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A review by shanaqui
Basilisks and Beowulf: Monsters in the Anglo-Saxon World by Tim Flight
informative
medium-paced
3.0
This would probably have been a more interesting read for me back when I was doing English literature and studying Anglo-Saxon literature! I'm a little out of touch now, a decade later, but it was still interesting to delve back into this kind of thinking, this kind of linking texts and cultural attitudes together to better understand something more like the whole experience.
The central thesis here is that monsters are about enforcing the barriers between humanity and the unknown, humanity and monsters. They represent blurry points where people can become monsters, where monsters might also be kind of people, and sometimes they just make it clear how scary the unknown is.
I didn't find it too surprising/original, but it was reasonably convincing.
The central thesis here is that monsters are about enforcing the barriers between humanity and the unknown, humanity and monsters. They represent blurry points where people can become monsters, where monsters might also be kind of people, and sometimes they just make it clear how scary the unknown is.
I didn't find it too surprising/original, but it was reasonably convincing.