Mythgard Academy
469 episodes - English - Latest episode: 3 days ago - ★★★★★ - 76 ratingsMythgard Academy aims to make engaging discussions of fantasy and science fiction literature free and open to everyone. The Mythgard Academy program features live discussions with Dr. Corey Olsen, The Tolkien Professor, and other experts on speculative fiction. Books are nominated and voted on by our supporters, and recordings are available for free via podcast and the Signum University YouTube channel.
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Episodes
MSA029: The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Class 2
June 05, 2021 05:45 - 1 hour - 60.2 MBSupport Mythgard Academy
MSA029: The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Class 1
May 28, 2021 22:00 - 2 hours - 72.1 MBWelcome to Luna, here is your narrator, Mannie, a free born, old cobber with one arm who’s not on Authority’s payroll. Look him up and down. He comes from complicated Loonie heritage, belongs to a line marriage, has a clear attitude against Authority and Warden, and a subtle attitude against Terra and Earthworms. He switches arms and jobs with resilience, faces extreme hardships on Luna or Terra, and machines really like him. That is dinkum. ‘Cause Luna is a hostile place. Life is not default...
MSA028: Inferno, Class 24
May 19, 2021 06:00 - 2 hours - 93.4 MBWeek 24: And so we finish our tour of Hell and arrive at the crux of the world where we find Dante has been affected deeply by his travels at all three levels of his allegorical structure, and where Dante again faints, and where we also strengthen our understanding of the Medieval knowledge of World Geography. In Virgil’s capable hands the inversion principle moves us through Satan’s nether parts to the next realm, and we are free from the Inferno and the stars come out. For more information ...
MSA028: Inferno, Class 23
May 08, 2021 20:00 - 1 hour - 61.3 MBWeek 23: Where Dante succumbs to the lure of base arguments and wishes he was merely in a dream. And where a bugle blast messes with Dante’s vision, and towers become giants, and not nice ones either. And Dante’s absolute terror returns and his wish to be anywhere else but the road to Hell. But Virgil trades Dante’s fame card for a ride in Antaeus fist into the dark, frozen well. There Dante’s hubris returns in time to help him harass and abuse the sinners; so much for pity and so much for br...
MSA028: Inferno, Class 22
April 16, 2021 22:00 - 1 hour - 55.2 MBIn which we complete our tour of the Malebolge with a rather crowded tenth pouch
MSA028: Inferno, Class 21
April 10, 2021 20:15 - 1 hour - 57.7 MBIn which we meet people with various kinds of bodily integrity issues.
MSA028: Inferno, Class 20
April 03, 2021 21:00 - 1 hour - 64.8 MBWeek 20: Where we call bologna on Dante’s talent curbing and clearly see the simple summer simile. Where with Ulysses we pass the columns, and the poles, and founder on the shores of Mount Purgatory having found the earth round. Where we hear that one cannot logically be absolved before, or during, the commission of an evil deed or counsel. Sorry, not sorry, or something like that, Minos judges. And Dante litters his own path with cautionary examples; there but for the ‘rock’ goes he. For mor...
MSA028: Inferno, Class 19
March 28, 2021 21:15 - 1 hour - 52.7 MB\Week 19: A Place Among the Classics In the seventh pocket of the eighth circle, the fraudulent thieves are beset with snakes. Dante calls them all serpents, but some have six legs, and some none; some are caliente, peppercorn serpents, and some are winged, fiery dragons; some are smoking, and some are boring. Later, while describing the transformations from snake to thief and thief to snake, Dante disses Ovid and Lucan, two poets he wished to be named with back in Limbo. For more informatio...
MSA028: Inferno, Class 18
March 20, 2021 02:00 - 1 hour - 62.5 MBGuess what sin is punished by snakes. And cyclical incineration.
MSA028: Inferno, Class 17
March 14, 2021 07:00 - 1 hour - 60.9 MBWeek 17: Now into the second half of the Malebolge, we look back at the closing line of Canto 21 and The Comedy's lack of humor. Then on to Canto 23, where Aesop’s frog and mouse story is called upon to warn Dante against trusting too closely the partnership of Demons. And Virgil luges Dante down the rocky slope, making a quick escape from pocket 5 to 6, where they try to hide among the lead-lined, golden-robed hypocrites. For more information about the Mythgard Academy series on Dante's Infe...
MSA028: Inferno, Class 16
March 07, 2021 02:00 - 1 hour - 63.1 MBTonight we encounter some really ... unexpected demons. What under the earth is going on here?
