Hello ladies and gents this is the viking telling you that today we are talking about

FAMOUS LAST WORDS

1. Beethoven
“Friends applaud, the comedy is finished.”

These are the much-disputed last words of the German composer Ludwig Van Beethoven and the words typically used to end a performance of commedia dell'arte. Beethoven died in the middle of a thunderstorm on March 26, 1827 after a long illness. Within hours of his death, a Beethoven mythology began to develop. Just two days after his death, souvenir hunters were snipping off locks of his famously wild hair. One lock of that hair eventually reached a laboratory in the States, and it revealed Beethoven had lead poisoning.

2. Marie Antoinette
“Pardon me sir. I meant not to do it.”

The last words of Marie Antoinette, extravagant wife of Louis XVI of France who, according to rumour, dismissed the starving peasants with a flippant “let them eat cake”. At the height of the French revolution, first Louis, then Marie Antoinette, were charged with treason and sent to the guillotine. After a humiliating ride through the streets of Paris on a cart, she was brought to the guillotine. While on the scaffold, she accidentally stepped on her executioner’s foot and respectfully apologised to him. Seconds later he chopped off her head.

3. James Donald French
“Hey fellas! How about this for a headline for tomorrow’s paper? French Fries!”

The last words of James Donald French, a convicted murderer and the last criminal ever to be executed under the death penalty in Oklahoma. After killing a cellmate, he was sentenced to death by electrocution. In the death chamber, he shouted these words to the members of the press, there to witness his execution.

4. Salvador Allende
“These are my last words, and I am certain that my sacrifice will not be in vain, I am certain that, at the very least, it will be a moral lesson that will punish felony, cowardice and treason.”

Chillean president Salvador Allende died during the military coup of 1973 led by Augusto Pinochet. Allende gave his farewell speech on live radio with the sound of gunfire clearly audible in the background. Shortly afterwards, it was announced that he had “gone to war with an AK-47 rifle”, in other words he’d committed suicide, although his supporters were convinced he’d been assassinated. The gun he used was supposedly a gift from friend, Fidel Castro.

5. Nostradamus
“Tomorrow I shall no longer be here.”

Whatever your views on Nostradamus’ powers as a prophet, his last words show he certainly managed to predict his own death. The sixteenth century seer was found dead the morning after uttering these words to his secretary. His visions, called quatrains, contain specific names, dates, places and events as well as symbolism and metaphor, leaving them open to interpretation and the subject of heated debate. On the day of his death, Nostradamus was working on a quatrain about the end of the world.

And as always have a chilled day from the Viking.