Beowulf Literary Analysis

Even though throughout most of the story the people only worship and praise God, they still keep their beliefs and values mainly pagan. Although the author doesn’t display or highlight the issues that this causes, the story could have played out a lot differently if the Anglo-Saxons would have fostered Christian beliefs. At the core of Christianity is being humble, pride and personal fame and glory are highly valued in “Beowulf”. Another core value of Christianity is not placing value on worldly goods, but on heavenly

Religion is an extremely prominent characteristic of the epic, Beowulf, and provides insight to the religious beliefs of the Anglo-Saxon time

Beowulf: The Evil within the Anglo-Saxon Culture and the Modern Culture In the epic Beowulf, the eponymous hero, Beowulf, from Geat land comes to the rescue of Hrothgar, the king of Danes, whose land is being attacked by a malicious massive monster known as Grendel. The eponymous hero succeeds at defeating Grendel, killing him with his bare hands, as a show of his power. The song Demons by Imagine Dragons talks about difficult times and defeating internal evil. The narrator is putting forth a valiant effort to defend someone from suffering from the demon inside of him.

“Had he been a Christian…”1 a popular lament in The Song of Roland as the characters look upon strong Muslim warriors and state that this man would make the perfect Christian. This case represents a viewing of ‘the other’ within the texts of The Song of Roland and Beowulf. Within each story there is the family of the ‘good guy’ or the Christian, and then there is the family of the other. The Song of Roland likes to draw parallels between these two families, giving them similar bonds and connections whereas Beowulf tries to separate the two, demonizing the family of the ‘villain’. Thesis

Because of its complicated origin, Beowulf has elements of both pagan Germanic culture and Christianity. The story of Beowulf probably originated as an oral tradition sometime in the 7th century. But the only surviving manuscript of Beowulf was written in the 11th century by Christian scribes, who either inserted the Christian overtones to the story, or were working from a manuscript set down by previous Christians who added the Christian elements. Suffice it to say that the resulting Beowulf is like a pagan story wrapped in Christianity. This results in some strange inconsistencies.

The epic poem “Beowulf”, translated by Burton Raffel, focuses on a hero by the name of Beowulf who goes on a quest to rescue King Hrothgar and his people from an egregious monster by the name of Grendel. This Anglo-Saxon tale gives insight into the values and beliefs of the people from whom the story originated. Their war-centered ideology and views on loyalty and courage were the principles that the Anglo-Saxon culture was founded upon. While warfare was a focal point in their lifestyle, it was far from a savage, barbaric state of fighting. Honor and prestige were bestowed upon those who died during battle and selflessness for fellow warriors was a fundamental belief.

For the most part, the Norse pagan characteristics of Beowulf seem to outweigh the more trivial traits of it. The various Norse creature such as the dragon and Grendel are far more essential to the structure of the narrative than say, one of the warnings of sin given to Beowulf or the ideas of self-sacrifice that Beowulf portrays that also overlap with Norse ideal characteristics. Even so, it would seem possible that Beowulf could exist as a complete work if any mention of Christianity, primarily in small pieces of dialogue and descriptions of characters, is omitted whereas deletion of the Norse elements, such as all the antagonists, would call for a drastic rewriting of the text. Moreover, the entire nature of Beowulf is far different to the New Testament texts of the Bible emphasized in Christianity and more similar to the Old Testament kings, which also share parallels with Sumerian writing styles and myths. This would suggest that Beowulf would likely have originated a pagan text but was then rewritten by Christians in either an effort to reconcile their cultural beliefs with Christianity or as a deliberate effort to encourage conversions.

proves true looking through Anglo-Saxon history. Beowulf has been described as an “a museum for the antiquarian, a source-book for the historian, a treatise for the student of Christian thought, and a gymnasium for the philologist.” Part of the changing Anglo-Saxon and the Germanic reality of the Early Medieval ages in hidden in Beowulf. Beowulf provides an in-depth look at the Early Midivil world regarding the Germanic tribes. Beowulf may not keep the Germanic and Anglo-Saxon culture alive, but as a text or orally it keeps the culture preserved.

Even though Beowulf was written by the Danish people, it shows the early foundations of English literature, and how the Danish people brought Danish culture into British literature. Beowulf’s setting is in the Danish sea were Beowulf the son of the King of Denmark is a powerful warrior who has the traits and characteristics of a bear and a wolf. The novel describes the setting as “The sea, would point the prow straight to that distant Danish shore” (Beowulf line 44). The people’s distant view of the shore shows how they hope for fate to come to them, and fate is the values of the people. A quote from the story shows that fate is the values of the people “Life ruled by fate” (Beowulf line 40).

Once upon a time, there was a marvelous warrior that was a hero to so many and king to some. In the story of Beowulf, the hero, Beowulf, must follow and go through the hero’s journey. The hero’s journey has twelve stages, or three acts. The stages go in the order: 1) The Call to Adventure, 2) Assistance, 3) Departure, 4) Trials, 5) Approach to the Inmost Cave, 6) Crisis, 7) Treasure, 8) Result, 9) Return, 10) New Life, 11) Resolution, and 12) Status Quo (Winkler). Since Beowulf is facing three different monsters, there is not only the story’s significant journey, but also multiple inside it.

Even though there are many examples of christianity in the poem, it points more towards pagan beliefs because of the time of creation, the fact that it talks about vengeance, the ancient belief in wyrd, the use and naming of swords,and the tradition of ship burials . Beowulf was written in the anglo-saxon period by an unknown anglo saxon poet. It is best known by the scholars as The Beowulf Poet. When the poem was written it was influenced by paganism even though christianity is prevalent amongst its verses. Anglo-saxon were invaders of britain (Angles, saxons and jutes)

The poem deals with many aspects in eluding into Anglo Saxon heritage and of its foes, by the aspects of good and evil, how Christianity vs. paganism, and literary elements such as a kenning, a caesura , and a alliteration in the text. First, there is an aspect of good vs. evil, an aspect in witch the epic poem displays many times. It's the conflict between a courageous, mighty, loyal warrior and the demons and dragons of hell itself. Of course,

Very little is known about the epic poem Beowulf besides that the story was told during the Anglo-Saxon period, specifically between the years 500-1100. The author is unknown, due to the fact that the story was originally told verbally and not documented until much later. Like many stories told throughout the ages, Beowulf consists of many archetypes. An archetype is a recurring symbol found in literature, such as the Hero archetype. In this epic poem, the hero, Beowulf, travels from his homeland to Denmark to save a kingdom from an awful beast that has been attacking men late at night for over twelve years.

The epic poem Beowulf is a classic tale of good versus evil. Good, as shown in the story, is any action that fights evil and defends the community and the people of it. The evil intent of Grendel, the story’s antagonist and cannibalistic murderer, who is depicted as a “fiend out of hell” (99), is strongly countered by the heroic actions of the stories main protagonist, Beowulf. The noble King Hrothgar is a role model for young Beowulf at the beginning of the epic, displaying acts of charity and wisdom throughout his life.

“Beowulf” shows the surviving members of his culture, what Saints are to future generations of Christians: legends. The heroic code isn’t a contradiction of Christian ideals, but it is an application of these ideals to a pre-Christian world. Many of the characters in this epic live by commonly known rules and regulations as to how a good pagan should live. The poet of “Beowulf” successfully merges two extremely different religious ideologies from two very different time periods to create a work that has impact to its