Norse Mythology

By: Jackson Crawford, The Great Courses

Narrated by: Professor Crawford

Length: 11 hrs and 17 mins

Publisher's summary

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

Epic!

This tail of the ancient Norse is so inspiring, immersive, and reviving. As a Norse enthusiastic, I was delighted to learn so much about my passion.

Excellent explination and deep dive

It was interesting and helpful to hear how these names are supposed to be pronounced. When I have read them in other sources these spellings can be tricky (to me). The lecture is broken down into various sections that organize it into sections and topics. I took this course before reading his translations, and it helped me to understand them better. I have been in education for 22 years, and it was immediately apparent that Professor Crawford is a good teacher. I was also interested to discover he has a YouTube channel where he discusses many things within the field of Norse Mythology and translation.

I loved it and highly recommend the course.

Author is also narrator

Great information. Incredible scholar and he is also a fantastic narrator. Loved the whole thing. It really held my interest!!!

This is one of my favorites

This course has become one of my Great Courses favorites. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in the subject.

Almost perfect

This is honestly one of the most comprehensive, and perhaps overly summarized overviews available on the topic. The content source and the content itself are equally impressive. I have listened to and read many of his works. He is the best in the business.

Unpopular opinion: The only thing I did not care for is Dr. Crawford’s narration. He has a fine speaker and I love it when the authors read their books but the range of his speaking voice bothers me a little. He speaks very soft in the lower register but then gets louder in the mid to high registers. It’s a breath support function, or lack thereof. It’s challenging to listen to this in a moderate noise level car due to this. But yes, all of this is absolute preference and others may not care.

excellent course to be introduced to the topic

I loved the entire course. each chapter was as interesting as the last. some I even listened to multiple times. very interesting and the descriptions were enough to visualize the scene. I highly recommend this course.

Has more information beyond the Neil Gaiman book

Very in-depth book about Norse Mythology. I find it very interesting. I just have a hard time hearing the narration. maybe because of the Nordic pronunciation. Couldn't speed up because of that. The stories are very fascinating. I have listened to the book by Neil Gaiman, which didn't even cover a lot that this book covered. I recommend this version by The Great Courses to anyone even those who have not read a thing about Norse Mythology yet.

Very Informative

Few cover Norse Mythology as thoroughly as Jackson Crawford. More geared to academic study.

vibrant storytelling of ancient norse lore

I learned so much from this book, and I'll be relistening again at somepoint. the Author narrates his own book, which can be good or bad. but in this case its very good!!! I even got to learn more about speaking names, titles, events and gods from a very knowledgeable author.
Only reason performace is 4 stars is because at times the narration style is hushed/quiet and it took some rewinding to absorb certain info.

A Valuable Resource

Tragically, there is not that much that really survives of Norse lore in primary sources, and so it is easily achievable to just listen to the Poetic Edda and read the Prose Edda, the Volsung Saga, and hit a few others, and then know much of what there is to know about it. But though this course retraces some of these steps, it offers structure and a lot of insight that would be hard to come by anywhere else. Dr. Crawford's course is intended for the beginner or intermediate enthusiast, but even those who have loved this stuff for years will find insights and details they had not expected. This is a chance to geta 12 hour orientation to the tales, ideas, and beliefs of the Vikings from a bona fide Norse expert - not just another book or video. You should get it.