A second Nazi wave started in the eighties with organisations spreading racist propaganda against immigrants and refugees applying for political asylum. However, the youth did not take part until the third wave in the nineties, when a network of militant extreme nationalist and neo-Nazi groups emerged. The nationalist and Nazi youth culture is not solely a Norwegian phenomenon, but a part of a European tradition where music is being used as a recruitment tool. Sweden is today the largest market for, as well as the major producer of, 'white power rock'n roll,' hard rock music with racist and nationalist lyrics. The Swedes have made their own version of this music called Viking rock, where open racism is disguised with elements from Norse mythology.
Norse mythology is famous far beyond the Nordic borders.
Neo-Nazi and nationalist forces use symbols, names and words taken from Norse mythology to picture Norway as a pure and white country. Neo-Nazis see themselves as different from common citizens. The image of the fighting, frightening Viking is very similar to the picture that the Nazis create of themselves as the saviours of the nation. By linking their struggle for a white Norway to Norse mythology, the right wing forces also try to achieve legitimacy by portraying themselves as part of an ongoing Nordic tradition, starting with the Vikings and continuing with militant neo-Nazis. A picture says more than thousand words, and a swastika painted on an immigrant's shop is more than paint on a wall.