Not seeing beauty for fear

On my walk today I was thinking about why we remember Vikings as nasty scary people, worse than Anglo-Saxons, and we think of Celts in terms of their art and music even though the times required that all cultures valued the ability to fight because of how rough things were. Vikings were warriors, but they were also champion traders and created some of the most beautiful and elegant art in history.  In those days, if a longship were seen arriving it would probably driven terror into the hearts of many. Nobody could afford to stop and think about art and beauty when danger was a more immediate concern. You can imagine how much skill and artistic ability went into the creation of one of those ships.  Today, a lot of the things that scare us aren't very dangerous at all but still blind us to the beauty they hold. Spiders, rats, a change of lifestyle, the possibility that a higher moral authority might exist that would threaten our existing beliefs and chosen lifestyle. The weather might put us off going outside, when going outside in such weather might prove a blessing if we were to approach it with the right mindset. Learn to love atmospheres and even rain becomes potentially pleasurable. How far can we go in overturning our fears in order to uncover the beauty behind them?

On my walk today I was thinking about why we remember Vikings as nasty scary people, worse than Anglo-Saxons, and we think of Celts in terms of their art and music even though the times required that all cultures valued the ability to fight because of how rough things were. Vikings were warriors, but they were also champion traders and created some of the most beautiful and elegant art in history.  In those days, if a longship were seen arriving it would probably driven terror into the hearts of many. Nobody could afford to stop and think about art and beauty when danger was a more immediate concern. You can imagine how much skill and artistic ability went into the creation of one of those ships.

Might be of interest ->

Professor Neil Price delivers the first of three lectures, September 25, 2012, focusing on the fundamental role that narrative, storytelling and dramatisation played in the mindset of the Viking Age (8th-11th centuries), occupying a crucial place not only in the cycles of life but particularly in the ritual responses to dying and the dead.