Child was reading and loving a rendition of Beowulf and was curious about monsters and dragons. My attempt at explanation: before we had cameras and airplanes and internet, it was reasonable to believe that monsters and magic and dragons existed.
Like how we tell stories about aliens. Our descendants will explain to their little ones how 21st century people lacked faster-than-light and nanotechnology and synthetic cognizance so they could entertain weird ideas about alien life.
@22 I see quite the opposite: Monsters and dragons are more popular than ever before. And most alien stories are nothing more than ancient sagas taken to outer space. I think technology is driving a desire for archaic storytelling (and magical thinking). đŸ đ
@stefan well then hereâs my question. Were the people listening to Beowulf a thousand years ago taking it as fiction or as a folk tale or as history? I realize now that I was suggesting to the child that Beowulfâs singers did actually believe dragons and monsters likely existedâunlike today!, when theyâre popular but only as fiction (flat earth and reptile men conspiracy nuts notwithstanding)âbut likely the truth is more complicated than I summarized.
@22 @stefan seems to me that the popularity of bestiaries, and the moral nature of beast, and their allegorical use all point to the possibility that perhaps for them there was no difference. If revenge exist invisibly, and the dragon stands Grendelâs motherâs revenge â then does the dragon exist any less? But generally speaking if people copy Straboâs geography and itâs monsters then Iâm sure they believe in their existence âelsewhere.â
