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36 - Skyrim and the Northern Mythos: Dragon, Doom, and Northern Courage · Mythic Mind Games

• 0:18
  Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome back to the Elder Scrolls and Philosophy.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: This time we're going to be taking a look at
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  Speaker 1: Skyrim and the Northern mythos Now, it's really not a
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  Speaker 1: great secret that beneath the fantasy of this game lies
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  Speaker 1: a deep world of inspiration from Norse mythology and Viking lore.
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  Speaker 1: Skyrim's Nords, tall, generally fair haired warriors from the frozen
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  Speaker 1: province of Skyrim, are explicitly modeled on Scandinavian cultures, blending
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  Speaker 1: Anglo Saxon and Norse elements into their architecture, their language,
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  Speaker 1: their beliefs, and just their general way of life. Today,
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  Speaker 1: we're going to take a look at three key topics
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  Speaker 1: that connects Skyrim to its source material. First, we're going
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  Speaker 1: to look at the apocalyptic prophecy of Aldowin and the
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  Speaker 1: Norse so I can't. We're gonna look at Savanguard as
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  Speaker 1: a direct echo of Valhall or Valhalla. And then third
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  Speaker 1: we're gonna look at everyday Norse culture as it reflects
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  Speaker 1: Viking societal structures and customs. And these really aren't stretched analogies, uh.
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  Speaker 1: These are rooted in the lore, they're rooted in developer intent,
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  Speaker 1: and they're they're rooted in real world historical parallels. Now, first,
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  Speaker 1: let's take a look at the central antagonists of the
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  Speaker 1: story I'll dowin the world Eater. Now, in the mythology
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  Speaker 1: of the Nords, Aldwin is the firstborn dragon. He is
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  Speaker 1: a twilight god, and he's an aspect of Acotash, the
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  Speaker 1: dragon god of time. And he's prophesied to return and
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  Speaker 1: to consume the world in fire and in fangs, ending
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  Speaker 1: the current Kalpa or the world cycle to birth the
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  Speaker 1: next and the prophecy of the Dragonborn is etched on
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  Speaker 1: Aldowan's wall at sky Haven Temple, and it foretells his
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  Speaker 1: black wings darkening the sky, his soul fog devouring the dead,
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  Speaker 1: and souvanguard, and the rise of a hero equipped with
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  Speaker 1: the dragon wrensh out to banish him, at least temporarily. Now, Ragnarok,
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  Speaker 1: the Norse Twilight of the Gods, describes a cataclysmic battle
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  Speaker 1: where the world burns, floods, and then renews. The wolf Fenrier,
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  Speaker 1: which is actually one of the offspring of Loki, devours
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  Speaker 1: Odin and the world serpent Yurbangund poisons the seas. Aldowin
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  Speaker 1: parallels this as an inevitable destroyer, and despite the fact
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  Speaker 1: that well he might bring about their end, the Nords
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  Speaker 1: worship Aldowin with Solstice offerings, praying for his slumber, for
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  Speaker 1: at least when he's doing his job appropriately, he's actually
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  Speaker 1: not evil. At least, he's no more evil than time itself,
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  Speaker 1: which both builds and destroys. Akotash is not a bad
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  Speaker 1: god by any well, I shouldn't say by any means.
