Beyond the North Wind cover art

Beyond the North Wind

The Fall and Rise of the Mystic North

 Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends December 16, 2025 11:59pm GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Thousands of incredible audiobooks and podcasts to take wherever you go.
Immerse yourself in a world of storytelling with the Plus Catalogue - unlimited listening to thousands of select audiobooks, podcasts and Audible Originals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Beyond the North Wind

By: Christopher McIntosh, Hilmar Orn Hilmarsson - foreword
Narrated by: Simon Vance
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly. Offer ends December 16, 2025 11:59pm GMT.

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Only £0.99 a month for the first 3 months. Pay £0.99 for the first 3 months, and £8.99/month thereafter. Renews automatically. Terms apply. Start my membership

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

Listeners also enjoyed...

 Odin: The Origins, History and Evolution of the Norse God cover art
Quetzalcoatl cover art
The Return of Holy Russia cover art
Norse Paganism cover art
Asatru, the Heathen Path cover art
Norse Paganism for Beginners: Explore the History of the Old Norse Religion cover art
The Magian Tarok cover art
Spirit Whirled cover art
Celtic Mythology & History cover art
Asian Journals cover art
The History of the Ancient World cover art
The Anunnaki Connection cover art
Children of Ash and Elm cover art
Christianity cover art
Taoism cover art
The Gods Never Left Us cover art
All stars
Most relevant
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.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
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

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Took a while to get through, but a lot about norse history and information about some traditions that are still practised today.

Very interesting

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
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

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
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

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews