Posted by Chuck Corbin on Oct 22, 2012

Over the years you might hear about off-the-wall courses being taught at major universities. For example, Ohio State has offered courses on Harry Potter in the past, while Indiana University has offered courses on The Beatles as well. Now it’s Rice University’s turn at offering an oddball course, as they are offering for one semester only “Scandinavian Fantasy Worlds: Old Norse Sagas and Skyrim”.

The point of the course is to essentially explore the connections of Norse mythology to the game, and to see how they “resonate with contemporary Anglo-American culture”. The course description then describes that the “purpose of establishing these connections is to then consider how elements of medieval Scandinavian culture have been taken out of historical milieu and literary context, morphed into unfamiliar shape, and appropriated towards other fantastic pursuits.” If you’re a Rice student and you want to take this course, though, you better act quick as enrollment is limited!

You know, if I were still in school and at Rice I’ve got a good feeling that I’d ace this class. After all, I’ve already put in over 80 hours into the game, and honestly Norse mythology is really interesting to me. The homework, both playing the game and learning the mythology would be quite fun for me either way!

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