KS2 Music: Viking Saga Songs - Info

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 a guide to the music objectives covered.

Loki and Odin, with Asgard behind

The stories are drawn from Norse mythology and are told for us by Loki - shape-changing, mischieveous 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.

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 (with links to examples from Song 1: 'Loki the joker'):

• 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 linked to the episode, usually about 1 minute long
• Lyrics to display or download
• Music to display or download
• 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 a Resources page where the following additional resources can also be found:

• A transcript of the tutorial video
• A link to download the video of the full vocal version of the song (mp4)
• A link to download the video of the backing track version of the song (mp4)
• A link to download the audio versions of the song (mp3s)

To download the videos you will need to right click on them and then select the appropriate option for PC or Mac.

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 revise them in preparation for a performance.