ᚠᚢᚦᚨᚱᚲ! What does it mean? On this episode we'll cover everything you ever wanted to know about pre-Christian runic writing and, maybe even better, we'll talk about how the runes were used anciently for magical practices. Be warned! We're going to be dispelling a lot of myths in this episode, so get ready to toss everything you thought you already knew right out the window. Ok, maybe it won't be that drastic, but you might be surprised.

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Celebration by Alexander Nakarada (www.serpentsoundstudios.com) Licensed under Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

On this episode we are joined by Joseph S. Hopkins, an expert who has been quoted frequently on this show, to help us wrap our heads around our sources, how they fit into a broader sphere of Germanic religion, the importance of trees in Norse mythology, and just for fun, the often overlooked symbol of antlers and stags.

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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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Rim Baudey for mimisbrunnr.info

One of the more difficult things to do in Norse mythology is understanding the way the sun and moon relate to day and night. Each one seems to have its own origin, and figuring out where the distinction between a shiny object and a divine person really is can be tricky. Add to this the big mess of wolf and horse names scattered all over the story and what we have is a big recipe for confusion. In this episode, we'll go through this together, figuring out who's who, what's what, and how everyone gets killed by which particular wolf.

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Celebration by Alexander Nakarada (www.serpentsoundstudios.com) Licensed under Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Way back in episode 1, I mentioned that the sources are not exactly as clear on what "the nine realms" are as popular media would have us believe. In this episode, we dig into all the ways the phrase "nine realms" is used in the sources, and try our best to put together a working model of how the Norse cosmos was really shaped.

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Celebration by Alexander Nakarada (www.serpentsoundstudios.com) Licensed under Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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?

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Celebration by Alexander Nakarada (www.serpentsoundstudios.com) Licensed under Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 

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.

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The moment has finally arrived! The doom of the gods (or is it, fate of the gods? ...or twilight of the gods?) is upon us! Listen as your dedicated host tirelessly strings together a narrative crafted from The Prose Edda, Völuspá, Vafþrúðnismál, Grímnismál, and Fáfnismál to finally present a full picture of Ragnarök. But what does Ragnarök really mean? Has it already happened? Are the dead gods really dead? Will there be another Ragnarök in the future? All this and more in today's episode and more to come in the future. 

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Celebration by Alexander Nakarada (www.serpentsoundstudios.com) Licensed under Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Previously, Loki took it upon himself to orchestrate the murder of the gods' golden boy, Baldr. In this episode, Loki's actions finally come back to haunt him as the gods exact their revenge. We'll discuss how this story differs between accounts in the two Eddas, and even dig in to a lesser-known part of the story preserved mainly in Gesta Danorum. And with this story out of the way, the stage has finally been fully set for Ragnarök.

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Celebration by Alexander Nakarada (www.serpentsoundstudios.com) Licensed under Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 

In this episode, the most beloved of all the gods suffers a tragic death as the result of what appears to be another god's jealous rage. This story has everything: murder, zombies, flaming dwarves, and possible hints at something akin to suttee– everything except the consequences. Those will come next time.

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Celebration by Alexander Nakarada (www.serpentsoundstudios.com) Licensed under Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Today we dive into the god Freyr's most famous mistake: the time he traded his magic sword for the favor of a woman and, in so doing, sealed his fate in the coming battle of Ragnarök. We'll learn a little about rune magic, coercion, and the time-less behavior of mopey, love-sick teenagers.

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Celebration by Alexander Nakarada (www.serpentsoundstudios.com) Licensed under Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/