Schilf, Blücher ran Scandinavia's largest neo-Nazi network with branches into terrorist circles. In October 1998 the Swedish police, according to Wikipedia: „raided the office of Ragnarock to investigate hate speech charges and found, apart from master tapes and documentation also two fully loaded machine guns and a hand grenade “. Lord. That settles it. I can live with being associated with the end of the world but neo-Nazi crap. Forget it. I´ll find a different domain. Associated with something positive, which is what I wanted all along. Glad I wrote this blog before claiming it.


Dodged a Nazi-bullet right there.

Comentários


bottom of page