Norse Myth Expert Reacts to God of War Ragnarok 

Mjölnir did in fact bring a GOAT back to life. 7:15

When you meet the Kelpie, Mimir says "You don't see many of those in these parts" and "In my land, they'd keep children away from the Lochs by telling them a Kelpie would drown them." - implying both Mimir and the Kelpie came from Scotland, something you could already guess from Mimir's accent in the game too

Dude said never seen Asgard like that like if he saw it in real life

Honestly, this is the most badass Thor I've ever seen. I'm keeping him, this is my thor from now on.

They may have used the wrong sounds for them, but in the game they are referred to as Ravens, even if they accidentally used Crow sounds

Very funny how they skipped the part where mimir LITERALLY SAYS the kelpie isn’t usually here making his comment redundant

Atreus is actually the grandson of Zeus on his fathers side, so that explains the shape shifting. (Loki could shape shift in the original myths, just cool writing incorporation)

So the Norns are basically shoulda, coulda, woulda

For the whole "Thor flying" thing, you can see his hammer glow cause he's using it to propel his jump, it's not flight.

Dude... he was my professor. Guy was hilarious in lectures.

Paradoxically, in Valhalla the linguistic stuff was apparently handled pretty well.

Artistic originality… and then there’s The Mask from The Mask. Which is based on an artifact called “Loki’s Mask.”

One thing to bear in mind about GoW:R is that Kratos' presence and actions upset the Ragnarok prophecies and disrupted/changed their fulfillments and outcomes. Near the end of the previous GoW game, Mimir pointed this out to Kratos: "you've _changed_ things."

Honestly, love how they did Thor in Ragnorok. Love how he sounds and looks badass!

It's official: Kratos is GOAT

As a bird person myself those are clearly Ravens. Not only in color and shape but the main teller is the low Croaking call they have as aposed to a crows cawing sound.

Trivia: in GoW 4 (or 2018, seriously they should've given it it's own name) the world serpent spits out the axe back to Kratos when it first shows up, but what many people don't notice is the a textbox saying "Eitr Imbued" in the corner of the screen. Likely the serpent's venom got imbued into the axe, which would explain why Thor still had that Axe cut in his stomach the next we see him.

6:50 Thor wasn't flying, he was falling with style

This interpretation of mjolnir did bring a goat back to life. Kratos being the G.O.A.T.

We do have adaptations of our own of the Norse myths here in Scandinavia and in those, both Thor and Odin and all the other gods have kept their original personalities and appearance including the chariot with the flying goats.

In the game Odin has his ravens. The crows are just other birds that he controls around the nine realms and at some point in the final fight he just starts throwing flocks of crows at you, but the birds that seem to have personalities and work along side oden in the game are ravens

WIth the addition of Kratos as Loki's father meant that Faye, Loki's mother, defied Destiny by marrying Kratos instead of her destined partner, so they were wandering away from the destiny they were supposed to be on and Ragnarok begins earlier than expected.

12:04 It's cool to hear the loose translation for some of these words. So this actually makes sense here now, as she seems to be trying to reveal something, like dispelling an illusion, as opposed to opening something. Also, the second part is her closing a portal they call realm tears, which is what cuts off the head, so in that context it makes a bit more sense even if it is an elementary, literal use of the words.

Love how you picked apart the crow vs raven thing . Visibly they look like crows but the game does indeed confirm they’re ravens , as the game long mission describes them as Ravens , or Odins Eyes

Well the kelpie being there could be because Mimir is said to be from another land and Tyr has travelled to places with different pantheons. (Greece and Egypt are confirmed by the treasures in his temple)

Idk about the myths but the way norns function in the game seems to be in line with their names, what has happened to a person in the past shapes their choices in the present, which lets the norns know what should happen to them in their future so as they basically say in the game they dont decide fate, but through their knowledge of people they can read it pretty accurately

I'm a big fan of Professor Crawford. Not IGN, but I'll take it

0:55 Hrolf Kraki is actually in-game as the Berserker King

Just wanted to point out in the second part the birds aren't crows. They're ravens and intrinsic to the huge twist in the game's story

Awesome vid! Love to see experts talk about their field!

Actually, the special power that Mjolnir has to bring goats back to life does happen in Rick Riordan's Magnus Chase series. It's played off as a way for Thor to get infinite food.

Homie is finally getting the recognition he deserves

Would have loved to see his review of the entire game storyline rather than just occasional clips.

So glad to see Jackson getting gigs like this. This man is a bloody cultural treasure. Everyone, go read his translations.

Always thought Thor was using the momentum from the hammer to get so high not that he was flying. It would make sense given this is Ragnarok and all the aesir should have developed their skills and tactics to the fullest by the end times.

"Hasnt bought a goat back to life" Kratos is G.O.A.T. your move

if I'm not mistaken when Freya cut off niddhogs head, she closed the gateway so that the gateway took the head with it, hence why she said lock whatever also, Loki/Atreas later in the game became able to control what he turned to (to some degree at least). The not controlling what he turned into was just his baby steps into what he would become

4:33 when you get to the part where Atreus goes to Asgard, it is mentioned that the birds are Ravens

This dude just dropped some bird law on us.

