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.

Refreshing journey through the myths and sagas of our past

This is highly recommended. Good content, good delivery by a person who is both occasionally funny and highly intelligent as well as committed to the subject on a scale that can only be called devotion

Jackson Crawford for the win

This book is for the person who has perhaps read the Poetic Edda and some of the sagas and wants a little more explanation and in depth Tutelage of the subject. I wasn’t sure I was going to enjoy this book but once I got into it I found myself putting off other subjects to readily devour the audio book. If you were like me and enjoy studying all things old Norse you will love this book

Extremely informative

This book is perfect for anyone interested in either Norse or viking age history. The author is probably the foremost old Norse linguist in America, and the content is presented in an academic state. I've been a fan of the sagas and Edda's for over three decades, and while I've heard variations of every story in this book, his translations make them slightly more understandable, and his commentary at the end of each story opened my eyes to things I would have never understood. If you want the most entertaining version of the tales get Neil Gaiman's Norse Mythology, but if you want the most educational then this is the book for you.

Fantastic generation of the old myths

by far the most in-depth explanation of the old myths and sagas. I learned more from this than any other audiobook I've heard on Norse Mythology.