Crecganford

Storm Gods and Dragons is a story about how good dragons turned bad, and how the rise of the Storm God meant the end of Dragons. We talk about Tiamat, Vritra, Jörmungandr, Thor, Indra, YHWH, and many other figures that help us see how these myths evolved. *If you want to support my research and see behind the scenes work, watch my videos early, and other insights then please become a Patreon*: https://www.patreon.com/crecganford *References:* Ayali-Darsham, Noga. The Storm-God and the Sea. Trans. Liat Keren. Oriental Religions in Antiquity. 2020. Larrington, Carolyne. Poetic Edda. Oxford University Press. 2014 Stanhope, Ben. (Mis)interpreting Genesis: How the Creation Museum Misunderstands the Ancient Near Eastern Context of the Bible. 2020 Chapters ============= 0:00 Introduction 2:20 The Birth of the Storm Gods 4:48 Good dragons turn bad 6:33 Storm Gods vs Dragons 8:30 A Near Eastern motif 10:23 The Indo-European motifs 12:36 The Rise of the Storm God 13:28 Was Thor really a Storm God? 15:12 The rise of the Warrior 16:40 The Proto Indo-European Storm God's evolution 20:14 The Vedic Storm God, not Indo-European? 21:49 The common enemy

The Dragon Myth is one of the oldest mythologies in human history, and is known all across the world, hinting at its early origins. In this video we follow these myths to their origin, the first mythology and the time it started, and on the journey we explore myths form China (Loong), Australia (The Rainbow Serpent), Africa (The Rain Snake), and Europe (Vrtra and NgWhi), as well as Paleolithic Rituals, and the psychology of why the myth has persisted so long. *If you want to support my research and see behind the scenes work, watch my videos early, and other insights then please become a Patreon*: https://www.patreon.com/crecganford *References used by Researchers* split by Geographic Region to which they apply can be found in the paper: D’Huy, Julien. Le motif du dragon serait paléolithique: mythologie et archéologie. 2015. HAL Open Science. I couldn't note them here as they were longer than the description allows. *Additional References used by Crecganford:* Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa (2013): ‘Rain snakes’ from the Senqu River: new light on Qing's commentary on San rock art from Sehonghong, Lesotho, Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa, DOI: 10.1080/0067270X.2013.797135 Orphen 1874 (see PDF) Balcetis E. and Dunning, D., 2010 - Wishful seeing: more desired objects are seen as closer. Psychological Science, t. 21, 147e152. Blust, Robert. The Origin of Dragons. Anthropos , 2000, Bd. 95, H. 2. (2000), pp. 519-536. D’Huy, Julien. Le motif du dragon serait paléolithique: mythologie et archéologie. 2015. HAL Open Science. Lobue V. and Deloache J.S., 2008 - Detecting the snake in the grass: Attention to fear-relevant stimuli by adults and young children. Psychological Science, t. 19, p. 284–289. Öhman A. et Soares J., 1993 - On the automatic nature of phobic fear: Conditioned electrodermal responses to masked fear-relevant stimuli. Journal of Abnormal Psychol¬ogy, t. 102, p. 121-132. Öhman A., Soares S.C., Judth P., Lindstorm B. et Esteves F., 2012 - Evolutionary derived modulations of attention to two common fear stimuli: Serpents and hostile humans. Journal of Cognitive Psychology, t. 24, p. 17–32. Paulme’s “La Mère dévorante : Essai sur la Mor¬phologie des Contes africains”, 1976 Penkunas M.J. et Coss R.G., 2013 - A comparison of rural and urban Indian children’s visual detection of threatening and nonthreatening animals. Developmental Science, t. 16 (3), p. 463-75. Propp, 1983. Les racines historiques du conte merveilleux Chapters ================================== 0:00 Introduction 1:57 Background of Research and Defining Dragons 2:27 A Chinese Dragon Myth 5:42 Phylogentics 9:42 An Indic Dragon Myth 10:46 The Dispersal of the Dragon Myth 16:34 An Indo-European Dragon Myth 17:53 Dragon Rituals 19:01 Physical evidence of Dragon belief 21:18 An Australian Dragon Myth 24:16 The Myths are Connected 24:46 Why did the Dragon Myth persist? 27:47 A South African Myth 31:38 Putting this all together