Couple notes: - Loki learns to control the shapeshifting. - The game doesn't really, truly differentiate between ravens and crows - neither do some old myths, to be fair - but what's depicted in the game is something I'd call NotRavens more than anything. They're raven-sized, crow shaped, crow sounding, but move like hawks. - Thor doesn't fly in the game, no more than Hulk typically does; you picked it up that they were going for powerful jumping. - A general note about the type of poetic license taken by the game: 'son' and 'daughter' are taken as, at different times, created, revived, cared for, et al. - Mimir and the Kelpie are both foreigners to The Nine in the canon of the game - it's heavily implied that the various pantheons have entirely separate bubbles, containing worlds and realms which can be travelled between but not in a typical method of land, sea, or air. - The fate speaking as others do isn't speaking 'the future' she's speaking 'the path one is on,' she's being used as a proof of possibility being accounted for, which seems in line with her more historical interpretations. I really hope they do get a linguist on the team going forward though, especially with the implications of the ending, the artefacts you find in game, and a few other sprinkled bits.

Anybody else notice, Odin's hat looks like an old school Santa hat?

Yeah there are a couple pieces of lore which address some of the things he mentioned such as the norns defining someone's actions by their predicitibility and fafe and that garm hrothvindnr is garm and doesn't have a soul, hence atreus put fenrir's soul into him. (Fenrir being a seperate being with, originally, no significance)

So disappointed he didn't go into the story and especially Ragnarokr as the event. Would be really interesting to hear his thoughts on how they handled that

There is a danish animated film (probably from the 70s or so) that features the "goat trick"! It's simply called "Valhalla"

Someone should’ve gave him the context behind the freya words cause they definitely made sense😂

4:35 He says Odins birds should be ravens not crows, within the game you hunt down Odin’s Ravens

When Atreus turned into a wolf, it reminded me of the story of Cú Chulainn. Celtic myth has been hinted at and maybe it's a nudge to it. Perhaps in an upcoming game. *edit: autocorrect changed Atreus to Asterius for some reason. 😑

Ey pretty thrifty editing when he said that mjolnir brings goats back to life and then cutting it with kratos being shocked back to life. You can put 2 and 2 together and basically get the metaphor.

Mjolnir did bring a goat back to life, Kratos is the GOAT! :D

Thor having the power lifter physique actually makes a bit of sense, considering how absurdly heavy mjolnir is. He literally has a magical weight lifting belt which more than doubles his great strength (Megingjörð) and magical weight lifting gloves (Járngreipr)

On the point of language, when using one of his runic bow attacks Atreus shouts "Uppnhopa!" (or something similar to that) which sounds very similar to the Swedish expression "upp och hoppa" which is something you say to people who have overslept and should get out of bed. (It literally translates into "up and jump" but is used as a more of a "go and get them" or "get out of bed, you lazy bum" kind of thing.) It just sounds a little bit weird and out of place when used in that context that he's shouting at his arrows to get out of bed.

Freya saying 'opinbera' which apparently means 'to make public' sounds very much like 'openbaar' which means 'public' in Dutch... interesting :)

On the thing about Thor flying: he actually doesn't fly at all, but you can see that whenever he launches himself that Mjolnir starts to glow. That implies that he uses Mjolnir on his hip to propel himself upward.

4:43 They are Ravens, they just look like Crows because honestly crows and ravens look similar.

12:30 She is literally locking the portal back up, ripping his head off. Come on man

6:49 if you see the scene frame by frame you will see that has his arm full stretch, that will be thor calling mjolnir while still is on his belt, lifting him up in the air

wait, the use of 'opinbera' makes a lot of sense in this context. Freya is 'making public' the hidden location of her ability to be human in the other realms. it is literally making something invisible visible.

"They probably do not know what lions are." Fylgja: Am I a joke to you ?

Just so you know, for most of the sound effects used for ravens in film, they also use crow caws. They have a stronger and more impactful sound profile for the human ear.

It was soooo cool when he said the hammer can bring goats back to life and then it shows Thor bringing Kratos back to life. Cuz he’s the goooooaaaat !!!

"Here's a toothpick with Muffins spirit in it". That got me 😂

On the kelpie point and so on The Celtic "realm" or culture and norse culture have interacted with each other as well as are kinda entrenched in each, kinda also goes a little for slavic mythology. Norse, Celtic and Slavonic Mythology and culture have heavily borrowed and influenced from each other or are generally just similar in dynamic Similar to how greeks and romans did Or in a similar way to lots of Asian culture and beliefs for example india and china or China and Japan.

The walls of Asgard were, at least in this game series, built by Hrimthur Thamursson, a Jötunn. Given that the Jötnar have a close association with mountains, the devs probably figured he’d make the walls like those in his homeland.

ive been waiting his reaction video 😂

Freya said the write words "lock" and "rift" but in many fantasy stories, casting spells doesn't always use the same linguistic rules as a normal conversation. Perhaps to cast a spell, you do need to speak a different conjugation of the verb.

