Viking Saga Songs is an opportunity for children to join in with songs, stories and music-making inspired by the gods and goddesses of Viking mythology. The songs explore the atmosphere and excitement of the Viking world while being rooted in familiar modern styles, such as reggae, rock and lyrical ballads. The songs also link closely with the story episodes…making this an ideal resource for exploring the history theme The Vikings through both music and literacy.
Click here for the Teacher's Notes - a comprehensive guide to the content.
Click here for a guide to the music objectives covered in Viking Saga Songs.
1. Loki the joker. collection
Learn the song 'Loki the joker' - about Loki's mischievous antics - and watch as Odin creates the world...in five minutes flat!
2. Odin, mighty world-creator collection
The song describes the realms of the Viking world - Asgard, Midgard, Jotunheim, etc - and in the story the goddess Freya ventures into the world of the goblins.
3. Goblins a go-go! collection
The goddess Freya wants a fantastic necklace made by the goblins. But there's a high price to pay for it...a big, sloppy kiss for each goblin!
4. Sing us a saga. collection
Time to meet Thor, god of thunder. The song celebrates storytelling...and in the first part of our saga Thor and Loki travel to Jotunheim to challenge the giants.
5. Thor on a journey. collection
The song is filled with the sound of Thor's hammer making thunder. In the story Thor and Loki meet the giant Skrymnir...who they follow to a castle full of feasting giants.
6. Apples of Iduna. collection
Iduna's magic apples give the Viking gods immortality. Loki isn't that fond of her...so when he is forced to help the king of the giants against the gods Iduna's apples provide the perfect opportunity to cause mayhem.
7. Birds of the North. collection
The song is a celebration of Scandanavian birds. Birds also feature in the story: Loki flies to Jotunheim as a falcon to rescue Iduna...but will they make it safely back to Asgard?parrow for the journey back...but Thiassi is after them!
8. Clips. collection
All the video and audio clips from Viking Saga Songs on a single page
Viking Saga Songs: Audio downloads
Download the audio (mp3) for the songs from Viking Saga Songs
Introduction
The content for Viking Saga Songs is structured on the seven songs to learn. Each song appears on its own dedicated page and includes the following resources:
- Song tutorial video - join Nigel Pilkington to learn the song
- Karaoke full vocal version of the song (for rehearsal)
- Karaoke backing track version of the song (for performance)
- A video of the story episode that links to the song
- A passage of listening music linking to the music focus of the song, usually about 1 minute long
- Lyrics to display or download
- Music to display
- A transcript of the story episode
- Notes describing the content of the tutorial and how best to use it
- The Pupils' Pamphlet with all lyrics, information and activities
Additionally there is a Clips page where all of the video content has been aggregated and an Audio downloads page where you can download mp3 files of the vocal and backing track versions of the songs.
Use the Tutorial video to begin learning each song: Nigel Pilkington guides pupils through each song methodically, giving extra attention to any difficult passages or activities in groups.
Use the Story video to watch an episode of the story. Each episode links to the song on the same page and is about 5 minutes long.
Use the Full vocal and Backing track versions of the songs to rehearse them in preparation for a performance.
The Viking Sagas
The stories are drawn from Norse mythology and are told for us by Loki - shape-changing, mischievous friend of Odin. The first saga - Odin creates the world - is a single episode which serves as an introduction to the Viking world. In the second - Freya and the goblins - we follow the goddess on a visit to the goblins. The third saga - Thor and the giants - is an adventure set in Jotunheim, home of the giants. And the final saga - The apples of Iduna - is an extended narrative, with many twists and turns.
Series resources
Teachers' Notes. document
Download / print guidance to all the content (pdf)
Pupils' Pamphlet. document
Download / print all the lyric sheets for singing the songs plus activities and illustrations for pupils
Meet the characters document
Images and descriptions of all the main characters from the four Sagas.
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