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The chapters in the Nationalism and Identity in Metal Medievalism section consider a range of historical figures and practices as presented in metal music. Amaranta Saguar García’s analysis of references to El Cid in ‘The Return of El Cid: The Topicality of Rodrigo Díaz in Spanish Heavy Metal’ focusses on issues of nationalism and the varying representations of El Cid in a range of songs. In a similar manner, Annika Christensen’s ‘Making Heritage Metal: Faroese KvæÐi and Viking Metal’ looks at the interplay of medieval ballads and modern folk metal as part of the group Tyr’s investment in celebrating and articulating Faroese identity. While these two essays work with specific examples of national identities, Shamma Boyarin’s ‘The Prophet Himself Had Knowledge of Him: Nile’s “Iskander D’hul Kharnon” and a Different Kind of Metal Medievalism’ uses the figure of Alexander the Great to address the broader question of the ways that representations of classical and medieval figures define civilisations. Dean Swinford’s ‘Black Metal’s Medieval King: The Apotheosis of Euronymous through Album Dedications’ examines the medievalisation of Euronymous and its relation to black metal’s medievalist self-representation. Within this collaborative chapter, the authors explore the areas of greatest overlap in our explorations of metal music and medieval culture: nationalism and identities, neofascism, the whitewashed Middle Ages, and issues of historical authenticity in neomedievalism.

This chapter explores how, by drawing inspiration from Islamic sources for a song about Alexander the Great, death metal band Nile have created space for a more complicated view of the Middle Ages than is traditionally found in either heavy metal or Western medieval studies. Even though the historical Alexander the Great was not a medieval figure, legends about him were especially popular in the Middle Ages, and his figure in Muslim traditions was influenced by his reception in the Middle Ages. Alexander the Great is a transcultural figure. He bridges East and West, both in the trajectory of his life, and in the diffusion of his legends, which survive in multilingual and multicultural medieval versions. His story also transcends boundaries of strict periodisation: the medieval Alexander materials are as influential to current ideas about him as are materials from his own era. In this context, Nile’s 2009 album Those Whom the Gods Detest offers an interesting case study for thinking about metal medievalism. This study opens new ways of thinking about the cultural scope of heavy metal and how metal might contribute to a broadening of studies in medievalism.