First time playing, is this normal?

I’ve got around 100 hours in Elden Ring and I absolutely love the game, but I’ve got a couple of questions.

First: Is it normal that I only understand like 50% of the lore and overall story? I get the main plot, but when it comes to side characters, the Golden Order stuff, all the different factions, and the Dung Eater (???), I feel completely lost.

Second: I beat Radahn on my first try pretty easily (samurai build, mostly STR/DEX, using the starting katana upgraded, around level 85–90). I’m the kind of player who farms a lot and explores everything, so I cleared pretty much all of Caelid (and the Weeping Peninsula) before even entering the Academy. And after hearing all the stories and seeing his reputation online, I was honestly expecting the hardest fight of my life.

I also ran into Godfrey and intentionally let him kill me. From what I saw of the fight, I’m pretty sure I could beat him first try as well, but I didn’t want to risk locking myself out of any side quests by progressing too fast.

P.S.: The bosses that gave me the hardest time so far were the one at the Divine Tower of Caelid (pretty sure I was underleveled there since he was basically two-shotting me) and that gargoyle near Gurranq. That thing made me suffer more than Radahn did. 💀

Is all of this normal for a first playthrough ?