I was watching the new series 'Beowulf: Return to the Sheildlands' the other day, and I couldn't help but notice the striking similarity between a statue seen in the episode, and the statue of Talos seen in Skyrim.
Hidden:
Same beard, winged helmet, cloak, sword and hand positions.
I haven't read the Beowulf poem, and I don't know if there is any mention of such a statue in it (or who the statue is of). Is it just a coincidence or could there be some kind of link in lore between whoever the statue is depicting, and Talos?
Of course, the statue may have just been something fancy to add for the tv programme, but the similarity is odd. (Unless the attire and pose is rather common.)
Either way, I'm curious to hear what those with more knowledge may think.
I don't recall a statue being mention specifically, but the original story has born torn apart, put back together, translated, and re-translated so many times it's hard to say definitively. When I searched for "Scandinavian statue" there was a few statues with a similar pose, but none that had the pose, hat, and cloak.
Beowulf was a Geat. The first two monsters he killed in the land of the Danes, but he killed the Dragon in Geatland. Both groups of people kept similar gods, from the Odinist pantheon.
In all honesty, though, it doesn't even have to be a statue of a god. It could be a statue of a generic Viking male warrior, or a male hero of the people of Beowulf's time period, like Shield Sheafson, who is mentioned several times in the poem. Judging by the name of this series with its reference to the Shieldlands, I'd say this is likely.
Monsters are bred in labyrinths, labyrinths are bred from walls. There is a reason the Giants choose to remain nomadic rather than follow their shield kin the Nords in building permanent settlements. The Tower is the beginning of all walls.
You're probably right, Pilaf. It's likely just a depiction of a warrior. It was chopped off the picture in the OP, but there was also a female warrior on the opposite side.
Hidden:
Inside looks like there's some kind of tomb, so perhaps they are acting as 'guards' for whomever is dead (presumably someone important ).
So seems like the similarity between the statue here and the Talos statue is likely just due to the Scandinavian influences of both.
Bethesda have powerful time-traveling abilities, then, since Netflix lists this as a show from 2016.
In this case, if anyone copied anyone, it was the producers of this show. It might be a coincidence, as all the individual elements of this statue were pretty common, but the figures with winged helms that I've seen generally wield axes, or sometimes hammers when they're supposed to represent Thor. The leaning on a sword thing or driving a sword into the ground are also pretty common, but most of the statues you'll see doing that have horned helmets. This one looks similar enough to the Talos statue for me to suspect someone in the design department of the new Beowulf show was a Skyrim fan, and added it as an homage. The only real difference is that Talos' sword is turned another way, and he's slaying a rather large serpent.
Monsters are bred in labyrinths, labyrinths are bred from walls. There is a reason the Giants choose to remain nomadic rather than follow their shield kin the Nords in building permanent settlements. The Tower is the beginning of all walls.
You have no idea how sick I got of those "knee" jokes five years ago. I'm still having to correct people to this day who try to "inform me" about the "old Scandinavian saying" that's totally bunk. People believe any hackneyed BS they're told, without doing any research themselves. Luckily for the world, for every mistruth there is a Defiler to smack it back into place.
Monsters are bred in labyrinths, labyrinths are bred from walls. There is a reason the Giants choose to remain nomadic rather than follow their shield kin the Nords in building permanent settlements. The Tower is the beginning of all walls.
Bethesda gets all their inspirations from historical objects. You can see the Norse designs on many buildings in Whiterun and of course, Whiterun itself is inspired from Edoras.
I laid low your warriors of old. I instilled terror in the hearts of men. I AM KING UNDER THE MOUNTAIN!
Norse Mythology was inspired by Bethesda, clearly, especially that Norse Beowulf guy.
Really though, I doubt the statue of Talos is first iteration of that design. It's not really a copying contest when dealing with motifs that have been around for hundreds, if not thousands of years. The stoic stance with the sword pointing downward isn't even a distinctly Norse thing, and...neither is Talos. This all just goes to show that historical inspiration is a wildfire of misinformation and re-interpretation, which isn't always a bad thing, it only starts being one when people who aren't actual historians start acting like they know what they're talking about because they read some books and played some video games. Kind of like I'm doing right now. See? I'm proving my own point by demonstration.
What we can safely say is: Talos and Beowulf don't have too much in common. Obviously, however, Beowulf is a very influential figure of myth, and the tropes and plot points of his story have influenced many, many character/story designs.
Boss makes a dollar
I make a dime
That's why I'm forum posting
On company time
The absolute worst in this fandom is when people make the "Imperials must be Romans" type assumptions because of superficial resemblances. They'll make long, complicated lists based off aesthetics and try to assign some deeper meaning to it. The way I like to put it is that if "Nords are essentially Vikings", they're only such in the ways they clearly are, and not the many ways they're clearly something completely different and unique. Same for all the races and cultures, really. There's gonna be some nods to real world cultures because that's our point of reference as human beings, and that's a simple way to represent what something is like at a glance. You might make a certain mental association between the Forsworn and various tribal groups of Earth based on their dress and weapons, for instance, and that's a type of lore in and of itself, that type of visual aesthetic, but it's just the tip of the iceberg.
I think Todd Howard even suggested such a thing in the "Making of Skyrim" documentary. He was describing how his initial inspiration for making Skyrim was in a Conan the Barbarian action figure on his desk. He said something to the effect of "How do you feel when you look at this image?" and displayed an image of the figure, then says something along the lines of "that's the essence we wanted to capture with Skyrim." So, Skyrim isn't literally Cimmeria, obviously, but there was that basic aesthetic feeling. Same with feelings you get when you see that Talos statue. It evokes associations of things you've seen or read about in other places, without having to actually represent those things. Rather, it's a representation of how they make you feel. It's "the days of high adventure" personified. Trying to be an armchair historian and assign a deeper meaning to it, or some real world parallel misses the point of the emotion it's supposed to instill into you as a gamer/explorer.
Monsters are bred in labyrinths, labyrinths are bred from walls. There is a reason the Giants choose to remain nomadic rather than follow their shield kin the Nords in building permanent settlements. The Tower is the beginning of all walls.
Anyways; Bethesda made a good game, one of the best games to ever exist. The graphics and visuals look good without any mods at all. This game is the eight wonder of the world.
I laid low your warriors of old. I instilled terror in the hearts of men. I AM KING UNDER THE MOUNTAIN!
