The Modern Scholar: Celts and Germans: The Enduring Heritage of the European Northlands

The Modern Scholar: The Norsemen - Understanding Vikings and Their Culture

• ORIGINAL (5 hrs and 2 mins)
• By Professor Michael D.C. Drout
• Narrated By uncredited

Professor Michael D.C. Drout of Wheaton College immerses listeners in the extraordinary legacy of Viking civilization, which developed in what is now Scandinavia during the early Middle Ages. During the course of these lectures, Professor Drout explores how these peoples conquered all of Northern Europe, traveled as far as Byzantium in the East and North America in the West, and left a literary legacy that includes numerous works studied and enjoyed to this day.

The Modern Scholar: The Anglo-Saxon World

• ORIGINAL (7 hrs and 50 mins)
• By Michael D. C. Drout
• Narrated By Michael D. C. Drout

Had the Angles and Saxons not purposefully migrated to the isles of the Britons and brought with them their already-well-developed use of language, Angelina Jolie may never have appeared in the movie Beowulf. Professor Michael D.C. Drout is at his best when lecturing on the fascinating history, language, and societal adaptations of the Anglo-Saxons.

A Brief History of the Celts: Brief Histories

• UNABRIDGED (8 hrs and 40 mins)
• By Peter Berresford Ellis
• Narrated By Christopher Oxford

For centuries the Celts held sway in Europe. Even after their conquest by the Romans, their culture remained vigorous, ensuring that much of it endured to feed an endless fascination with Celtic history and myths, artwork and treasures. A foremost authority on the Celtic peoples and their culture, Peter Berresford Ellis presents an invigoration overview of their world. With his gift for making the scholarly accessible, he discusses the Celts' mysterious origins and early history and investigates their rich and complex society.

The Modern Scholar: The Medieval World, Part II: Society, Economy, and Culture

• ORIGINAL (7 hrs and 43 mins)
• By Thomas Madden
• Narrated By Thomas Madden

An award-winning, widely recognized expert on pre-modern history, Professor Thomas F. Madden concludes this two-part series on the medieval world. In this course, we will see the error of the commonly held assumption that the "Dark Ages" was a time of superstition, ignorance, and violence. Rather than a time of darkness, the Middle Ages saw extraordinary innovation, invention, and cultural vitality.

The Modern Scholar: Tolkien and the West: Recovering the Lost Tradition of Europe

• ORIGINAL (5 hrs and 15 mins)
• By Michael Drout
• Narrated By Michael Drout

The works of J.R.R. Tolkien are quite possibly the most widely read pieces of literature written in the 20th century. But as Professor Michael Drout illuminates in this engaging course of lectures, Tolkien's writings are built upon a centuries-old literary tradition that developed in Europe and is quite uniquely Western in its outlook and style. Drout explores how that tradition still resonates with us to this day, even if many Modernist critics would argue otherwise. He begins the course with the allegory of a tower....

The Modern Scholar: The Medieval World I: Kingdoms, Empires, and War

• ORIGINAL (8 hrs and 20 mins)
• By Thomas F. Madden
• Narrated By Thomas F. Madden

This all-encompassing investigation of a highly influential time period includes the major events of the era and informative discussion of empire, papacy, the Crusades, and the fall of Constantinople. During the course of these lectures, Professor Madden also addresses the rise of Islam, reform movements, and schisms in the church. In so doing, Professor Madden underscores the significance and grand scale of an age that continues to hold an undeniable fascination for people today.

The American Civil War

• ORIGINAL (24 hrs and 36 mins)
• By The Great Courses, Gary W. Gallagher
• Narrated By Professor Gary W. Gallagher

Between 1861 and 1865, the clash of the greatest armies the Western hemisphere had ever seen turned small towns, little-known streams, and obscure meadows in the American countryside into names we will always remember. In those great battles, those streams ran red with blood-and the United States was truly born.

The Modern Scholar: A History of the English Language

• UNABRIDGED (8 hrs and 20 mins)
• By Michael Drout

Professor Drout addresses the foundation of language and its connection to specific portions of the brain. The components of language are explained in easy-to-understand terms and the progression of the language from Germanic to Old, Middle, and Modern English is fully illustrated - including such revolutionary language upheavals as those brought about by the Norman Conquest and the Great Vowel Shift.