MSA028: Inferno, Class 15
March 01, 2021 00:00 - 1 hour - 64.5 MBWeek 15: We revisit the Baptistery of San Giovanni and notice the inversions in Dante’s destroying holy furniture to save a life while the popes destroy lives to save holy money for themselves. But what is with all the feet? And do you think Boniface saw the funny side of his little cameo, or would he be depressed in determinism like his predecessor having perverted the mechanism of forgiveness and having then no path to repentance? And here Virgil the ghost grabs Dante the flesh-man and polt...
MSA028: Inferno, Class 14
February 21, 2021 20:00 - 1 hour - 61.5 MBWeek 14: True to the nature of Fraud, the 8th circle is an artificial construct of inverted imagery split into 10 concentric pockets, with bridges that look down upon each trench. The first pocket is a gender discriminated container for pimps and seducers, a sex traffic kept moving by demons with whips. The second pocket is an egalitarian circle of very rude words (What? Would you like to sugar coat with flowery language the circle of flattery?). The third pocket is for spiritual pimps, the f...
MSA028: Inferno, Class 13
February 21, 2021 20:00 - 2 hours - 72.1 MBWeek 13: At the waterfall edge of the 7th circle Dante gives up his belt to conjure a ride. What is the truth which seems a lie? Poetic allegory of course. For Dante breaks the 4th wall to give his poem a name, Comedy, and to swear that he saw a beast swim in the air up the waterfall. Geryon is the impossible thing, but that’s ok, he’s a fraud. No, he’s The Fraud and through his depiction we see the truth. Fraud or no, the brute animal is the only way down into the 8th circle. And even with t...
MSA028: Inferno, Class 12
February 21, 2021 20:00 - 1 hour - 63.6 MBDante Finds Himself Among Friends Week 12: There are no poor people in rings 8 and 9 of the 7th circle of Hell, but no one sees clearly either. Dante condescends to walk and talk with his old teacher Brunetto and stops to let three wealthy Florentine nobles ask for news from home. But everything about this tableau is inverted and full of oblique references. For more information about the Mythgard Academy series on Dante's Inferno, visit https://mythgard.org/academy/inferno/
MSA028: Inferno, Class 11
February 21, 2021 19:00 - 1 hour - 58.9 MBViolence Against God Session 11: Still in the Seventh Circle, in the first ring of the third ring of the Violent, where the violent objector is the landscape itself, fiery sands and flaming rain that banish all growth, we see Capaneus stuck in his railing rebellion against Jove. In the Old Man of Crete we see from the Golden Age to the crumbling of the Kingdom’s of Mankind a cracked statue weeping tears into four mythic rivers. Three of the rivers come into Hell. One confounds Dante's sense o...
MSA028: Inferno, Class 10
January 23, 2021 20:00 - 1 hour - 68.4 MBConcerning Violence Session 10: Where we arrive on time to find the tormentors of the violent are themselves the violent. The symbolic Nessus, whose own blood became the instrument of the death of his enemies, is the gracious guide and ride for Dante across the field of blood and flame and into the black wood of the suicides. Where we pause and check our own souls, lest we be careless, for the Medieval mind held that to take one’s own life was to be both murderer and victim. And Dante, in pit...
MSA028: Inferno, Class 9
January 16, 2021 03:00 - 1 hour - 56.2 MBWeek 9: Where we stop and notice that the Medieval mind is not modern. And just as the organization of Hell was Aristotlean so too is the nature of physics and philosophy. As Virgil and Dante discuss the purpose and place of everything in the world, Prof. Corey reminds us that in their model the sun is Happy to go around the earth, and the rock is Happy to fall to the ground with a thud, and the soul is Happy to go toward the God who made it. Thus choosing to chart a different path is the ess...
MSA028: Inferno, Class 8
January 08, 2021 05:00 - 2 hours - 69.8 MBThe Mythgard Academy resumes our discussion of Dante's Inferno. Having gotten, with some difficulty, through the Gates of Dis, it is time to enter a new sector of Hell!
MSA028: Inferno, Class 7
December 19, 2020 21:00 - 2 hours - 75.4 MBClass 7: Where we are reminded that Dante’s frame is a vision and an allegory and not a GPS-enabled map, and even more disturbing there are no bodies in the pageant he sees except his own. Yet, when they get to Dis, the locks may be disabled but so is their confidence; and now all Dis’ demons block their way and Virgil is dismayed. And the angel is full of disdain. And we distance ourselves from Virgil. And we leave Hell in disarray. For more information about the Mythgard Academy series on D...
