Week 6 Story Lab

For this story lab, I watched the Crash Course mythology videos. I found them somewhat disappointing, but I do not have time this week to do another lab instead.

The first video was called What is Myth? and the actual content in this one was fine. It is an introduction to their series and it does its job well enough. The problem I had was in an offhand comment from the speaker that Aphrodite would beat Freyja in a fight "between love goddesses." Now, as a reconstructionist Heathen (Norse pagan) I feel the need to clarify a few things about my god Freyja. First of all, she is not a "love goddess," she is a fertility goddess. Secondly, she is not just a fertility goddess, she is also a war goddess. I am sure you have heard of Valhalla. That is where half of those slain in battle go. The other half goes to Folkvangr, which is Freyja's hall. She gets first pick of the slain. She would not lose to Aphrodite. Athena maybe, I'm not trying to pick a fight with the Hellenists, but not Aphrodite. This isn't the first time Crash Course has gotten something wrong about the gods; I recommend they watch a few of Dr. Jackson Crawford's videos on Norse mythology. He is an Old Norse specialist and a professor on the subject. 

The second video was called Theories of Myth. This one actually had familiar theories to me. Although I must admit, most of them I do not like. You see, hate groups who happen to use the aesthetics of my gods subscribe to the Carl Jung view of deity as archetype. That said, this view is not necessarily bad when applied exclusively to the myths. Most pagans are not mythic literalists like Christians usually are.

The last video was called The Hero's Journey and the Monomyth. First of all, as someone pursuing a career in psychiatry, I hate Sigmund Freud. Secondly, I had already heard of the hero's journey before this video. It is a neat summary of most story structure, but I feel like it is one of those things where people will stretch stories to make them fit into it. I wish these videos had more to tell me, but unfortunately most of the interesting stuff was what I have already heard before. 

(Image Information: the god Othinn atop his eight-legged horse, Sleipnir; Wikimedia Commons) 

-A.


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