Starkad, the Sigma Male Viking Indo-European Lone Wolf

 

The Viking hero Starkad / Starkaðr was a warrior-poet with extra arms who was blessed by the god Odin. This aristocratic transgressive lone wolf character is actually a prehistoric Indo-European archetype equivalent to Hercules in Greece, Suibhne in Ireland and Krishna’s cousin Siśupāla of Chedi from the Hindu religion of India. In this video I explain who Starkad was and how his myths parallel other Indo-European stories of a Sigma male outsider who loves kings, hates the lower classes, is rude to women and goes into mad rages of extreme violence against his enemies. 

ART

Starkad art by Christian Sloan Hall 

Suibhne art by Graman  

Memes by Chad Pastoralist 

Sources:

• -Compton, T., ‘Victim of the Muses: Poet as Scapegoat, Warrior and Hero in Greco-Roman and Indo-European Myth and History’ Washington, DC: Center for Hellenic Studies (2006). 
• -Cohen, D. “Suibhne Geilt.” Celtica 12:113–124. (1977). 
• -Dumézil ‘Aspects de la fonction guerrière chez les Indo-Européens’ (1956). 
• -Hui, J ‘'Svá segir Starkaðr’: Manipulating Memoralisation in Gautreks saga’ (2015). 
• -Puhvel, J., ‘Comparative Mythology’ (1987).