1066: The Year That Changed Everything

• ORIGINAL (3 hrs)
• By The Great Courses
• Narrated By Professor Jennifer Paxton

With this exciting and historically rich six-lecture course, experience for yourself the drama of this dynamic year in medieval history, centered on the landmark Norman Conquest. Taking you from the shores of Scandinavia and France to the battlefields of the English countryside, these lectures will plunge you into a world of fierce Viking warriors, powerful noble families, politically charged marriages, tense succession crises, epic military invasions, and much more.

Saxons, Vikings, and Celts: The Genetic Roots of Britain and Ireland

• UNABRIDGED (10 hrs and 8 mins)
• By Bryan Sykes
• Narrated By Dick Hill
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

WASPs finally get their due in this stimulating history by one of the world's leading geneticists. Saxons, Vikings, and Celts is the most illuminating book yet to be written about the genetic history of Britain and Ireland. Through a systematic, ten-year DNA survey of more than 10,000 volunteers, Bryan Sykes has traced the true genetic makeup of British Islanders and their descendants.

The Modern Scholar: Dickens and Twain: Capturing 19th Century Britain and America

• ORIGINAL (4 hrs and 39 mins)
• By Professor Timothy B. Shutt
• Narrated By Professor Timothy B. Shutt

Few writers are more often read, and better loved, than Charles Dickens and Samuel Langhorne Clemens - Mark Twain. Many of the characters populating their novels have become household words, cultural landmarks in their own right - Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, David Copperfield and Oliver Twist. It is as if we have known them life-long. In this course we take a look at the lives and works of both authors.

Icons of the Iron Age: The Celts in History

• UNABRIDGED (8 hrs and 2 mins)
• By Susan A. Johnston
• Narrated By Susan A. Johnston

Among the most famous peoples in ancient times were the Celts, who lived in Europe during the Iron Age, from about 600 BCE into the early centuries CE. They left behind an intriguing record of physical remains that have been recovered by archaeologists, and they have continued to hold our attention as modern populations claim a Celtic identity.

The Foundations of Western Civilization

• ORIGINAL (24 hrs and 54 mins)
• By The Great Courses
• Narrated By Professor Thomas F. X. Noble

What is Western Civilization? According to Professor Noble, it is "much more than human and political geography," encompassing myriad forms of political and institutional structures - from monarchies to participatory republics - and its own traditions of political discourse. It involves choices about who gets to participate in any given society and the ways in which societies have resolved the tension between individual self-interest and the common good.

The Story of the Volsungs: The Volsunga Saga

• UNABRIDGED (4 hrs and 34 mins)
• By Anonymous
• Narrated By Antony Ferguson

Originally written in Icelandic in the 13th century AD by an anonymous author, The Story of The Volsungs is a legendary saga based on Norse mythology. The epic describes the legendary history and heroic feats of several generations of mythic Viking families and derives from many sources, including preexisting Edda, or heroic poems, Norse legends, historical events, and orally transmitted folklore. The saga is imbued throughout with themes of power, jealousy, love, vengeance, and fear.

Odin: The Origins, History and Evolution of the Norse God

• UNABRIDGED (1 hr and 19 mins)
• By Jesse Harasta, Charles River Editors
• Narrated By Anthony R. Schlotzhauer
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

A one-eyed old man, with a gray cloak and a wide-brimmed hat leaning on a staff. A wanderer who appears when least expected, bringing triumph or doom. The god of prophecy, poetry and fate. A shape changer. A sorcerer. The god Odin cuts a dramatic figure in Norse mythology and is still a part of the popular imagination. He is the inspiration for figures like J.R.R. Tolkien's Gandalf the Grey, and he still appears in modern literature as varied as Marvel Comics and Neil Gaiman's novel American Gods.

The Other Side of History: Daily Life in the Ancient World

• ORIGINAL (24 hrs and 28 mins)
• By The Great Courses, Robert Garland
• Narrated By Professor Robert Garland

Look beyond the abstract dates and figures, kings and queens, and battles and wars that make up so many historical accounts. Over the course of 48 richly detailed lectures, Professor Garland covers the breadth and depth of human history from the perspective of the so-called ordinary people, from its earliest beginnings through the Middle Ages.

