#Great nordic warriors code

#Great nordic warriors code

In fact, it is thanks to Anglo-Saxon literature - primarily epic poetry such as Beowulf, The Battle of Maldon and The Wanderer - that we have an understanding of how their warrior code and war culture looked, given the dearth of evidence from more “historical” sources from the period. The concept of honor was so pervasive in Anglo-Saxon society that it is impossible to pick up any piece of literature from the period without finding some mention of it. So what did the warrior code of the Anglo-Saxons look like, and how were their heroic predecessors different from the courtly knights who would come to take their place and eventually represent the notion of medieval warriorhood? Does the old world epic hero, the likes of Beowulf or Brythnoth, have any place in the modern world? Anglo-Saxon Honor in the Heroic Age Codes of honor that dictate how warriors are to conduct themselves have existed for centuries, and some have been carried into modernity and popularized: the chivalric code of medieval knights, or Bushido of the Japanese samurai are perhaps the most well-known.īefore the chivalry of the Norman knights came to England however, a much older system of honor and loyalty had been in place for centuries, brought over by Germanic settlers from the Anglo-Saxon tribes. This is particularly true when it comes to warriors and their actions both on and off the battlefield, and concepts of Anglo-Saxon honor are no different.

Every culture and society on Earth, both past and present, has their own ideas of what makes a person honorable or worthy.