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  Speaker 1: Akatosh is generally not seen as a bad god, but
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  Speaker 1: time Time itself has a inherently antagonistic orientation toward people
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  Speaker 1: who want something lasting, to be something last. I want
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  Speaker 1: to build something lasting, because inevitably time tears down and
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  Speaker 1: so times this thing that we ought to have reverence for,
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  Speaker 1: and so on hand, it's possible, and we see this
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  Speaker 1: in Skyrim, we see this in the Northern Legends. What
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  Speaker 1: we see that is possible to stand firmly against fate,
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  Speaker 1: meaning I'm going to stand my ground even though there's
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  Speaker 1: some futility involved here. Right, I'm going to play the
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  Speaker 1: hero because that is what heroes do, and so I'm
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  Speaker 1: going to stay the course. I'm going to stand against
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  Speaker 1: fate while simultaneously showing reverence to its inevitable power. And
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  Speaker 1: this is what we see in the Norse fatalistic virtue
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  Speaker 1: that is directed or that keeps Ragnarok in mind. As
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  Speaker 1: Tolkien writes in his Beowulf essay on the monsters and
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  Speaker 1: the critics as in a little circle of light about
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  Speaker 1: their halls, men with courage as their stay went forward
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  Speaker 1: to that battle with the hostile world and the offspring
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  Speaker 1: of the dark, which ends for all, even the kings
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  Speaker 1: and champions in defeat. It's this virtue that says, I'm
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  Speaker 1: going to stand on the side of men. I'm going
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  Speaker 1: to defend the roaring mead halls against the endless winter
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  Speaker 1: that I know will eventually extinguish our flames. But as
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  Speaker 1: long as there are our flames that might be extinguished, well,
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  Speaker 1: I'm going to stand in guard to put off that
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  Speaker 1: day as long as that possibly can. It's that it's
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  Speaker 1: that Northern tragic heroism that I think is actually quite ennobling.
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  Speaker 1: And again Tolkien talks about this and the monsters and
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  Speaker 1: the critics that what makes the Northern imagination or the
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  Speaker 1: Northern mythology different than the Southern imagination that you get
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  Speaker 1: and say the Hellenized world is that in the Northern world,
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  Speaker 1: we really get this idea that most of the gods
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  Speaker 1: are going to lose, right, most of the gods are
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  Speaker 1: going to die, and so they don't have quite the
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  Speaker 1: same degree of transcendence. In many ways, they're well a
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  Speaker 1: lot like we are. There's more powerful and stronger, and
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  Speaker 1: live a lot longer. But nonetheless, the gods and men
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  Speaker 1: share a common sort of fate. For example, when the
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  Speaker 1: god Balder dies and he goes to hell, not like
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  Speaker 1: the Christian hell, right, it's h l one l And
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  Speaker 1: so he goes to the place of the dead, and
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  Speaker 1: just as you would expect a mortal would, and he
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  Speaker 1: has to wait there and tell his eventual resurrection, which
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  Speaker 1: is part of the Bragnarok sequence. But nonetheless, my point
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  Speaker 1: in saying all this is that the heroism of the
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  Speaker 1: Northern mythos is kind of inherently tragic, but there's something
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  Speaker 1: very ennobling about that that I'm not going to give
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  Speaker 1: into despair. I'm going to stand and fight as long
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  Speaker 1: as I have the ability to fight, and there are
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  Speaker 1: things that are worth defending. And I can tell you
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  Speaker 1: there are things that are worth defending now visually and thematically.
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  Speaker 1: Aldowin evokes images of Needthog, the dragon that gnaws at
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  Speaker 1: Uger seal the world trees, roots and feasts on the
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  Speaker 1: corpses of Nifflheim, embodying endless hunger and world undermining decay.
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  Speaker 1: Now it's pretty obvious that, but that's team explicitly drew
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  Speaker 1: from these Northern ideas of the end times in order
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  Speaker 1: to create this prophecy where you, as the dragon born
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  Speaker 1: avert or the very least, delay this great apocalypse, just
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  Speaker 1: as heroes in the Northern sagas would stand against creatures
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  Speaker 1: of fate, such as Ziggard and the dragon Fafnir, or
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  Speaker 1: Beowulf and the Dragon of Gayland, who particularly embodies this
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  Speaker 1: motif of fate not only of the world but of
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  Speaker 1: every person, as we all as mortals, share in a
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  Speaker 1: common fate that maybe the way that's delivered comes a
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  Speaker 1: little bit differently to each of us, but nonetheless we
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  Speaker 1: all share in this common fate that is mortality. And
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  Speaker 1: so the question is what do we do with that?
