NorsePlay Reviews: The Great Courses' Norse Mythology.

Sometime in 2017 CE, NorsePlay left a plus-tagged Google+ comment that directed the educational company The Great Courses to Old Norse Philologist Jackson Crawford, and I suggested that they commission him to do a course for them. Now in 2022 CE, that very course has materialized, and I'd like to think that NorsePlay's comment as a cultural actor was responsible for making that happen.

Pretty much within the first few weeks of release, I ponied up my $75 (yes, I know they often have $35 sales, but we wanted to review it now. [And that talking squirrel running up & down that World Tree, All-Daddy, I want that squirrel NOW!])

[No, no you really don't want that talking squirrel.]

So the pre-buying bottom line question would be: Can I get the same information from the same source by watching his YT channel's 400+ videos? Mostly. Yet, like a university course, the level of organization in these 24 half-hour lectures partitions things in an orderly fashion that hitting his massive online video backlog won't do for you.

And unlike those YT videos, you won't get the usual wilderness with animals or the dizzying view somewhere up in the Rockies, just a static stage-constructed room with Jackson gesticulating in a chair. More subtly what you might notice within his characteristic even-voiced lectures are his Western & Native American rings changing and even the appearance of a pretty nice bolo tie.

What you will also get are additional cool factoids that he's previously never mentioned, which is totally the content I wanted. As examples:

† Old Norse's Distinct Rages: Citing specific word usages, Crawford notes for us that when Thor or the Æsir rage it is Asmothr (Aesir-rage), and when jötnar or the Master Builder rage it is Jotunmothr (Rage of Jotuns).

† Another Meaning for Loki: Crawford offers up an additional translation of this name as "the ender", which is insightful given his role in the death of Baldr as a precursor to Ragnarök and his leading of a large faction of adversarial forces to that final battle against the Gods, in tandem with two of his monstrous offspring who are fated to kill Odin & Thor.

† Timeline of Sources: Crawford rattles off timestamps for the sources, which gives us an uncommon linear perspective, specifically Beowulf at 800-1000 CE, Saxo at 1208 CE, Prose Edda at 1220 CE, noting that all three contain variants of the Death of Baldr myth with commonalities & differences that suggest an earlier shared source that is now lost.

† Thor the "Pig-Rider": Jackson cites Anatoly Liberman's translation of the odd Thor kenning "Hlorrithi", pointing out that there's a lost story somewhere in that name.

[Hog Rider from Clash Of Clans game sketched by DeagStone.]

† Henotheism: The Lore has instances where a saga figure favours one deity over others in their pantheons, and Crawford points out that this practice is called henotheism.

And, as an unusual departure, Crawford goes outside his normally neutral comfort zone of translation to offer some actual opinions with some interpretations:

‡ "Dream Logic": Crawford adapts this phrase to show magical limitations, rules and lapses of logic within the myths. Sometimes it seems that solutions can only be pursued or tried once with no second attempts possible, like the failed spell to remove the stuck hone shard shrapnel in Thor's head, or the imperfect forging of Mjölnir. There are no do-overs for certain feats, just consequences.

‡ Dwarves are Elves?: Crawford actually reductivises dwarves as a subset of elves (though I would disagree with this given differing proper naming styles, the attestation for separate runes & labels for cosmological features, and distinct descriptors of both of them in source materials).

‡ Dwarves as Tools?: Crawford applies a translation of Brokkr's name as "brother needle" used to sew Loki's lips shut (note Brokkr is usually interpreted as "one who works with metal fragments"), since many dwarves are named after tools. Crawford actually takes this even further by saying they are also literally tools, as in able to transform and function as them. (I rather suspect this is more of the specific skill of a dwarf being used rather than an actual transformation as this could just be poetic license or kenning.)

‡ Volsungs Explained: Crawford decides to add some extra context to the Völsunga Saga to fill-in & explain character motivations, resulting actions, and to show how different portions fit together more tightly in terms of narrative that upon first appearance do not make sense or are inconsistent in the saga.

‡ Christ Under Yggdrasil: Crawford cites a post-conversion poem that places Christ in judgment as seated under Yggdrasil to illustrate how transitive religious images were in the wake of that change and displacement.

‡ The Hanged Men Of Lunda: These figurines "meant to propitiate the Gods with the form, if not the substance, of a human offering" are interpreted by Crawford as a sacrificial substitute. (Or I'd venture it's Odin hanging from Yggdrasil to earn the runes, since if we look at some sagas where substitutes are offered, it turns out that the Regin usually do not settle for something less [i.e. King Vikar in Gautrek's Saga's mock sacrifice turns real and the king dies.])

‡ Enduring Magical Rituals: In telling us about Ibn Fadlan's famous account of the Viking burning ship funeral, Crawford points out striking similarities in that ceremony to instances in other sources that were written hundreds of years later. The slave girl sacrifices a chicken by tearing its head off and throws the carcass into the boat, which parallels Saxo's account of King Hading's sorceress guide cutting a rooster's head off and throwing the parts over the wall of Hel only to hear it crow from the other side. Later a chieftain at the funeral will place a torch between his knees, while in Vatnsdæla Saga a witch places a torch between her knees while walking backwards to cast a spell.

‡ Norse Appeal: The last lecture's titled The Enduring Appeal of Norse Mythology. Unlike the previous 23 lectures where we mostly just get the set, there are more pop-up photos & illustrations of things than all the rest of the lectures, which came off as a more dynamic presentation, and makes one wonder why those weren't equally present in all the former lectures. While this episode's title would imply a more global answer to the proliferation of Norse Mythology in our contemporary culture, the answer Jackson uses is lensed only through his personal story of how he got involved & relates to his subject. While it's nice to get this insight into our lecturer's life, especially the parallel between his grandfather's voice and Odin's wisdom of the Hávamál, it's a departure (possibly even an intentionally obtuse dodge) that doesn't actually address the broader question. Otherwise his recommendation to actually visit Scandinavian museums and tour Iceland's sagasteads for a truer context (and incidentally further engage Heathen Worldview) is something I fully agree with.

On a broader note, NorsePlay would like to point out & applaud Jackson for using this well-established home course medium to further his mission to make good information & knowledge accessible to the general public outside of the costly business model that is the university, college, and formal academic pay structures.

Finally, if you don't have time to watch Crawford's hundreds of YT videos, then this DVD course is a great survey of most of his core talking nodes with the above mentioned bonus points and more adorning them.  If you feel you need a 101/201 level undergrad course with some 300 level extras, or you want a well-organized refresher, this is for you. Jackson's a square-jawed no-nonsense straight-shooter, and we're lucky to have him lassoing everything from ᚨ-to-ᛉ for us into videos that everyone can learn from.

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Guillermo Maytorena IV knew there was something special in the Norse Lore when he picked up a copy of the d'Aulaires' Norse Gods and Giants at age seven. Since then he's been fascinated by the truthful potency of Norse Mythology, passionately read & studied, embraced Ásatrú, launched the Map of Midgard project, and spearheaded the neologism/brand NorsePlay. If you have employment/opportunities in investigative mythology,  field research, or product development to offer, do contact him.