The first and oldest stories in the world maybe lost to us, but we can reconstruct them by finding their motifs and piecing them together. In this video I look at the earliest creation myth motifs, focused particularly on the Earth Diver and Tree of Life, to do this. I will tell a few different creation stories, and discuss how motifs have evolved, mixed, and dispersed. And finally I tell a story, reconstructed from all these motifs. If you want to support my research and see behind the scenes work, watch my videos early, and other insights then please become a *Patreon*: https://www.patreon.com/crecganford *References* Berezkin, Yuri (2007). "“Earth-diver” and “emergence from under the earth”: Cosmogonic tales as evidence in favor of the heterogenic origins of the American Indians". In: Archaeology, Ethnology and Anthropology of Eurasia 32: 110–123. 10.1134/S156301100704010X. Dundes, Alan. "Earth-Diver: Creation of the Mythopoeic Male". In: American Anthropologist, New Series, 64, no. 5 (1962): 1032–051. Accessed August 20, 2021. http://www.jstor.org/stable/666952. Napolskikh, Vladimir. "The Earth-Diver Myth (А812) in Northern Eurasia and North America: Twenty Years Later". Frog; Siikala, Anna-Leena; Stepanova, Eila (2012). Mythic Discourses: Studies in Uralic Traditions. Finnish Literature Society. pp. 120–140. ISBN 978-952-222-376-0. Nagy, Ilona. "The Earth-Diver Myth (Mot. 812) and the Apocryphal Legend of the Tiberian Sea". In: Acta Ethnographica Hungarica 51, 3-4 (2006): 281–326. Accessed Aug 20, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1556/AEthn.51.2006.3-4.4 Chapters ===================================== 0:00 Introduction 2:28 The Beginning was made from The Nothing? 3:52 The Research 5:50 The Underworld and Earth Divers motifs 7:30 Understanding motif changes, The Bird Scout 9:42 The Oldest Creation Myth Motifs, The Earth Driver 11:59 Creation Myth Structure 13:30 Looking for the Motifs of Voids and Chaotic Waters 16:02 The Tree of Life or World Tree 18:13 Mixed Motifs in the Creation Myth 20:20 North American motifs 22:07 Where did the Creation Myth with these motifs originate? 22:48 But why an Earth Diver? 23:57 The earliest mythology of our ancestors? 22:57 The Magic of Wind from Vedic to Abrahamic religions 27:37 Putting it all together and conclusion

Dragons are everywhere in mythology, including religious mythology. In this video we will look at the main dragon myth that circulates around the largest religions, dragon stories such as Saint George and the Dragon, and then compare two of the most well known serpents, by looking at the Rig Veda and Enuma Elis, Tiamat and Vrtra, to see what would happen if they fought each other. If you want to support my research and see behind the scenes work, watch my videos early, and other insights then please become a *Patreon*: https://www.patreon.com/crecganford *References:* Ancient Near Eastern Texts relating to the Old Testament, Edited by James B. Pritchard, Akkadin Myths and Epics, translated by E.A.Spicer Landsberger, B. “The Fifth Tablet of Enuma Eliš.” Journal of Near Eastern Studies 20, no. 3 (July 1961): 154–79. https://doi.org/10.1086/371634. Lahari, Ajoy Kumar. Vediv Vrta. Motilal Banarsidass, Dehli. 1984. Lincoln, Bruce. “The Indo-European Cattle-Raiding Myth.” History of Religions 16, no. 1 (August 1976): 42–65. https://doi.org/10.1086/462755. Use of maps from https://indo-european.eu/ is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. And for those who read this, I had to put a picture of Anzu up instead of Tiamat, as there are no decent pictures I could use, and you all keep telling me to put more pictures in my videos. It is sometimes really hard to do this accurately when discussing pre-history and so you sometimes have to have some editorial leeway. Thanks, Jon Chapters =========================== 0:00 Introduction 1:43 St George and the Dragon 3:06 Cattle Raiding 5:49 Rescuing a Princess 8:36 Comparing Two Mythological Dragons 11:14 Vrtra 13:35 Tiamat 16:04 Tiamat vs Vrtra 17:03 Water Serpents 17:47 Extinguishing Life 19:03 The Head of the Dragons 19:44 The Gods are Afraid 20:30 Intoxicating Drinks 21:44 The Beautiful Hero 23:09 The Hero is King of the Gods 23:48 The Hero represents Truth 24:19 Incredible Weapons 25:21 Using the Wind 26:13 Chariots 26:58 The Evil Dragon 27:28 Gods of Vegetation 29:07 Gods of War 30:44 Crushing the Head of the Enemy 30:56 The Creation of Heaven and Earth 31:29 The Truth about Tiamat and Vrtra 32:41 The Origin of this Myth 33:31 How the Myth spread