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  Speaker 1: And for more on that, you might actually appreciate some
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  Speaker 1: of the Beowulf stuff I'm currently putting out, and I'll
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  Speaker 1: link to that in the show notes. But to this
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  Speaker 1: point in particular. Tolkien writes again in The Monsters and
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  Speaker 1: the Critics concerning Beowulf, he says he has no in
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  Speaker 1: mesh loyalties nor halfless love. He is a man, and
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  Speaker 1: that for him and many is sufficient tragedy. Because again,
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  Speaker 1: human mortality is its own tragedy. This is not a
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  Speaker 1: tragedy that must result in despair, but it is a tragedy. Nonetheless,
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  Speaker 1: all mortals share in this common fate, but not all
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  Speaker 1: mortals approach that fate in the same way. We will
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  Speaker 1: all die, but the meaning of that death very much
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  Speaker 1: depends on the way that we choose to live. To
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  Speaker 1: wrap up this section, Aldowin embodies a fugion of Norse ideas.
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  Speaker 1: His copic role amplifies Ragnarok's cyclical renewal without copying it completely. Now,
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  Speaker 1: let's talk about what is probably the easiest connection to
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  Speaker 1: make between Skyrim and the Northern Mythos, and that is
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  Speaker 1: Soavanguard and Valhalla. In preparing for the final fight with
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  Speaker 1: Aldowin and Sauvanguard, you enter Shor's heavenly realm, this misty
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  Speaker 1: paradise where honored Nords feast eternally in the Hall of Valor,
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  Speaker 1: awaiting the final battle. Soon, the guardian of the whalebone
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  Speaker 1: Bridge tests your valor before emitting you inside, and once inside,
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  Speaker 1: ancient heroes like Gisgromore, the founder of the Companions, and
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  Speaker 1: code like white Man and Hakon One Eye rally together
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  Speaker 1: to fight Aldowin's soule Mist, with their axes gleaming and
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  Speaker 1: mead flowing. And this is of course transposed Valhalla in Norse,
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  Speaker 1: lor Valhalla or Valhall, the hall of the Slain, is
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  Speaker 1: Odin's great mead hall, home to the einhar Yard, the
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  Speaker 1: elite warriors chosen by the Valkyries, who feast on bore
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  Speaker 1: and mead all day and spa eternally by night preparing
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  Speaker 1: for Ragnarok Savanguard mirrors. Thus, precisely only the valorous can enter,
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  Speaker 1: for cowards fade into the mist, lacking the reputation needed
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  Speaker 1: to enter Shor's Hall. As it is written in the
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  Speaker 1: hobbamall of the poetic Eto, which is a collection of proverbs,
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  Speaker 1: is wisdom, literature that is said to have come from
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  Speaker 1: Odin himself. Cattle die, kinsman die, the self must also die,
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  Speaker 1: but the glory of reputation never dies. For the man
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  Speaker 1: who can make himself a good one. The great heroes
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  Speaker 1: revel in Shor's Hall with Shore as an odin like
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  Speaker 1: war god ruling the dead, and the unite to stand
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  Speaker 1: against the great apocalypse. And so this is an idea
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  Speaker 1: that we see both in Skyrim as well as in
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  Speaker 1: the Northern Mythos. His parallel gets even stronger when we
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  Speaker 1: really look at the idea of purpose here. Just like
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  Speaker 1: the Einheryar aid Odin against doom, Savenguard's heroes aid the
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  Speaker 1: dragon born against the world Eader, the Nord's value, dying
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  Speaker 1: bravely in battle in order to achieve this reward, to
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  Speaker 1: participate in the great battle, the great cosmic battle, just
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  Speaker 1: as we see this implied in the proverb from the
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  Speaker 1: Haffamal that I mentioned, and it's also more explicitly portrayed
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  Speaker 1: elsewhere on trying to keep things concise. Also we find
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  Speaker 1: in the Haffamal the cowardly man thinks he'll live forever
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  Speaker 1: if he keeps away from fighting, but old age won't
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  Speaker 1: grant him a truce, even if the spear spares him.
