Something silly to consider

Silly because it probably isn't there, but might be worth discussing nonetheless.

OK, so all stories are, to some degree, didactic. That is, they purport to show how to do something, whether it's how to act or perhaps specific detailed instructions on how to perform some task. Although there were Viking equivalents to Miss Manners, I'm working on the assumption that most of their works were similar in purpose to myths of any other culture where the values espoused therein are memetically picked up and integrated into one's behavior.*

Following this, I may be reading too much into it when I say that one of the themes appears to be somewhere between, "you can't do it all yourself" and "it's OK to ask for help." We have Hrothgar who is a great warrior and leader, who runs into trouble that he can't extricate himself from** and finally Beowulf who appears to be the greatest ever, but he's smart enough to realize that his own skills won't save the day all the time (this of course isn't apparent until the part with the dragon).

What do you think?

* I keep referring to these guys as Vikings although the written story is almost certainly of English origin. I'll have to go back and read the introduction in my book to see how far off I am.

** Both Egtheow's feud and Grendel. I'll have to think about Egtheow's feud. The text might be praising him for ending what is essentialy a neverending feud and allowing life to get back to normal.