Jackson Crawford
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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...
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'The poems of the Poetic Edda have waited a long time for a Modern English translation that would do them justice. Here it is at last (Odin be praised!) and well worth the wait. These amazing texts from a thirteenth-century Icelandic manuscript are of huge historical, mythological, and literary importance, containing the lion's share of information that survives today about the gods and heroes of pre-Christian Scandinavians, their unique vision of...
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From the translator of the bestselling Poetic Edda comes a gripping new rendering of two of the greatest sagas of Old Norse literature. Together the two sagas recount the story of seven generations of a single legendary heroic family and comprise our best source of traditional lore about its members-including, among others, the dragon slayer Sigurd, Brynhild the Valkyrie, and the Viking chieftain Ragnar Lothbrok.
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Norse Mythology volume 16
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English
Description
Not all the supernatural characters of the Norse myths are high and mighty gods or their cosmically powerful enemies. Spend some time with the lesser supernatural beings that translators call dwarves, elves, trolls, and zombies. How do Norse depictions of these creatures differ from those of 21st-century pop culture?
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Norse Mythology volume 9
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English
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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.
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Norse Mythology volume 12
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English
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There's little Odin does that's readily understandable to humankind. Still, peel back some of the layers of intrigue surrounding the lord of war and the dead, including the important myth of his hanging, his hall of men killed in battle (Valhalla), his spear, his ability to communicate with the dead, and more.
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Norse Mythology volume 7
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English
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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.
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Norse Mythology volume 22
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English
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The worldview of the medieval Norse didn't deny human beings access to some of the power of the gods. Rather, it embraced the belief that mortals could have a limited command of them. The secret was: spells, runes, blessings, oaths, and curses. Learn about Norse magic channeled through the spoken and written word.
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Norse Mythology volume 14
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The "Eddas" usually refer to the gods collectively as "the Aesir." But there's another term for a more specific family of gods that occurs now and then: "the Vanir." Meet the three Vanir whose names we know (the obscure Njorth and his twin children, Frey and Freyja) and consider some of the many social differences between families of the gods.
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Norse Mythology volume 19
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Conclude the saga of the Volsungs (the most famous and celebrated sequence of legends from medieval Scandinavia) with Guthrun, her surviving brothers Gunnar and Hogni, and her children. Also compare accounts of the Volsungs as depicted in the Poetic Edda, the Saga of the Volsungs, and early historical accounts.
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Norse Mythology volume 15
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Turn now to the single-most often-named goddess and the prize the gods' enemies constantly seek to seize. Any encounter with Freyja includes an encounter with the most prominent female figures in Norse mythology at her command-the Valkyries, positioned somewhere between mere mortals and the divine.
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Norse Mythology volume 6
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English
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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.
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Norse Mythology volume 8
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English
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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.
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Norse Mythology volume 20
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English
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Go beyond the Volsungs and encounter particular (and quite peculiar) heroes and villains, including shieldmaidens, berserkers, and bear men. You'll come face to face with skilled warriors who were outside the social norms-and perhaps even the social realities-of medieval Norse society.
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Norse Mythology volume 10
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English
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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.
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Norse Mythology volume 5
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English
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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.
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Norse Mythology volume 3
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English
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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.
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Norse Mythology volume 1
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English
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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.
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Norse Mythology volume 21
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English
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Consider the relations between the Norse gods and normal, everyday human beings. What does it look like to compare pre-Christian Norse paganism with the Judeo-Christian communities of today (including their holy days)? What can we learn from relics unearthed from archaeological sites, such as Lunda?
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Norse Mythology volume 11
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English
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How does Thor comport himself in situations that put him at a terrible disadvantage? What is this most popular of all the Norse gods without his hammer (which in "Thrym's Poem" is stolen right from under his nose)? What does modern archaeological evidence tell us about Thor's overwhelming popularity?