The Modern Scholar: Masterpieces of Medieval Literature

• UNABRIDGED (8 hrs and 19 mins)
• By Timothy Shutt

It is during the Middle Ages that modern Europe, indeed, modern Western culture as we know it, comes to be. Classical Mediterranean culture drew from the ancient Middle East, and more directly, from the Hebrews, Greeks, and Romans. The Middle Ages add the Northlands, Celts, and Germans, and ultimately, Slavs as well, to the mix.

The Sagas of Ragnar Lodbrok

• UNABRIDGED (2 hrs and 46 mins)
• By Ben Waggoner - Translator
• Narrated By Ray Chase

Although based on historical persons from the ninth century, Ragnar Lodbrok and his sons are the subjects of compelling legends dating from the Viking era. Warriors, raiders, and rulers, Ragnar and his sons inspired unknown writers to set down their stories over seven centuries ago. This volume presents new and original translations of the three major Old Norse texts that tell Ragnar's story.

The Modern Scholar: The Lost Warriors of God: The True History of the Knights Templar

• ORIGINAL (4 hrs and 30 mins)
• By Thomas F. Madden
• Narrated By Thomas F. Madden

Professor Thomas F. Madden is a widely published author and the director of the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies at Saint Louis University. In The Lost Warriors of God, Madden examines one of the most fascinating organizations in world history: the Knights Templar, whose members gave up home, family, and worldly possessions to defend the Holy Land and the Christian pilgrims who journeyed there.

Celtic Mythology and the Religion of the Ancient Celts

• UNABRIDGED (2 hrs and 7 mins)
• By Charles River Editors, Jesse Harasta
• Narrated By Daniel F. Purcell
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

The Celts are one of the most well-known groups in Europe and one of the least understood. Depending on which classifications are used, the Celts are also one of the oldest civilizations in Europe. In the centuries before Christ, the Celts were spread out across much of continental Europe, and though they are mostly identified with Gaul, evidence suggests they also spread as far as Portugal.

The Modern Scholar: One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic: A History of the Church in the Middle Ages

• ORIGINAL (8 hrs and 14 mins)
• By Thomas Madden

Renowned professor Thomas F. Madden turns his scholarly eye on the intrigue and politics swirling about the Medieval Church. Professor Madden explores the compelling events that shaped the culture and forever altered history, from the Monophysite Controversy to reform movements to the Inquisition, Black Death, and Great Schism.

Bard of the Middle Ages - The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer: The Modern Scholar

• UNABRIDGED (8 hrs and 9 mins)
• By Michael Drout
• Narrated By Michael Drout

Through his writing, Chaucer's wit, charm, and eloquence give us a deeper understanding of not only the time in which he lived, but of how human emotion, frailty, and fortitude are the base elements of human existence. Despite social upheaval and the changing fortunes of his patrons and peers, Chaucer remained a favored subject during three distinct and contrasting reigns. His experiences provided Chaucer an appreciation for his good (and bad) fortune - and that of others - made evident in his writing.

The Art of Psychological Warfare: How to Skillfully Influence People Undetected and How to Mentally Subdue Your Enemies in Stealth Mode

• UNABRIDGED (1 hr and 50 mins)
• By Michael T. Stevens
• Narrated By Jim D. Johnston
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

This book teaches you personal interaction on a psychological level. It runs from trivial tricks like getting people to like and respect you more, to tactical life skills like making a convincing argument or persuading somebody to do you a large favor. In case you're up for some heavier artillery, it also teaches you how to play manipulative tricks on people by exploiting arcane quirks in the human mind, to psychological combat maneuvers practiced by law enforcement and the military.

The Italians before Italy: Conflict and Competition in the Mediterranean

• ORIGINAL (12 hrs and 8 mins)
• By The Great Courses
• Narrated By Professor Kenneth R. Bartlett

Take a riveting tour of the Italian peninsula, from the glittering canals of Venice to the lavish papal apartments and ancient ruins of Rome. In these 24 lectures, Professor Bartlett traces the development of the Italian city-states of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, showing how the modern nation of Italy was forged out of the rivalries, allegiances, and traditions of a vibrant and diverse people.