Viking Saga Songs. 1: Loki the joker
Learn the song 'Loki the joker' - about Loki's mischievous antics. Then in the story meet two gods: Odin and Loki (our storyteller) - and watch as Odin creates the world...in five minutes flat!
Tutorial: 'Loki the joker'
Key timings in the tutorial are:
00 00: Nigel and Joanna introduce themselves and the Viking context. Then practising speaking in time together to the words 'Loki the joker'. Then finding out about Loki himself.
04 13: Learning the lively chorus, beginning: 'Loki the joker...' Listening to two lines at a time, then repeating with Nigel. Adding actions to the chorus.
06 41: Learning Verse 1, beginning: 'Loki's clever...' Noting the two notes used for the verses.
09 48: Learning Verse 2, beginning: 'Loki change if Loki wish...' which is about Loki's shape-changing transformations.
10 39: Learning Verse 3, beginning: 'Over mountain, sky and sea...' Verse 3 is sung to the same two notes as Verses 1 and 2.
11 39: Learning the 'coda' - which has two phrases: 'Loki the joker' and 'Stories of the North'. Noting that the coda gets progressively quieter, until the final line which is sung loudly.
The saga: Odin creates the world
Synopsis
Meet Loki - our storyteller and the subject of our first song. Loki is the god of fire and friend of Odin, chief of the gods. But he's also a trickster - just consider some of the things he does in the stories: he steals Freya's necklace...he gets a humble villager into trouble with Thor...he helps the giant Thiassi to abduct Iduna. But he's cunning and able to get out of any scrape - in part by using his magic shape-changing ability.
In the first story Loki relates how Odin creates Jotunheim (home of the giants), Midgard (home of humans) and Asgard (home for the gods)...and connects Asgard to Midgard with Bifrost - the rainbow bridge.
See Resources below for a quiz about the story.
Song: 'Loki the joker'
Learn the song 'Loki the joker' - about Loki's mischievous antics.
Once you have learnt the song singing with vocal version you can polish your performance singing with just the backing track.
Click here for the lyric sheet.
Click here for the music sheet.
Listening music: an extract from 'En Saga' by Jean Sibelius
- En Saga was composed in 1892. The composer - Jean Sibelius - was inspired by Norse mythology. The title means 'A Saga' or 'Story'.
- Tempo. Do pupils think the music is fast or slow?
- Do they think it is from near the beginning or the end of the complete work? (It is building towards the climax).
- What words can they use to describe it?
- Can they hear any instruments that also feature in the music for our Vikings Saga Songs? (Horns in particular.)
