Norse Mythology: The Unofficial Guide
Wælhræfn
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Top 10 Norse Mythology: The Unofficial Guide Episodes
Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best Norse Mythology: The Unofficial Guide episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to Norse Mythology: The Unofficial Guide for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite Norse Mythology: The Unofficial Guide episode by adding your comments to the episode page.
Episode 19 - The Goddesses Time Forgot
Norse Mythology: The Unofficial Guide
10/23/22 • 28 min
Our sources for Norse mythology are pretty male-centric. But even so, when we tally up the names of all the gods we have vs. all the goddesses, it turns out we actually have a lot more goddess names than gods. Goddesses certainly played an important role in the lived religion of ancient Scandinavians, so this episode is a tribute to a few of the goddesses forgotten by time.
Sources:
- “Germania” by Publius Cornelius Tacitus, 1st century
- “Great Goddess Theory in Ancient Germanic Studies” by Joseph S. Hopkins, 2019
- “Goddesses Unknown I: Njǫrun and the Sister-Wife of Njǫrðr” by Joseph S. Hopkins, 2012
- “Goddesses Unknown II: On the Apparent Old Norse Goddess Ilmr” by Joseph S. Hopkins, 2014
- “Goddesses Unknown III: On the Identity of the Old Norse Goddess Hlín” by Joseph S. Hopkins, 2017
- “Heimskringla”, transl. by Alison Finlay and Anthony Faulkes, 2011
- “Meeting the Other in Norse Myth and Legend” by John McKinnell, 2005
- “The Poetic Edda”, transl. by Carolyne Larrington, 2014
- “The Prose Edda”, transl. by Anthony Faulkes, 1995
Contact:
- Write in: waelhraefn (at) gmail (dot) com
- Join the Discord: https://discord.gg/Nvw5hmkRsW
Music:
Celebration by Alexander Nakarada (www.serpentsoundstudios.com) Licensed under Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Episode 24 - The Valkyries, Freyja, and Fólkvangr
Norse Mythology: The Unofficial Guide
01/03/23 • 30 min
There's an intriguing stanza in one of our source poems mentioning a compromise between the goddess Freyja and the god Óðinn. It seems to tell us only half the slain warriors are received by Óðinn in Valhöll because the other half are chosen by Freyja for a place called Fólkvangr. But what does it really mean to choose the slain? Who decides who dies? And what happens when the god of the slain wants something that goes against the decrees of fate? This episode is a little more interpretive than others, but isn't speculation what makes the study of mythology fun?
Sources:
- “Dictionary of Northern Mythology” by Rudolf Simek, 2007
- “Norse Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Heroes, Rituals, and Beliefs” by John Lindow, 2001
- “The Ship in the Field” by Joseph S. Hopkins and Haukur Þorgeirsson, 2012
- “The Poetic Edda”, transl. by Carolyne Larrington, 2014
- “The Prose Edda”, transl. by Anthony Faulkes, 1995
Contact:
- Write in: waelhraefn (at) gmail (dot) com
- Join the Discord: https://discord.gg/Nvw5hmkRsW
Music:
Celebration by Alexander Nakarada (www.serpentsoundstudios.com) Licensed under Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Episode 12 - The One Where Thor Wears a Dress
Norse Mythology: The Unofficial Guide
08/28/22 • 25 min
In one of the most famous Norse myths of all time, Thor's hammer is stolen by the jǫtnar and the only way to get it back is to dress in drag. But this story is much more than a surface-level comedy. It turns Norse ideas about gender and societal expectations on their heads and teaches us a lot about the personalities of the gods. It also seems to prove the age-old adage that comedy is the one place where anything goes.
Sources:
- “Negative Reciprocity” by Margaret Clunies Ross in “Prolonged Echoes” Volume I, 1994
- “Níð, Ergi and Old Norse Moral Attitudes” by Folke Ström, 1974
- “Paganism at Home: Pre-Christian Private Praxis and Household Religion in the Iron-Age North“ by Luke John Murphy, 2018
- “The dating of Eddic poetry – evidence from alliteration” by Haukur Þorgeirsson, 2017
- “Þrymsvkiða, Myth and Mythology” by John Lindow, 1997
- “The Poetic Edda”, transl. by Carolyne Larrington, 2014
- “The Prose Edda”, transl. by Anthony Faulkes, 1995
Contact:
- Write in: waelhraefn (at) gmail (dot) com
- Join the Discord: https://discord.gg/Nvw5hmkRsW
Music:
Celebration by Alexander Nakarada (www.serpentsoundstudios.com) Licensed under Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Announcement: Join me on Discord!
Norse Mythology: The Unofficial Guide
08/19/22 • 1 min
Thanks for all of your support and feedback so far! The purpose of this announcement is to let you know that you are all invited to join me on a new Discord server! If you aren't familiar with Discord, it's an app you can visit in the browser or download to your devices that allows you to chat with people who are interested in similar topics. Our community is intended to be open and friendly. Here's the link:
Contact:
- Join the Discord: https://discord.gg/Nvw5hmkRsW
- You can also write me at waelhraefn (at) gmail (dot) com
Episode 9 - How Mischief Made Mjöllnir
Norse Mythology: The Unofficial Guide
08/07/22 • 29 min
Thor hasn't always had his famous hammer. And for that matter, Óðinn hasn't always had his famous spear. As it turns out, these gods only came to possess their signature weapons as the result of Loki being a trouble-maker. In this episode we'll talk about rowan trees, golden hair, infidelity, dwarves, and some likely shape-shifting shenanigans. By the end, we'll have finally gotten to the bottom of what magical powers the weapons of the gods actually have, and why Loki once had his mouth sewn shut.
