Hello and welcome to today's lesson.

I'm so glad you've joined me today to read some more of the novel, "The Twisted Tree".

You're going to need your own copy of the novel and you need to have the edition which is published in 2019, published by Hotkey Books and the book is by Rachel Burge.

Now in today's lesson, we are going to be looking at mythology and the part, the role that mythology plays in the novel.

I love mythology.

I particularly love Norse mythology, so I'm really looking forward to this lesson.

So when you've got your book, we'll make a start.

So the outcome of today's lesson is that you will be able to understand the plot and some of the Norse mythology that the plot includes.

We're going to start with the keywords.

You can see there are five keywords.

They are mythology.

That means the traditional stories and legends that are part of a culture's belief system.

Cosmos, that's another word for the universe and many traditional stories often have a story that explains how the universe came about.

Fate is a really important idea in stories.

It is the idea that events happen because they are meant to and they are beyond our control.

If someone is your descendant, it means they're relate to you and they live after you.

So a child or a grandchild is a descendant.

And if you are inspired, you are motivated to create something, sometimes in response to something else.

So you can spend a little bit more time with the keywords, familiarising yourself with any that are not familiar and when you're ready, rejoin me for the lesson.

So let's look at the outline of today's lesson.

We are going to start by reading pages 101 to 113 and then we are going to look in detail at some of the way the writer uses Norse mythology in the novel.

Let's go.

Now, look at this picture.

Doesn't he look grand? I want you to think about who do you think this is in the picture and what could you infer about him from the picture? Please pause the video while you have a discussion and if you are working by yourself, pause the video and make some notes.

I'm really looking forward to hearing what you have to say.

Off you go.

Well done, welcome back.

What really, really good inferences you make.

Let's share some ideas.

You may have discussed this.

That this is Odin and he is the Norse god of war, death and wisdom.

He is the chief god and these two ravens, they might symbolise death and the afterlife.

That's often what ravens are associated with in literature.

And they also often appear as messengers for the Norse gods.

And the spear, sword and shield link to war and they have really, really strong connotations of power.

What great ideas they were.

Would you say they were similar to yours or did you have different ideas? Lots and lots of ideas are possible here.

These are just some I wanted to share with you.

Let's move on and have a check for understanding.

Which of the following do not appear in the image of Odin? Is it A, ravens, B, books, C, wolves or D, spear, shield and sword? Have a think, make your choice.

Did you say books? That's right.

Even though he is also associated with wisdom, books are not in there.

So maybe he got his wisdom from a different source.

Okay, let's move on.

Now it is time for you to do some reading.

I want you to get your copy of the text and start reading at the beginning of page 101 and read to the end of page 113.

And when you've done that, I would like you to discuss the following questions about the plot.

What names from Norse mythology are referenced? And can you then make any links to the themes, plot or characters in "The Twisted Tree"? And you're going to read about a character called Martha and what are the similarities between Martha and Odin? And what happens at the end of this chapter? Now, you're going to need to pause the video while you read.

So pause the video now and off you go and I hope you enjoy these pages.

Hello and welcome back.

I hope you enjoyed reading that as much as I did.

Now, you may have considered the following in your answers.

In answer to this question, what names from Norse mythology are referenced and can you make any links to the themes, plot or characters in "The Twisted Tree", you might have said something like this.

There is Odin, the highest of the gods, the god of wisdom, knowledge and death and Hel, ruler of the underworld.

And the norms, now they are older than the gods.

They are the three women in charge of weaving fate.

They have the power of deciding what type of life people have.

And Yggdrasil, now that's the tree that connects all the realms and is at the very centre of the cosmos, very centre of the universe.

And Huginn and Muninn, they are Odin's ravens and they fly through the nine worlds and they report back to Odin.

And lastly, Aslaug who is tasked by Odin to water the tree he was hanged from.

Really well done if you got all those references.

Let's move on.

Now, the second question was asking you, what are the similarities between Martha and Odin? And you might have said that Martha has a silver charm of a valknut and that's a symbol from a rune connected to Odin, and runes are used to tell someone's fate.

And you might also have said that like Martha, Odin is depicted as missing an eye.

And also, Odin hung himself from a tree which caused it to decay and he asked Aslaug to water it.

And Mormor left Martha a letter saying she has a duty to water the twisted tree.

And another similarity is that Odin had two messenger ravens and in the novel, "The Twisted Tree", ravens seemed to be trying to communicate with Martha.

So you can see there are great many similarities between Martha and the chief god of the Norse myths.

And number three, question number three, what happens at the end of this chapter? You may have considered the following.

That Martha attempts to water the twisted tree and to listen to it, and there she's following Mormor's instructions.

And you might also have noted that at the end of the chapter, the tree splits open, creating a green smell and a woman's face appears and she issues Martha a warning that she is running out of time.

It's a really, really dramatic end to that chapter, don't you agree? Well done for your hard work on that task.

Let's move on to the rest of the lesson.

So we've made really good progress.

You've read pages chapter 101 to 113 and you've had some really, really good understanding of the plot and the similarities between Martha and Odin.

And now we are going to look at Norse mythology in more detail.