MSA028: Inferno, Class 6
December 12, 2020 01:00 - 1 hour - 63.1 MBClass Six: Where Boethius and Dante do not understand Fortune, but Virgil does. And three of the 7 deadly sins make their appearance in a swampy, messy, mud wrestling fracas, where souls struggle against Fortune on multiple levels. And someone admits to being on the game show and to seeing someone fall! Apropos! And then there was a tall tower, with eyes. And here Dante refuses to faint but waxes eloquently unallegorical on the fate of his RL political enemy. For more information about the My...
MSA028: Inferno, Class 5
December 05, 2020 01:00 - 2 hours - 70.9 MBClass Five: Where we ask: Does Virgil recognize the shade of Aeneas’ Cerberus, and is his beast being punished here for its own appetite? And does Ciacco really want to be remembered for eternity as the man with mud on his face...? And though there is an order to the levels and punishments of Hell, the intended audience may not be obvious. And so we move from lust, through gluttony, but cannot be bothered to pause for sloth and end tonight with avarice. For more information about the Mythgard...
MSA028: Inferno, Class 4
November 27, 2020 20:00 - 1 hour - 62.6 MBClass Four: Where we digress, and agree with Aristotle. And then we think about Francesca da Rimini and Paolo and the very tragedy of their romance is the irony of their situation in the Second Circle of Hell. Is it really about turning Courtly Love on its head? Yup! And can Dante understand this intimately? Um, Dante? Oh, he has fainted again. And will we really enter the Third Circle of Hell on the day before American Thanksgiving? Where Cerberus, the three thoated doglike worm barks at, cl...
MSA028: Inferno, Class 3
November 21, 2020 01:00 - 1 hour - 68.6 MBClass three: Dante was a poet of courtly love, and he perfected the art in pursuit of Beatrice; but here in the Inferno, he places her as his patroness in heaven sending him aid. He starts at the gates of Hell that say: Abandon all Hope; and The Divine Architect has the authority, wisdom, and love to accomplish justice here. Yet Dante must put cowardice aside and move forward through sweat and blood and tears. Past a river with a boat for the dead only, and past a Limbo where he writes himsel...
MSA028: Inferno, Class 2
November 15, 2020 09:00 - 2 hours - 71.5 MBClass Two: Where we set the frame, and meet the sun, and identify the scary beasts. And we see that the political, moral, spiritual, and poetical allegories blend and twist and illustrate each other. Can we dig deeper and find more treasures in Dante’s words? Oh, yes. Look how he places one moment in time! He never just says, ‘It was morning.’ No! He must take four lines to place his story in a celestial context with heavenly descriptions. And is that Virgil? And the Virgin Mary? And a host o...
MSA028: Inferno, Class 1
November 07, 2020 03:00 - 1 hour - 66.2 MBMythgard Academy goes to Hell with Dr. Corey Olsen and Dante’s Inferno. Class One starts off the close look at Dante’s masterful poem with a great introduction to the 4-fold interpretation of poetry and scripture, and a warning to avoid looking at the notes instead of experiencing the poem for ourselves. It is a deep dive into a super gutsy fan fiction in everyday language that is full of allegory, politics, morality, intricate structure, and rich poetic patterns. For more information about t...
MSA027: Morgoth's Ring, Class 28
November 07, 2020 03:00 - 2 hours - 71.5 MBSupport Mythgard Academy
MSA027: Morgoth's Ring, Class 25
October 10, 2020 20:00 - 2 hours - 71.3 MBSupport Mythgard Academy
MSA027: Morgoth's Ring, Class 24
October 04, 2020 19:00 - 2 hours - 69.4 MBSupport Mythgard Academy
MSA027: Morgoth's Ring, Class 23
September 26, 2020 00:30 - 2 hours - 71.3 MBSupport Mythgard Academy
MSA027: Morgoth's Ring, Class 22
September 18, 2020 23:00 - 1 hour - 61.7 MBSupport Mythgard Academy
MSA027: Morgoth's Ring, Class 21
September 18, 2020 03:00 - 1 hour - 67.4 MBSupport Mythgard Academy
MSA027: Morgoth's Ring, Class 20
September 05, 2020 21:00 - 1 hour - 63.5 MBSupport Mythgard Academy
MSA027: Morgoth's Ring, Class 17
August 07, 2020 23:00 - 1 hour - 52.6 MBNote: Prof. Olsen’s hardware failed about half an hour before he intended to end the discussion, so the video stops abruptly.