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Beyond the North Wind

The Fall and Rise of the Mystic North

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Beyond the North Wind

By: Christopher McIntosh, Hilmar Orn Hilmarsson - foreword
Narrated by: Simon Vance
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About this listen

"The North" is simultaneously a location, a direction, and a mystical concept. Although this concept has ancient roots in mythology, folklore, and fairy tales, it continues to resonate today within modern culture. McIntosh leads listeners, chapter by chapter, through the magical and spiritual history of the North, as well as its modern manifestations, as documented through physical records, such as runestones and megaliths, but also through mythology and lore.

This mythic conception of a unique, powerful, and mysterious Northern civilization was known to the Greeks as "Hyberborea" - the "Land Beyond the North Wind" - which they considered to be the true origin place of their god, Apollo, bringer of civilization. Through the Greeks, this concept of the mythic North would spread throughout Western civilization.

In addition, McIntosh discusses Russian Hyperboreanism, which he describes as among "the most influential of the new religions and quasi-religious movements that have sprung up in Russia since the fall of Communism" and which is currently almost unknown in the West.

©2019 Christopher McIntosh (P)2019 Blackstone Audio, Inc. Europe Other Religions, Practices & Sacred Texts Scandinavia Spirituality Mythology Middle Ages Magic Norway History
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I would recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in North European culture, mythology etc. A very thought provoking book, brilliantly narrated.

I found the concept of Hyperborea to be particularly interesting.

Fascinating book

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Took a while to get through, but a lot about norse history and information about some traditions that are still practised today.

Very interesting

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Tying in eclectic and deeply interesting facts, some obvious on their face some more obscure, the author weaves an interesting hypothesis that is at once satisfying and somewhat astonishing.
I enjoyed this immensely and will probably listen to it again.
As the author stated in his conclusion, if Hyperborea didn't exist it should have been invented.
Likewise, our, or at least my understanding of the North could never he complete until this book.

Surprisingly thought provoking and resonating.

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from the ancient world to modern tomes, how the North as a concept has shaped modern culture, the draw and the dangers of the neo Nordic movement.

A fascinating journey from historic to neo Nordic

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This was a great listen that thoughtfully and plausibly explained a possible historical foundation for the tales of the mythic North and it's legacy in the Shamanic beliefs and that astrological alignments that pepper the North and have influenced Euroasian pagan society and tribal artic society. It still resonates in the lives of the Sami people, esoteric philosophical circles, Neo Heathenism and is sadly abused to bolster some ugly nationalism to this day.

Plausibly explained foundations of mythic North

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