The Sacred Flame
The Sacred Flame Podcast is about the pre-Christian traditions of Northern Europe hosted by Mathias Nordvig and Amina Otto. It's available on Buzzsprout and most podcasting platforms. The Sacred Flame Podcast comes out twice a month with information and perspectives on Northern European traditions, mythology, history, and philosophy.
Mathias Nordvig has a PhD in Old Norse mythology and teaches Scandinavian studies at the University of Colorado-Boulder.
Amina Otto has an MA in Old Norse and Gaelic studies and is doing a PhD in Norse-Gaelic Viking culture at Glasgow University.
The Sacred Flame
Norse-Gaelic underworld mythologies and fall traditions
In this episode, Amina and Mathias discuss underworld mythologies and how they seem to link up with ancient fall traditions in the European North. The conversation takes our two hosts from pumpkin spice and licorice through conversations about (and mispronunciations of) the ancient Welsh hero Pwll, the Franco-Danish hero Ogier the Dane, the Swiss-Lombardic hero of Dietrich of Berne, over the founding of Czechia and the founding of Krakow and the Czech-Polish cultural hero Krok, all the way to Odin and his retrieval of the mead of poetry. They also circle round the conversation about journeys to Hel by sailing to the far North --and there's a little bit about Freyja, Isis, and the sparsely known Minoan snake goddess.