It's funny seeing everyone in the comments get annoyed about the accuracy of a game series about a demigod who single handedly destroyed the entire Greek pantheon.

It does raise the question of how an adaptation that's slavishly faithful to each and every known detail about the mythology would look like. Really fascinating stuff.

please do another video explaining what the 9 realms were described as vs what they are in game

Dr. Crawford, what do you think of GOW Ragnarok’s portrayal of Thrúd? I’m very curious of that character.

“Here’s a toothpick with Muffins in it” 😭😭😭

What Freya said kinda makes sense as a mistake of language. In swedish ”riva” could translate to scratch in some context but most common would be tear, as in tear something apart. Just happens they call these portals ”tears” so that would explain the confusion.

It’s funny cause mimir references that the kelpie is something he saw in Scotland when he would travel

Hey, I’m a linguist and a gamer and I’m so happy seeing Jackson here!

It’s just videos like this that make me wish they could get the expert in with the devs so they could have a discussion

In regards to Mjølner bringing goats back to life, there is a Danish Cartoon, simply called Valhalla. He does it there.

When she cuts off Nidhoggs head shes closes the portal it was trying to escape with. So with its head already through the portal she closes it cutting off its head.

thor actually did bring the GOAT back to life in the game

Jackson also did work on AC Valhalla for the runes in the game, his channel is a wealth of knowledge on the subjects and his translations are very linguistically friendly for non-academics.

7:16 There is a scene in the animated film Valhalla from 1986, where Thor uses Mjölnir, to resurrect goats

It sould be noted what Niddhogg was eating the Roots of the World Tree to damage it, it did not protect it. And Garm was the one who killed Tyr so thats interesting considering he became Fenrir, and Odin became Tyr. Oh and Tyrs Weapon of Choice was apparently a Sword not a Spear.

This guy does great videos on old Norse language and culture, and its neighboring languages and cultures.

opinbera is close to åpenbære in norwegian meaning reveal so im guessing thats what they meant by it. a direct translation is open-bare so the use here isnt to bad considdering she revealed the hidden roots

Respect to Dr Crawford. Best in the field of Norse mythology.

THEY SHOULD HAVE GOTTEN THIS GUY FOR THE LANGUAGE!! HE IS AWESOME👏🏽👏🏽

Mimir, in-game, is Celtic. Both Kratos and Freya had no Idea what the Kelpie was, until Mimir told them. He also says you don't really see them in these parts, meaning Midgard. Tells them kids are kept away from Lochs, back home, by stories of Kelpies drowning them. The part about Runes syntax, remember they are not for Linguists who might not be huge gamers... They are for gamers who might not know syntax of old Norse. Little easter eggs for them to translate. Huginn and Muninn make croaks when sitting, plus they are shaped like ravens compared to crows. Slight curved beak, curved wings, and wedged tails.

The reason that Thor flys in the GOW universe is actually because of the physics surrounding the hammer. Moljnir is magnetically connected to thors body which allows him to summon it to his hand when nesscary but the pull relationship doesn’t only apply to the hammer, it for some reason can pull him as well. So Thor flying, it’s really just the hammer gliding with Thor attached, Thor himself has no power other then his lightning.

3:44 The description was he was Red woolly hair and a thick red beard and swarthy in color. An was as big as a bear. Odin was also by the same description except he was only described by his beard and missing eye.

Dude got a PhD in ancient human explanations for goat resurrection

Very interesting!

Let me just say, this version of Thor is so much more intimidating than the MCU version will ever be

The kelpie is explained by mamir saying "thats a rare sight, he's far from home

The previous game actively reveals that this Mimir is basically combined with Puck from A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Was waiting for the textures on his shirt to load in but it never happened :/

One point for context with the "Laesa rifa"/Nidhogg part....that was a cutscene after the player (Kratos) defeated the Nidhogg... it was trying escape through a portal/rift between realms that Freya closed around its neck, severing its head in the process... so very loosely interpreted she "locked" the portal, severing (i.e. "ripping") its head from its body.

It brings one GOAT back to life!

What about when Thor attacked the Giant he was in a duel with from above after the giant was tricked to think Thor was tunneling underground and put his shield under him. The one were Thor smashed the Giant head but the Giant knocked door out with that rock he threw and landed on top of the Thor. That story at very least suggests Thor can jump extremely high if not fly.

Heimdall knew odin would turn that way so he went to the other side so that was a nice detail

Subtitles: Loki got stuck in Mayor form Me: Poor Loki, he's gonna hate all that paperwork!

I'm honestly surprised that they didn't take help from mr crawford for this.

just a little note on the moment when odin turns to look at heimdall and misses him, he actually does this in order to manipulate atreus/loki, odin spends almost the entirety of the game manipulating characters and this moment is one of the first times he gets to properly convince loki of his personability and how he is really just an old man, even though he knew exactly where heimdall was which is why heimdall looked somewhat confused as to odin's behavior