Ayman Rddad, Period 2, 2/26/21, Day A

 Blog #2 - Literacy & Learning

 

Reading the epic poem Beowulf was not a provoking experience per se. Grendel, his mother, and the dragon were reminiscent of the monsters depicted in other myths from around the world, and Beowulf’s extraordinary exploits echoed the heroic actions of other mythical figures. Watching the 2007 film rendition of the epic, however, was an unsettling experience. It seems that my imagination was not especially active while reading the poem, and the movie caught me unaware. When reading the poem, I did not attempt to imagine the horror of a human being devoured by a monster, but the movie forced me to see it. And that horror, in turn, evoked many questions: Why were ancient humans obsessed with monsters? Where did the fear of monsters originate? And how could humans from different cultures imagine the same monster; namely, the dragon?

As I navigated these questions, the monsters featured in the Egyptian Book of the Dead, which we visited a few weeks earlier, came to both haunt and inspire me. I came to realize that the monsters in both texts are projections of our worst fears. Beowulf depicts monsters that bear the burden of our worldly fears while the monsters featured in The Book of the Dead incarnate our fear of afterworld retribution for our worldly sins. But why is fear so central to human nature regardless of culture and geographical location?

Physical anthropologists explain our common human fear in evolutionary terms. Accordingly, ancient people’s obsession with monsters, as reflected in their myths, is a residue of the struggle of early humans to survive in a world that abounded in predators. Yet, this residual fear of predators that they inherited from their early ancestors is not the only factor that accounts for the abundance of monsters in so many ancient cultures. Some ancient humans must have come across fossils of dinosaurs, and in the absence of modern scientific tools, they must have considered them the bones of human-devouring monsters. Indeed, dragons, as imagined in different cultures, bear a strong physical resemblance to certain dinosaurs.

Inability to explain natural phenomena is yet another factor that can account for our shared human obsession with monsters. Volcanos, earthquakes, and tsunamis must have bewildered ancient people. No wonder the ancient Japanese would attribute earthquakes, for example, to a giant fish, Namazu, shaking of its tale. In this sense, myths are valuable not only for students of history and other human sciences, but for researchers within other fields, too. Myths can be valuable tools for geologists who study the history of Earth, for example, as they provide hints about the geography and climate of Earth in ancient times. Moreover, major natural phenomena described in myths often reflect actual events; for myths are not realms of only imagination. Oftentimes, myths reflect actual events that are then interpreted in supernatural terms.

The actual scientific worth of myths apart, however, it is the symbolic element of myths that I find most captivating. Beowulf, who may have well been inspired by an actual person, is depicted in the epic poem in such a manner as to incarnate all the virtues that Christianity, a newcomer to the region at the time, was supposed to bestow on humanity. Selfless, altruistic, risking his life to save that of his fellow humans, loved and protected by God, he set out to battle the forces of evil that threatened the stability of human society and that would never aspire to God’s love and protection. The need for an almost “superhuman” human to battle the monstrous forces of evil reflect a deep-seated fear and a masked awareness that humans are very fragile. In fact, religion itself serves to ease that fear and that awareness by reassuring us that God is in charge and protecting us. Hence, Beowulf, like other myths, is best read within the context of the development of religion to answer for human needs in different historical contexts.

Again and again, the texts to which I am exposed in this class teach me that there is a deep-seated common human nature that transcends our cultural differences. The myths we study from different cultures echo similar themes and motifs. Even the monsters to which I paid little attention before are now emerging as a commonality between all of us. The poor imaginary creatures are no more than projections of our worst fears, some we have inherited from our early ancestors, and others we have developed in specific historical contexts. In the present historical context, technology has turned our attention in a different direction, and our monsters have metamorphosed as a result. Fear has now taken the shape of an extraterrestrial creature who might be lurking somewhere in the universe waiting to conquer us all, or a virus that some think is our own creation and others think have emerged from the wilderness. Yet, no matter the projection, fear has united us all as humans throughout history.