Welcome back to the home of the oxymoron. Evil genius. He asked the newspaper to print his obituary early so he'd enjoy it. That's like hiding at your own funeral. Yeah, a big, great gig. I'm Russell Kane. Join me to weigh in on whether the biggest players in history are more evil or genius. Becoming that rich, I'd say that is some level of genius. It also helps

it. It's a long time ago, right? It's like the podcast version of telling your kids the ice cream

van plays music when it's out of ice cream. Listen to evil genius on BBC sounds. Thanks for downloading

the BBC Arts and Ideas podcast. The conversation you're about to hear picks up on themes inspired by the summer's BBC proms concerts.

If you're moved to listen to the music, you can find every concert broadcast on Radio 3 and BBC Sounds.

Now over to the audience in the Imperial College Theatre next to the Royal Albert Hall.

BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts.

I'm Eleanor Rosamond Baraklough, and this is Prom's Plus.

Yeah!

There was nothing when time began, neither sands nor sea nor cooling waves.

Earth was not yet, nor the high heavens, but a gaping, greenless gap.

Then Bo's sun lifted up the land and made Midgard the fair dwelling of mankind. The sun shone

from the south and bright grass grew from the stony ground. So, gather close, raise a hornful of me to the

lands of the midnight sun, and join me in the far north in a time of legend.

Our guides tonight, Lea Broad, expert in Nordic classical music,

and like me, a new generation thinker,

and scholar Nicole Schmidt, whose podcast Mythos

fulfills the dreams of all bards that their works shall never be forgotten. So Nicole,

Nordic nights, light and dark is our theme. And although, as usual, I've tried to shoehorn a bit of

old Norse creation poetry into my introduction. I feel that the Finnish epic, the Cali Walla,

is really the place for us to start.

The Calavala is Finland's great epic, and I will emphasize great.

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