If you think flood myths started with the Biblical story of Noah, or the Epic of Gilgamesh, you'd be mistaken. In this video I look at a phylogenetic study about the origin of the Flood Myth, to find out where it started, and when. And in doing so I also discover a very early form of creation myth, and you won't find these answers in Genesis, in fact what we discover are versions of a very old flood story indeed, one of the oldest stories in the world. If you want to support my research and see behind the scenes work and information then please become a Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/crecganford Or consider a one-off donation via Paypal: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=GGD68NMT5RDKA References: Berezkin;s Database: http://www.ruthenia.ru/folklore/berezkin Berezkin, Yuri E. 2007. “‘Earth-Diver’ and ‘Emergence from under the Earth’: Cosmogonic Tales as Evidence in Favor of the Heterogenic Origins of the American Indians”. Archaeology, Ethnology and Anthropology of Eurasia 32(1): 110–123 Frazer, James. 1918. Folk-Lore in the Old Testament. London: MacMillan & Co Gaster, Theodor H. Myth, Legend, and Custom in the Old Testament, Harper & Row, New York, 1969. (Most of the flood stories in this work are taken from Frazer, 1919 d’Huy, Julien. 2013. “Le motif du dragon serait paleolithique: Mythologie et archeologie”. Prehistoire du Sud-Ouest 21(2): 195–215 d’Huy, Julien. 2014a. “Recueils de contes et nuages de mots”. Mythologie francaise 255: 14–18 d’Huy, Julien. 2014b. “Motifs and Folktales: A New Statistical Approach”. RMN Newsletter 8: 13–29 d’Huy, Julien. 2016. “Premiere reconstruction statistique d’un rituel paleolithique: Autour du motif du dragon”. Nouvelle Mythologie Comparee – New Comparative Mythology 3: 15–47 d’Huy, Julien. 2017a. “Entre Ciel et Terre: Reconstruction d’une mythologie paleolithique”. Mythologie francaise 267: 4–9 d’Huy, Julien. 2017b. “Un recit de plongeon cosmogonique au Paleolithique superieur?”. Prehistoire du Sud-Ouest 25(1): 109–117 d’Huy, Julien. 2017c. “Matriarchy and Prehistory: A Statistical Method for Testing an Old Theory”. Les Cahiers de l’AARS 19: 159–170 d’Huy, Julien. 2020a. Cosmogonies: La Prehistoire des mythes. Paris: La Decouverte. d’Huy, Julien. 2020b. “Premiere mythologie du serpent et art rupestre saharien”. Les Cahiers de l’AARS 21: 135–144 d’Huy, Julien, & Yuri E. Berezkin. 2017. “How Did the First Humans Perceive the Starry Night? – On the Pleiades”. RMN Newsletter 12–13: 100–122 Witzel, E.J. Michael. 2012. The Origins of the World’s Mythologies. Oxford / New York: Oxford University Press Chapters =============== 0:00 Introduction 2:42 Hidden Flood Myths 3:56 Are all Flood Myths the same? 5:56 Berezkin's Database of Motifs 7:11 How the data was analyzed 8:02 Potential issues and their potential effect 10:47 How do myths spread? 13:09 The spread of myth 14:57 Results of the Study - The Diffusion of Myth 18:47 Study 1: Out of Africa? 21:19 Study 1: Out of America or Asia? 22:10 Study 2: Evolution of Motif 23:39 Finding a Creation Myth 26:52 The Deluge and Conflagration Combined 27:39 Hurting someone to trigger a Deluge 28:23 Conclusion

Who were the Titans? The Jötuns? The Fomorians? The giants of myth, legend and folklore? Some say they were the old gods remembered, others say they were fantasy, made up for stories. Here we take a look at giants and see why they were really in our myths. We touch on the English Creation Myth, compare Germanic Folklore and Old Norse Mythology, compare different giants, and then examine the culture to see how they fit in? And so we can work out why giants exist, and where they came from. And then perhaps we can find the Lost Civilization of the Megalithic Sites: Who Built Them and When? Become a Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/crecganford Or consider a one-off donation via Paypal: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=GGD68NMT5RDKA References include; Anonymous. The Poetic Edda. Translated by Carolyne Larrington. 2nd edition. Oxford: OUP Oxford, 2014. Sturluson, Snorri. The Prose Edda. Breinigsville, PA: Benediction Classics, 2015. Motz, Lotte. Giants in Folklore and Mythology - A New Approach. Folklore, Vol.93, No.1, pp.70-84. Taylor and Francis, 1982. Chapters ================== 0:00 Introduction 1:47 Why do we have mythology? 6:14 Why are giants so complicated? 12:54 Are all giants the same? 23:23 Giants did exist 27:42 Who were the giants