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  Speaker 1: With the virtuous norseman fierce most is not death, but
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  Speaker 1: rather a bad death, and so he engages with death.
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  Speaker 1: The way that he engages with life with fullness of
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  Speaker 1: spirit and of strength. Lastly, let's talk a little bit
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  Speaker 1: about Skyrim's warrior guild, the Companions of Yorviscar, the heirs
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  Speaker 1: to Yusgramore and his five hundred who founded the Nord
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  Speaker 1: race in tamrielm housed in ancient meat hall, they swear
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  Speaker 1: oaths of honor, they forge weapons at their skyforge, and
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  Speaker 1: they take mercenary contracts. And to join the inner Circle
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  Speaker 1: of the Companions, the initiates must embrace Herescene's gift of lecanthropy,
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  Speaker 1: transforming into werewolves, whose beasts blood grants unstoppable rage, speed,
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  Speaker 1: and strength in combat. This draws directly from the Viking berserker,
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  Speaker 1: the bear shirt and the Ulfhnar the wolf coats, ferocious
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  Speaker 1: elite warriors who fought in Odin's vanguard. Dotting animal pelts,
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  Speaker 1: they entered trance like furies, shrieking and biting shields and
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  Speaker 1: charging foes, bare chested, impervious to fire and iron. In North,
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  Speaker 1: sagas like the Volsung Saga describe heroes, namely Zigmund and Sinfielti,
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  Speaker 1: cloaking in wolf skins to assume beast forms howling in
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  Speaker 1: battle badness, and overtake their foes with ferocity. In the
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  Speaker 1: Nords of Skyrim historically integrated such traditions. The Companion's wherewof
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  Speaker 1: curse elevates this primal fury into a sacred rite, cursing
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  Speaker 1: the soul to her scenes hunt but empowering the living
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  Speaker 1: warrior Yorvisker evokes Viking longhouses and meat halls, and the
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  Speaker 1: quest lines trials mirror the Saga ordeals of loyalty and
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  Speaker 1: beastly trials. In summary, Skyrim weaves a number of different
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  Speaker 1: Norse threads together. We have Aldouin's Ragnarok like hunger, saven
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  Speaker 1: Guard's Valhalla valor, and Viking rooted Nord life, which together
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  Speaker 1: create an immersive experience that draws on the Northern mythost
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  Speaker 1: while still presenting something unique and to some extent, something real.
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  Speaker 1: As Tolkien says, a dragon is no idle fancy. Whatever
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  Speaker 1: may be his origins, in fact or invention, the dragon
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  Speaker 1: in legend is a potent creation of man's imagination, richer
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  Speaker 1: in significance than his barrow is in gold. Even today,
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: despite the critics, you may find men not ignorant of
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  Speaker 1: tragic legend in history, who have heard of heroes and
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  Speaker 1: indeed seen them, who yet have been caught by the
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  Speaker 1: fascination of the worm. And in particular he says of
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  Speaker 1: the poem Beowulf. Yet it is in fact written in
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  Speaker 1: a language that, after many centuries, has still a central
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  Speaker 1: kinship with our own. It was made in this land,
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  Speaker 1: and moves in our northern world, beneath our northern sky.
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  Speaker 1: And for those who are native to that tongue in land,
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  Speaker 1: it must, ever call with a profound appeal until the
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  Speaker 1: dragon comes. And if you enjoy this topic again, I
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: invite you to follow along with my Beowolf series that
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: just started, and to watch my video on Polkien's concept
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: of the long defeat, which I will link in the
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: show notes. But that's it for now. Until next time,
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: gospe