About

Packed with gods, anti-gods, magical figures, human heroes, religious practices, and literary devices, Norse Mythology lays bare the reasons for our enduring fascination with Norse myths. Jackson Crawford also connects the dots between the Icelandic sagas of human heroes and the culture and worldview of the pre-modern Scandinavian peoples.

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Episodes

1. Meeting the Norse Gods of the Viking Age

35m

Where did a hammer-wielding guardian of the gods, a murderer and comic sidekick, a mysterious one-eyed leader, a world-encircling serpent, a doomed final battle, and other Norse myths come from? Learn what we owe to the Poetic Edda and its adaptation in the Prose Edda for the fascinating stories you'll encounter throughout this series.

2. Fate and the Norse Worldview

25m

Our understanding of Viking cultural values comes to us from those upheld (and broken) in the Norse myths. Focus on the profound Norse sense of fatalism and the importance of reckless courage-both of which add up to make the especially crucial concept of being a drengr: A person who, whether they live or die, is often celebrated in a saga.

3. The Norse Art of Mythic Storytelling

27m

One way to better understand the stories of Norse mythology, and the way those stories are told, is to think about dreams. Using a key story from Norse mythology (the tale of how Odin got the mead of poetry from the gods' enemies), compare two versions that highlight the "dream logic" inherent to much of Norse mythology.

4. The Norse Gods Are Characters with Flaws

28m

A popular story of the Norse gods mocking one another is the perfect introduction to a pantheon that includes Thor, Odin, Loki, and Freyja. But the roles of these gods, as you'll learn, are often not as clear-cut and one-dimensional as popular treatments and assumptions would have us believe.

5. The Norse Creation: Dawn of Strife

28m

In the beginning, "many ages before the earth was shaped," there were two realms: watery Niflheim to the north and fiery Muspell to the south. So begins the Norse creation myth, which is narrated together with the myth of how the gods die at Ragnarok. Learn how it all began.

6. First Humans, the Nine Realms, and Yggdrasil

27m

Explore how Norse mythology describes the creation of humankind from two pieces of driftwood. Then step back for a broader look at the Norse mythos and our human place within it. Take a trip through distinct realms (for gods, humans, the dead, and others), then climb Yggdrasil, the enormous ash tree whose roots bind them.

7. Loki and His Children

27m

Meet the complicated, ambivalent figure who lives alongside the gods but compulsively troubles them. Among the stories recounted here include the worst of Loki's affairs (with an anti-goddess named "sorrow-offerer") and his three ill-prophesied children: the huge wolf Fenrir, the goddess Hel, and the world-sized serpent Jormungand.

8. Balder's Death: Tragic Murder of a God

27m

Odin's son, Balder, was a god so beloved (in fact, his Old Norse name is likely related to ancient words for brightness and light) that his shocking death is one of the principal stories of the "Eddas." Consider two different angles on this story-one of which offers more logical coherence by omitting the presence of the trickster Loki.

9. Ragnarok: The Final Battle and Fall

28m

The world is destroyed by evil, repopulated by good, then threatened anew by surviving evil. Ragnarok isn't the final triumph of good envisioned by mainstream Christianity-but is it a cycle of ages akin to that envisioned by the ancient Maya? Explore a Norse apocalypse that seems amoral and simply inevitable.

10. Thor among the Gods' Enemies

26m

Take a closer look at some of the most important stories of Thor's exploits as fighter and defender against the gods' enemies. Some of these tales emphasize his dangerousness; others are imbued with humor. Above all, Thor is a god of the common people, willing to embark on hard work, while shrugging off occasional humor at his expense.

Extended Details

SeriesNorse Mythology

Closed CaptionsEnglish

Artists

The Great CoursesDirector

The Great CoursesProducer

Jackson CrawfordActor

Similar Artists

Alaric Albertsson