Sources:
- “Avlsten” by P. V. Glob, 1959
- “Myth and Religion of the North: The Religion of Ancient Scandinavia” by Gabriel Turville-Petre, 1964
- “The History of the Archbishops of Hamburg-Bremen” by Adam of Bremen 10th century, translated by Francis Tschan.
- “Norse Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Heroes, Rituals, and Beliefs” by John Lindow, 2001
- “The Poetic Edda”, transl. by Carolyne Larrington, 2014
- “The Prose Edda”, transl. by Anthony Faulkes, 1995
Contact:
- Write in: waelhraefn (at) gmail (dot) com
- Join the Discord: https://discord.gg/Nvw5hmkRsW
Music:
Celebration by Alexander Nakarada (www.serpentsoundstudios.com). Licensed under Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Announcement: Let's build a community!
Norse Mythology: The Unofficial Guide
07/27/22 • 3 min
A big thank you to everyone who's subscribed and started listening! The show is starting to do pretty well and it's time for me to start getting some feedback from you. So here's an email: waelhraefn (at) gmail (dot) com. Looking forward to hearing from you!
Contact:
- Write in: waelhraefn (at) gmail (dot) com
- Join the Discord: https://discord.gg/Nvw5hmkRsW
Episode 8 - Blood and Poetry Part II: Murder and Mead
Norse Mythology: The Unofficial Guide
07/24/22 • 25 min
After the Æsir-Vanir war ends, a strange sequence of events is set in motion that results in mankind acquiring a talent for poetry. But did the gods intend for us to have this skill or did we acquire it entirely by accident? And how do a couple of serial-killer dwarves factor into the equation? What exactly is a dwarf, by the way? And is Oðinn canonically an evil-doer? Have a listen for answers to these questions and for some poignant thoughts by the Alföðr himself.
Sources:
- “Dictionary of Northern Mythology” by Rudolf Simek, 2010
- “Heimskringla”, transl. by Alison Finlay and Anthony Faulkes, 2011
- “Norse Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Heroes, Rituals, and Beliefs” by John Lindow, 2001
- “The Poetic Edda”, transl. by Carolyne Larrington, 2014
- “The Prose Edda”, transl. by Anthony Faulkes, 1995
Contact:
- Write in: waelhraefn (at) gmail (dot) com
- Join the Discord: https://discord.gg/Nvw5hmkRsW
Music:
Celebration by Alexander Nakarada (www.serpentsoundstudios.com). Licensed under Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Episode 0 - The Vikings and Their Myths
Norse Mythology: The Unofficial Guide
06/04/22 • 23 min
People often associate Norse mythology with the vikings. But "viking" was just one of many jobs in medieval Scandinavia where farmers, poets, lawspeakers, and all sorts of people incorporated this northern version of Germanic paganism into their daily lives. The Viking Age itself only lasted about two and a half centuries whereas the religion of the north had been growing and evolving for thousands of years. In this episode we'll talk about what Norse mythology is, where it comes from, and where to find it in modern times.
Contact:
- Write in: waelhraefn (at) gmail (dot) com
- Join the Discord: https://discord.gg/Nvw5hmkRsW
Music:
Celebration by Alexander Nakarada (www.serpentsoundstudios.com). Licensed under Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Corrections: Part I
Norse Mythology: The Unofficial Guide
01/03/23 • 4 min
Sometimes I make mistakes. We're all learning together from the experts here. This is a mini-episode addressing two mistakes I made in previous episodes that have been bothering me recently, and that I wanted to correct. There's nothing groundbreaking or foundational here, but I think it's good to fix mistakes when we find them.
Contact:
- Join the Discord: https://discord.gg/Nvw5hmkRsW
- You can also write me at waelhraefn (at) gmail (dot) com
Episode 17 - Finally, Some Real Giant Giants
Norse Mythology: The Unofficial Guide
10/09/22 • 29 min
Our story today is a big one, just like the jǫtnar it features, so we'll spend a lot more time story telling and a lot less time interjecting theories from scholars. But, not to worry. You'll finally get to listen to yours truly, one of the biggest Thor fans of all time, finally talk about some of Old Redbeard's famous failures.
Sources:
- “The Poetic Edda”, transl. by Carolyne Larrington, 2014
- “The Prose Edda”, transl. by Anthony Faulkes, 1995
Contact:
- Write in: waelhraefn (at) gmail (dot) com
- Join the Discord: https://discord.gg/Nvw5hmkRsW
Music:
Celebration by Alexander Nakarada (www.serpentsoundstudios.com) Licensed under Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
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FAQ
How many episodes does Norse Mythology: The Unofficial Guide have?
Norse Mythology: The Unofficial Guide currently has 43 episodes available.
What topics does Norse Mythology: The Unofficial Guide cover?
The podcast is about History and Podcasts.
What is the most popular episode on Norse Mythology: The Unofficial Guide?
The episode title 'Announcement: Hurricane's a Comin'!' is the most popular.
What is the average episode length on Norse Mythology: The Unofficial Guide?
The average episode length on Norse Mythology: The Unofficial Guide is 31 minutes.
How often are episodes of Norse Mythology: The Unofficial Guide released?
Episodes of Norse Mythology: The Unofficial Guide are typically released every 7 days, 13 hours.
When was the first episode of Norse Mythology: The Unofficial Guide?
The first episode of Norse Mythology: The Unofficial Guide was released on Jun 4, 2022.
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