There’s something beautiful about it.
Summary:
- A priest explains the meaning of true love to Canute in Chapter 37.
- Death is the true nature of love, according to him.
- True love should be unconditional and involve treating everyone selflessly and in the same way.
Vinland Saga is notorious for its deep philosophy. This is a show that leaves you thinking about the meaning of life, personal choices, the violence in the world, and so many other ideas.
While it feels like love doesn’t have a place in a series as brutal as Vinland Saga, it’s not actually true. But it provides a very peculiar idea of what it really is.
The meaning of love
In Chapter 37 named “The Meaning of Love,” Canute discussed this concept with a priest, and the man had a very interesting interpretation of it.
He said that humans cannot experience true love anymore because this feeling means they cannot hate and have to treat everyone the same way. There’s no selfishness in real love, and people are incapable of that.
That’s why the priest points at a corpse when Canute asks him for an example of true love.
The dead don’t hate, they don’t kill, they don’t steal, and he calls it “magnificent.” The dead don’t care about one person more than they do for others, they treat everyone the same way and selflessly provide food and sustenance for other living beings.
The thing that the priest is talking about is very close to the Christian concept of agape love, which is the love of God for humans and the love of humans for God. It’s not based on what we call love nowadays; it’s not about physical or platonic attraction to another human being. This is a concept beyond that.
True love doesn’t discriminate
This concept also includes people’s love for other human beings. They shouldn’t differentiate between them, they can’t just choose one person to love. And the dead cannot choose anymore, their relationship stays the same no matter who approaches their body.
Death completes a man, as the priest said, and that’s why it’s the true nature of love. He also calls the thing that Canute saw as love a prejudice, since it’s not affection towards one person, it’s discrimination against the rest of the people.
This realization became a major thing for Canute because this is when he understood that God played a sick joke on humanity. It made them search for true love, but made it impossible to achieve. A world where everyone loves each other equally is not real and cannot be created.
True love should be unconditional for everything and everyone, and humans are incapable of that; they have their preferences based on physical appearance or personality. That’s why it’s unattainable for living people.