Vice and Virtue in Germanic and Iranian Myths

Myth, which is one of the major building blocks of literature throughout the world, portrays through symbolic language exquisite stories of social and cultural values of the nations, and is considered as significant sources of social and cultural research. By comparative analysis of tales, the thought and the bases of them are recognized from one hand and it is feasible to find the common grounds of nations throughout the world on the other. Magical tales and fairy tales are among the most important and marvelous myths which present extraordinary and metaphysical incidents in unreal and imaginary worlds. Since duality is a vital basis of magical myths and is among major motives in fairy tales, the aim of this study is to comparatively analyze this factor and also the role of the protagonist in confrontation with vice and virtue in Germanic and Iranian myths to highlight the similarities and differences of the two cultures.