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> Christianity is quite focused on the idea of good and evil. Norse mythology was never like that. It's interesting you say that. My only exposure to sagas was
by planteen 9y ago
> Christianity is quite focused on the idea of good and evil. Norse mythology was never like that.
It's interesting you say that. My only exposure to sagas was from reading Beowulf in school, which is a canonical example for the theme of "good vs. evil".
- BjoernKW 9y agoFirst of all, Beowulf - at least the written records we have of the poem - is decidedly Christian. It was supposedly written by a literate monk several centuries after Norway had been christianised. It also isn't necessarily about good vs evil but indeed about order vs. chaos. Grendel's misdeed is not that he attacks and slaughters good and righteous men ,it is that while doing so he violates the sacred law of hospitality by attacking the king's great hall. In doing so Grendel flouts the 'natural' order and therefore can be seen as an embodiment of chaos rather than pure evil.