Norse Mythology: Relationship Between Savagery And Beauty

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Life is full of dualities: freedom and captivity, love and loss, good and evil. For this reason, all the best stories have dualities. Norse mythology is full of these two-sided concepts that give the tales a rich complexity and meaning. One of the most prevalent themes in these stories is the relationship between savagery and beauty. When thinking of the Old Norse world and legends, the word savage often comes to mind, and for good reason: the tales and the culture that bore them contain much brutality and viciousness. However, there is a subtle sense of beauty accompanying this savagery that often goes unnoticed. In the world of Norse mythology, savagery and beauty are inseparable, intertwined in a way that brings complexity and depth to the …show more content…

The sun and moon, the beautiful beings that light up the world, move across the sky so quickly because ravenous wolves pursue them incessantly.6 The source of virtues such as wisdom and intelligence lies in the world of the frost giants, creatures filled with evil.7 Valhalla, a glorious afterlife, consists of its inhabitants fighting to the death daily.8 All throughout the myths lies the evidence of the connection between savagery and beauty, a twisted concept by today's standards. It weaves itself subtly through every story, and it seems that one can never be found without the …show more content…

This occurs when Thor dresses up as Freyja to deceive an ogre and get his hammer back.14Thor's defining characteristic is his strength, which he typically uses for savage purposes; he often goes on adventures where he kills giants just for the fun of it. Freyja, on the other hand, is said to be the most beautiful goddess of them all. This makes Thor's deception of the ogre ironic and comedic, but also symbolic of the twisted relationship between these two traits and how they can be intertwined. It also shows how savagery can be disguised as beauty: "Hlorridi's heart laughed in his breast, when he, stern in courage, recognized the hammer; first he killed Thrym, lord of ogres, and battered all the race of giants." The attendants of the wedding believe he is the beautiful goddess Freyja, but he reveals his true nature through a brutal

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