HDMovies

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

Meet the complicated, ambivalent figure who lives alongside the gods but compulsively troubles them. Among the stories recounted here include the...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

Continue your look at the Norse god Odin with this consideration of his prominent connection with death and the dead. The key to this connection:...

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...

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...

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...

Great human heroes account for most of the mythical saga material that comes down to us outside of the "Eddas." The most important of these mythical...

Sigurth, regarded as the single greatest hero of all, was groomed like his father, Sigmund, by Odin. Follow the epic story of Sigurth, including his...

Conclude the saga of the Volsungs (the most famous and celebrated sequence of legends from medieval Scandinavia) with Guthrun, her surviving brothers...

Go beyond the Volsungs and encounter particular (and quite peculiar) heroes and villains, including shieldmaidens, berserkers, and bear men. You'll...

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 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...

What happens when we die? Discover how the Norse myths address this question with a journey into two postmortem destinations: Valhalla (for the men...

Consider why stories and characters from Norse myth remain so popular today (albeit in a distorted form), and how they've shaped iconic works of...

The Power of Myth is a television series originally broadcast on PBS in 1988 as Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth. The documentary comprises six...

Revealing the origin stories of popular monster mysteries, each episode looks at the history, archaeology and truths behind legendary creatures.

Historian Bettany Hughes has embarked on an epic, personal journey. Inspired by Homer's The Odyssey, she will sail the unpredictable Mediterranean...

A fascinating journey through Norse mythology, a huge universe inhabited by gods and mysterious creatures.

Legendary raconteur Joseph Campbell explores the myth and symbols that have shaped our world and given us what he has called "the experience of being...