Heroes and Heroines
In the era of the Anglo-Saxons, heroes and heroines among men and women carried the legacy of this brutal time period. Although heroes were the dominating figure of that time, the word "hero" has a much different meaning today than it did in the Anglo-Saxons. In today's society people even feel a certain aptitude on what constitutes being called a hero. In the time of the Anglo-Saxons, bravery was the underlying factor on what defined a hero. Beowulf, a scandinavian prince and future king of the Geats which later would become a famous play would not have become a hero if he was too scared to show up to Herot. Nor would he be classified as a hero if he were subdued by Grendel and his mother, the Water Hag.
The differences in the modern day hero and the Anglo-Saxon day hero is many. In today's day and age a hero could exemptlyify an athlete, a fireman, a police officer, and everyday normal people that perform an irregular feat. In the age of war, the only way to become a hero was in combat. Currently almost all heroes are extremely modest, that is to be expected in these days. In Anglo-Saxon time, the only reason people wanted to be heroes was because of the fame, which made them very boastful. The heroes of this age are here today and furthermore gone tomorrow with an estimated time of fifteen minutes. In the Middle Ages, tales of heroes were past on to generation to generation, their memories life span expectency can be hundreds of years. The heroess of today are recognized through their disloyalty to a certain aspect to state or nation. The Anglo-Saxons expected their leaders and were bred only to be loyal to those ascendent them.
All was not in favor of the hero, heroines also played valiant roles in the lives of the Saxons. At the time of her birth, Cathbadh predicted that she would bring ruin to Ireland. The chieftains present at the birth wanted to kill her then and there, but King Conchobar placed her in the hands of a trusted nurse and had them sequestered from all others so that she might be raised to marriageable age whereupon he intended to take her to wife. Unfortunately she fell in love with Naoise (one of the three sons of Usna or Usenech), who she happened to see one day. She persuaded him and his two brothers to flee the kingdom with her to Scotland. This they did, but they were lured back by Conchobar with lies and false promises. When they returned Conchobar killed the three brothers. One version of the myth has Deirdre committing suicide right then, another says she lived one year with Conchobar before death took her.
Vikings were known to have been of massive and staggering proportions. In the time of peril none could compare to Bran the Blessed. (Bendegeit Bran) Bran was of monstrous size and commensurate strength, so large that no house could contain him. His story appears in "Branwen Daughter of Llyr" where he is the possessor of a life-restoring (but without the power of speech) cauldron. On the marriage of his sister, Branwen, to Matholwch, King of Ireland, he gives back the cauldron to the Irish (from whence it originated), in payment for the insults they have suffered at the hands of his brother, Efnissien. He subsequently has to rescue Branwen, being mistreated by her husband, who has banished her to his kitchen, where she slaves under the command of the kitchen help. She is successful in training a starling to deliver a message to Bran about her condition. Bran wades across the Irish sea, his body like a mountain rising above the waves, his two eyes lakes on either side of the ridge that was his nose. When he laid himself down across a river a whole army could march across it on his back. He defeats the Irish who offer to depose Matholwch and make Gwern, Branwen's son, king in his place. At the feast to celebrate the truce and Gwern's accession, Efnissien, ever the trouble-maker, throws Gwern into the fire and hostilities are resumed. The Irish restore their dead to life in the cauldron, but neither side is triumphant, and Bran is mortally wounded in the heel by a poisoned spear.
There are few similiarties between the heroes of today and yester year among the Anglo-Saxons, but I believe the similarities are out-numbered by the differences. The term in itself "hero" has lost some of the triumpifant meaning it once condoned. The word itself compared to the Anglo-Saxons should have two specific and entirely different meanings but an adaptaion in the society of today. From mighty warriors and valkyries to an average man saving a child in desperate need of assistance, the term is used loosely, but alas holds truth to rising to a level far greater than the rest.
II. ) Columbus Database Subject Matter: Norway
