<< Might and glory

Humanity is filled with contradictions: we enshrine peace yet our story is made out of struggles. 

We rarely remember rulers in times of peace but keep close those who have faced terrible tribulations.

The great stories of the kings of the past always seem to speak to us from a dark place filled with uncertainty, mythical beasts and danger. What is it about these characters that thousands of years after their death we still want to hear about their stories?

Is it perhaps our incapacity to imagine ourselves prevailing in such dire situations? 

In today’s world we easily forget about the great famines of the past, the recurrence of death in everyday’s life, the struggles of facing species for which we were basically a meal. A much more primal part of us still makes that call, that instinct which struggles to escape the dullness of modern life. 

Harder, colder, tougher times were human spirit and ingenuity could really be tested; arenas of might fending off unheard of foes and trips around the globe in fragile ships at the mercy of the world serpent.

It might simply be that we humans have been a tamed species for just a short time. The world around us has changed more rapidly in the last 200 or so years than it ever did in the thousands that preceded it. A part of us still lives in those gone by days.

We live in an era in which adventure seems to have stalled, and maybe that is also fine. It’s ok to remember that beyond those impressive tales of strength and might, the lives of those who tell the stories are equally important.

True, not everyone will vanquish foes and slay beasts, but how different from silence would the tales of our heroes be, if there wasn’t anyone left to tell them…

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