Norse Mythology
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Narrated by:
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Professor Crawford
About this listen
Thor, Odin, Loki, Freyja, the Valkyries, Valhalla, Ragnarok — many of the places we encounter these and other names, places, and events from Norse mythology in daily life and pop culture are connected to the medieval sources in name only.
Join Jackson Crawford, a translator of Old Norse, for a rousing introduction to the original stories, characters, and themes of Norse mythology in these 24 lectures. Packed with gods, anti-gods, magical figures, human heroes, religious practices, and literary devices, this course lays bare the reasons for our enduring fascination with these undeniably dramatic tales. It also connects the dots to Icelandic sagas of human heroes and to the culture and worldview of the Viking peoples.
You’ll spend time in the company of an incredible pantheon of characters, including Thor, who wasn’t necessarily the god of thunder we think of him as, and Freyja, commander of the Valkyries (more a job with special perks than a species of creatures). You’ll also enjoy spirited retellings of stories where the first members of humankind are molded by the gods from two pieces of driftwood; Odin travels to Hel to dig up a dead witch and interrogate her about what his son’s premonitions of his own death means; and multiple generations of a marshy district in Iceland must deal with the ravages of an “again-walker” (akin to a zombie).
With his expertise, Dr. Crawford will deepen your acquaintance with these sources, and leave you with plenty to remember in the eerie tales and timeless wisdom of the Norse gods and heroes.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2021 The Great Courses (P)2021 The Teaching Company, LLC- The professor is a brilliant expert on old Norse and Norse mythology. Although I was familiar with a lot of the stories, his connecting it to linguistics and literature was fascinating.
- The lectures were well organized and provided much more depth than a simple retelling. It reminded me a lot of Professor Vandiver on the Greek myths.
Challenging aspects:
- I absolutely could not hear this on a plane or bus or in the car. The professor’s soft-spoken delivery and the timbre of his voice got completely drowned out by transportation noise. It was also hard for me to listen to when I was falling asleep (which is the other time I typically listen to audiobooks) because of the delivery.
- if you look to great courses to help with homeschooling this probably isn’t where I would start. There are more accessible general introductions to the Vikings through Harl or the mythology and sagas through Drout.
good information but poor audio
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Neil Gaiman's Norse Mythology serves primarily to entertain by sharing some of the greatest Norse myths in an easily accessible and often humorous way. In contrast, this series of well-structured lectures intends to give a much more solid foundation into Norse myth, sharing not only an overview of the myths themselves but insight into the whys and hows. For example, a lecture may first outline the main components of a saga (including its real world source), make the listener aware of any other versions of the saga, discuss the significance of each and theorise how the myths may have evolved over time. This scholarly approach often includes elements of linguistics and archaeology in addition to countless welcome tidbits. With this in mind, perhaps less than 50% total coverage is dedicated to the actual telling of Norse myth. I'd bear this in mind when considering starting out on this journey.
Jackson Crawford is an excellent lecturer even by Great Courses standards; he possesses a charming and unique accent (to a British listener) and his raw passion really comes through to assist in bringing the myths to life.
If internalising the information is a goal, I'd recommend doing no more than 1 lecture per sitting as with other Great Courses, taking notes and revisiting these notes before moving on to the next lecture. This is after all a lecture series and isn't designed to be devoured as a novel. It's worth noting that the accompanying PDF can also be fairly useful for consolidating information though I wouldn't recommend looking at this as you're listening.
The final lecture on 'The Enduring Appeal of Norse Mythology' gave me chills. It didn't fill me with a kind of sadness that often comes with finishing a great title but rather filled me with a drive to read translations of the Eddas and a wanderlust to visit the countries of Scandinavia. In this respect, the lecture series has achieved more than it intended.
Valuable resource
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This has definitely been the most instructive and informative book I have listened too in nearly eight years.
Best Lecture for Norse mythology
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One minor gripe is that no one seemed to brief the guy introducing each lesson about the pronunciation of some of the old Norse words used by Dr Crawford...
It was a bit jarring in places.
What it says on the tin
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wow
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