Monsters with human voices : the anthropomorphic adversary of the hero in Old English and Old Norse literature

In Beowulf, the Eddas, and the Icelandic sagas, as in the literature of ancient Mesopotamia, the nature of the monstrous is best understood in terms of the interaction between monster and hero before and during combat. Some monsters, like Ti Amat and the Miogarosormr, seem to have developed from personifications of primal chaos: others seem derived from the impersonations of beasts in ritual initiation combats. In literature, however, both types of monsters tend to merge because writers model their narratives on actual human confrontations. Literature is also conditioned by its verbal medium so that an adversary's taunts and challenges before battle often become more important than physical combat. Indeed, some characters associated with the monstrous, like Loki, fight almost exclusively with words. Even while the mythological background which had persisted into the late pagan poetry gradually faded in the sagas, the human aspect of the monsters remained. Besides some rather fanciful monsters, the saga heroes combat two large classes of rivals who combine both human and monstrous traits. The first class, including berserkir and others descended from old warrior cults and traditions, consists of those who are living men but act like beasts and monsters. After death, a berserkr is likely to join the other class, which includes the draugar and aptrgongumenn, those who walk after death.