Lecture 1. Early history and origins: gods and heroes, Norse mythology

Lecture 2. The primary sources: the loom of the Eddas

Lecture 3. The great hero-tale of the north: Sigurd Fafnisbani and the saga of the Volsungs

Lecture 4. The mightiest saga of them all: Gunnar, Njal, and Njal's saga

Lecture 5. "Kindest to his people, and most eager for fame": the old English epic Beowulf

Lecture 6. "An ineradicable sense of fun"

the shaggiest dog of them all: the exuberant epic tales of Ireland

Lecture 7. Courtly love and ladies fair: the troubadours, the Mabinogion, and Marie de France

Lecture 8. The new Christian-chivalric synthesis: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.