And in particular, we are going to look at how Norse mythology inspired the writing of "The Twisted Tree".

That means motivated and brought about the creation of "The Twisted Tree".

Now, Norse mythology, little bit of kind of background here, includes the stories that are originally told by the ancient Vikings as a way of explaining how the world began and what the world is like.

They're the people who lived in what is now Scandinavia, places like Sweden and Denmark.

And mainly these stories narrate the lives of the Norse gods and the heroes and various mythological creatures and also the story of mortals, that's human beings like you and me.

So I'd like you to have a discussion.

Do you know of any Norse myths, gods, heroes or mythological creatures? You can think back to the first task of this lesson and also have you encountered any other mythologies? Maybe Greek mythologies or Egyptian mythologies? Pause the video while you have that discussion and if you are working on your own, pause the video and just make some notes.

Off you go.

Welcome back, really good discussion.

I want to share some ideas with you again.

Now, Burge makes many references to Norse mythology in this novel and they are very, very important to the plot and to the character development of "The Twisted Tree".

And they include Odin, remember the highest of the gods.

We saw a fantastic picture of him earlier.

He's the god of wisdom, knowledge and death and the Hel who is the ruler of the underworld and the Norms, older than the gods, the ones who weave our fate and decide what kind of life we are going to have.

And Yggdrasil, the tree connects all realms and stands at the very centre of the cosmos.

And Huginn and Muninn, Odin's ravens, the messengers.

They fly through the nine worlds and report back to Odin.

And Aslaug who is tasked by Odin to water the tree he was hung from.

So how many of those did you remember? I want you now to have another discussion.

I want you to think about these characters and what is interesting about them and why might a contemporary writer, that means a writer writing today, in this day and age, why might they be inspired by Norse mythology? Pause the video while you have a discussion or pause the video while you make some notes and try to think of as many ideas as you can.

Off you go.

Welcome back, what a great discussion you had there.

I'd like to share some ideas with you.

You might have said things like this, that a writer might be inspired by timeless themes, such as fate and good versus evil and death and adventure and bravery, and we still love stories that have those qualities today.

And there are interesting and universal characters, heroes, villains, gods and mythical creatures and mythology often teaches moral lessons.

They're exploring human nature and if we're inspired by them, we can take those moral lessons and make them relevant to a modern audience.

And you also find that Norse mythology is full of epic stories, adventures and battles and quests where brave people go out in search of something really important to the community.

Some really good ideas there.

I'm really impressed with your thinking.

Let's move on.

We're going to have a check for understanding.

Is it true or false to say that "The Twisted Tree" includes many references to Norse mythology? Have a think, make your choice.

That's right, it's true.

But I want you to tell me why it's true.

Is it true because A, these include Zeus, Hades, the god of the underworld or B, these include Odin and his raven messengers, Huginn and Muninn, which do you think? Did you say B? That's right.

Zeus and Hades they are from the Greek mythology.

Okay, well done, let's move on.

Now, I would like you to imagine this, that Laura and Jun, they have been given the opportunity to interview Rachel Burge and these are the questions they came up with.

What inspired you to write "The Twisted Tree"? Why did you choose to focus on the story of Odin? And what do you hope people feel, think or reflect on after reading "The Twisted Tree"? They're great questions, don't you think? And then you've got to imagine that you are Rachel Burge and you're gonna answer each of those three questions in full sentences.

Lot of imagining you're doing today.

And in your answer, I would like you to use the keywords, timeless, which means for all time, universal, interesting in the whole world, characters, the people in books, themes, ideas in books and myths, the traditional legends belonging to a culture.

So three questions and three answers in full sentences as if you were Rachel Burge.

So you're going to need to pause the video while you answer those questions, so do that now and off you go.

So welcome back.

Let's look at an example of how Laura, pretending to be Rachel Burge, answered question one.

Now the question was, what inspired you to write "The Twisted Tree"? And she said, "I was inspired to write "The Twisted Tree" after hearing the stories from Norse mythology.

The themes of fate and good versus evil really appeal to me as they are timeless and still relevant to a modern audience." So you can see how well Laura did that task.

She focused on the question.

She really honed in on the idea of being inspired, being motivated about what prompted her and she used the keywords.

So well done, great answer.

So now what I want you to do is identify where you have met the checklist of focusing on the question and using the keywords for all three of the questions that were posed to you in your guise as Rachel Burge, the author.

You're going to need to pause the video while you do that.

So pause it now and off you go.

So that brings us to the end of the lesson and you have done some fantastic learning today, exploring the use of mythology in "The Twisted Tree".

So before we say goodbye, let me summarise what you have been learning today.

You've learned four key things.

The first is that Odin is the god of wisdom and he sacrificed an eye for greater understanding and that Martha in the novel is believed to be a descendant of Odin and Martha sees a face in the tree.

And this novel, "The Twisted Tree", is inspired by Norse mythology.

So thank you again for coming to the lesson.

I hope you enjoyed reading that chapter and that you are going to return soon for another lesson on "The Twisted Tree".

So in the meantime, allow me to wish you a very, very good rest of the day and bye for now.