Norse Mythology

De: Jackson Crawford, The Great Courses

Narrado por: Professor Crawford

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.

Wonderful lectures marred by audio production

Best parts:

- 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.

one of the best old norse resources on audible

very informative and helpful. loved the narrator and learning about old norse. would love to see more like this.

Amazing!

I loved every minute and learned so much. Absolutely fantastic! I can't wait to listen to Jackson Crawford's other works too.

Excellent crash course

Crawford is a drengr, and I highly recommend all his other resources including Youtube, Patron, and books (and no, I’m not getting paid to say that).

Crawford’s teaching style is a great balance of imagination, facts, and a couple dashes of speculation here and there. The best source out there for all things Norse mythology and language