Before the Proto Indo-Europeans, the Early European Farmers (or Neolithic Farmers) were spread across Europe, and they had their own gods. How do we know who they were? Well here we do some analysis to uncover a number of them. ERROR: I did say Mycenean instead of Minoan a few times, and I apologize. Unfortunately I can't correct this audio now it is published, but will correct the error the next time I make a video on the subject. Become a Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/crecganford Or consider a one-off donation via Paypal: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=GGD68NMT5RDKA References: Marchi, N et al. 2022. The genomic origins of the world's first farmers. Cell. Pettazzoni. 1967. "Introduction to the History of Greek Religion." In Essays on the History of Religions. S.l.: Brill Robbins, Miriam. 1980. The Assimilation of Pre-Indo-European Goddesses into Indo-European Society, Volume 8, Journal of Indo-European Studies, pp.19-30 Nadel, Dani et al. 2012. New evidence for the processing of wild cereal grains at Ohalo II, a 23 000-year-old campsite on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, Israel. antiquity. 86. 990-1003 Chapters ======== 0:00 Introduction 2:40 Cultural Migration into Europe 4:30 25,000 Years Ago 5:38 15,000 Years Ago 6:53 The Younger Dryas Period 8:51 Farming Begins 11:16 Neolithic Migration 11:58 The Rise of the Proto Indo-Europeans 14:55 Finding the Old Gods 16:47 Looking at Greece 20:49 Mother Earth... and her many faces 26:05 Are these the old gods? 26:54 Half a Pantheon of Old Gods!

There are stories of Indo-European Warriors dressed like wolves or bears, boars or lions, from Germany to Persia, from Greece to Ireland. But why? Did wearing the skin of an animal make you as strong as that animal? In this video we examine what this rage was, sometimes called lyssa, wut, aesma, or ferg, and how only particular warriors could call upon it. Become a Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/crecganford Or consider a one-off donation via Paypal: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=GGD68NMT5RDKA Please consider supporting the channel if you enjoy these videos Chapters =========== 0:00 Introduction 2:22 Examples of the rage? 5:08 Why a wild beast? 7:10 Was this limited to heroes? 8:22 Why the wolf?

_Baldr and Hodr_ are gods in Viking tales, and Hodr kills Baldr due to cunning from Loki. Here we look at this story and the issues with it, and then we will look at another version of the story from Saxo Grammaticus, before answering questions about the story, uncovering who these gods really were, and recreating an original version of the story which may be several thousand years old. *Please consider supporting this channel on _Patreon_* Become a Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/crecganford Or consider a one-off donation via Paypal: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=GGD68NMT5RDKA *References* Ellis Davidson, Hilda R. 1964. Gods and Myths of Northern Europe/ Penguin Books Liberman, Anatoly. 2016. Prayer and Laughter: Essays on Medieval Scandinavian and Germanic Mythology, Literature and Culture Lincoln, Bruce. 1982. Places Outside Space, Moments Outside Time. Edgar Washington DC: Institute for the Study of Man. pp. 69-84 Renaud, Jean. 1999. Goðsögnin um Baldur í meðförum Saxa málspaka. HM, 125-139 Saxo Grammaticus, Gesta Danorum, III:1.0-3.7 = Olrik and RFder 63.2-69.26 Snorri Sturluson, Prose Edda, Gylfagining, Everyman Publications translated by Belows *Baldr's Draumar can be read here* http://crecganford.com/bookpost.php?blog=B28T5CiGUUmr-BLdC-f4BQ Chapters 0:00 Introduction 4:22 Baldr's Death 7:19 Baldr's Funeral 9:49 Hermoðr's Trip to Hel 11:17 Loki's Demise 13:12 Questions about the story 15:42 Saxo Grammaticus' version of the Story 19:57 Answering the Questions 20:44 Why didn't Loki kill Baldr? 22:25 Why use Mistletoe? 27:17 Why was Höðr blind? 28:37 Why was there so much weeping? 29:55 The (probable) original story of Baldr and Höðr 32:05 The origins of Baldr and Höðr