DEBUNKING / DECONSTRUCTING: "That Polish Guy, Whom Euronymous Poisoned"

 

 

CLICK FOR POLISH VERSION 

Reading about Mayhem, one can find numerous myths and legends. One of them in particular caught my attention. It was none other than the infamous story about that one "Pole", who lived with Euronymous for a while, and whose fate was "mysterious" to say the least. It wasn't something that anyone in Norway wanted to discuss as well. Therefore, today I'm going to channel Jonathan Frakes and prepare a special episode of "Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction".

 

Communist Poland. Late '80. A young Metalhead named Marcin starts one of the earliest Polish fanzine, called "Eternal Torment", dedicated to the evergrowing extreme Metal scene, ie. Grind, Black, Death, or Brutal Thrash. The need for speed was (and still is) huge, and as such, the fanzine becomes popular, not only in Poland.

At some point, Marcin, like many of his colleagues, decides to escape Poland and move towards western sphere (Iron Courtain anyone?). He uses one of his obtained contacts, and moves to Norway, where he lives in the flat with Oystein "Euronymous" of Mayhem fame, and helps him with his Helvete shop, or together with Metalion, co-edits the "Slayer" mag.

Then comes the trouble to the paradise.

Marcin can't speak Norwegian, and has trouble finding a job, surviving by Euronymous sharing his money from welfare. As we say in Poland "the guest, like fish, both start reeking after 3 days". And while Marcin also badmouths Euro to Oystein's pals, the real cherry on top happened, when our Polish friend visited Oystein's parents, where he received a generous meal. Afterwards, Euro considers a diabolical plan.

One of Oystein's area of interest was chemistry. He apparently had his own lab in the basement, where he was experimenting with various chemicals (photo below):

The general story goes that after many tries, Euronymous created a toxic elixir, with one of the ingredients being rat poison, which he later doused on Marcin's food. After another fight, Euro decides to throw Marcin away from his flat, and according to some sources, gives him a train ticket. The epilogue reaches its conclusion when Euro's frens punch Marcin, during his walk to the train station, as a farewell.

Some time has passed and Euro couldn't help but boast to everyone about poisoning the "Pollack". People somehow automatically assumed that the guy later died from cancer.

And that would be an end to a story, if not for minor detail. Not only Marcin is alive, he's doing well. After his Norway adventure, he moved to Germany (or some other European country, whatever), where he writes books, abandoned Metal, and became a buddhist. His latest interview that I had found on the internet, was conducted in 2019, in our weekly magazine "Polityka":

https://www.polityka.pl/tygodnikpolityka/ludzieistyle/1798448,1,izerska-troja.read

As such, the question remains whether Euronymous really attempted to poison our Polish hero, or whether Marcin, being Slavic, had a natural resistance against every poison known to man. There is also another option, Euro being uneducated, might have messed up his formula. However, the legend still lives on, and both Vikernes and Necrobutcher are completely unaware of the truth. The former, being the murderer of  Oystein, is more eager to blab some of the crucial details. Interesingly enough, the name of our hero never once appear in the interviews, and instead is described as simply "Polish guy". If Marcin ever happens to see my blog, I would advise him to visit a doctor, just in case.

Verdict: Partial Fact, Partial Fiction, Beyond Belief

Sources: my own research based on various interviews with Varg Vikernes and Necrobutcher (in Polish), as well as extremely helpful book "Metalowe Wersety" by Wojciech Lis.