Christianity In Beowulf And Christianity

The Anglo Saxon epic Beowulf is a story of a geatish warrior who helps the king of the danes, Hrothgar, defeat a monster named Grendel. After slaying Grendel with his bear hands, the beasts mother comes to take revenge. Much like before, Beowulf uses his god like powers to slay beast. From this he gained much fame and wealth, and is later crowned king of the Geats. After 50 years, a dragon comes to exact vengeance on Beowulf’s kingdom for a stolen treasure. Beowulf and his servant, Wiglaf, set off to kill the dragon. Beowulf succeeds in killing the dragon, but is killed in the process. Wiglaf takes over as king for his heroic actions and a great funeral is placed in Beowulf’s honor for his heroism. This poem is very peculiar when is comes to the overriding religion and culture of the time. When Beowulf was recited in Mead halls back in Anglo-Saxon time, the culture of Paganism showed through, however, when it was written down for the first time, it was in a new era. The era of Christianity. This switch from Paganism to Christianity caused more Christian references to be added, and Pagan culture to recede. The epic, Beowulf, explained how two completely different ideologies, Paganism and Christianity, molded to create the unique cultural identity of Beowulf.

The story of Beowulf deals with life, death, violence, kings, and monsters. Written around 800 CE, and then picked up hundreds of years later to be rewritten by a monk, it is written well after the coming of Christ. It could be simply read as an action adventure, filled with conquests and elaborate feasts, as were common of Old English tales. The story is not that simple though, and gives us a peek into a culture going through some drastic changes. Once built upon a Pagan belief system void of Christ and saturated with values such as revenge and violence, the Anglo-Saxons did not immediately adopt all of Christianity. There was a lengthy time in which both sets of beliefs were muddled and weaved together haphazardly, where no one religion was distinct. Beowulf is an example of these cultural influences crashing together. While Christianity in Beowulf, the Old English epic poem, looks different than the Christianity we recognize today, the story is built with Christian values.

the Danes are being terrorized by the gruesome Grendel. Grendel attacks the people and fills them with fear. He leads them into the jaws of death. Grendel is even a descendent of Cain, making the battle between him and Beowulf a struggle between the powers of good and evil. Similarly, the dragon may symbolize Satan terrorizing our lives and trying to lead us astray and into temptation. The dragon’s primary goal is also to obtain as much gold and riches as possible, and to hoard them, protecting it with his fire and the fear he struck into the hearts of the people. Beowulf hears of the death and destruction that is happening, and decides to sail to their rescue, much like Jesus. Here Beowulf can clearly be seen as a Christ figure when he defeats Grendel, Grendel’s mother, and the dragon; he acts as their savior. He slays them all with courage and bravery, just like Jesus had no fear in Matthew 23:13-36, Matthew 21:12, 13, John 16:33, John 5:15-18; 7:14, and John 2:14-17. Jesus showed his courage and bravery throughout all these verses, and many more throughout the Bible. He showed it even when he was a child. Beowulf shows his bravery all

The literary work of Beowulf is believed, by many, to contain numerous attributes of Christian propaganda. Throughout the story of Beowulf, there are several circumstances and coincidences that distinctly relate to the Christian belief system. One can only imagine that these ideas of Christian propaganda; which include the use of Christian themes and beliefs in works of literary art, were strategically placed throughout the story of Beowulf to help the conversion from the old world pagan religious belief system to the Christian beliefs of the new world.

The significance of Paganism and Christianity are both present in Beowulf. Beowulf was written between the 8th and 10th century’s, when the Anglo-Saxon society was beginning to change from Paganism to Christianity. Many believe that this is essentially a pagan work since the Christian faith hadn’t fully arrived in the Anglo-Saxon society. However, according to Douglas Wilson, “The poet could easily have known individual Christian Anglo-Saxons who had converted from paganism”(page.31); this showing how the author would have been able to retrieve information about the customs and morals of Christianity. Christianity is a religion based upon monotheistic beliefs, belief in one personal and transcendent God and based through Jesus’s teachings. This religion teaches that God has a path for everyone, that people may choose to follow and live by him. The epic poem through the years, has been based upon Christianity but still contains a good deal of Pagan elements. Paganism is a religion founded before Christianity, having no belief in a personal god and based more on the concept of fate, that people do not have control over their life. In Beowulf, God is praised for all of his works by Beowulf himself, and the other characters. While also believing that fate controlled the character’s lives.

The European epic, Beowulf, was written sometime in the eighth century in England. This time period provides us with an idea for the mixture of Christian and pagan elements because of an English society that was in the process of converting from Paganism to Christianity. Examples of Pagan and Christian traditions are presented all throughout literature. Many of the influences deal with what it going on in the world, when the piece is written. When Beowulf was written, St. Augustine had just come over to try and convert the Anglo-Saxon people to Christianity; although the conversion succeeded it was a shallow conversion, and there were still people following the Pagan ways. The fact that Christianity and Paganism are so closely combined

Throughout literature there have been countless parallels and references to the story of Christ as written in the Bible. Even in such unexpected places as in seemingly pagan poems of ancient Danes and Geats- an epic with dragons and monsters- one still finds similar biblical allusions. In just such an unexpected place, the epic Beowulf, it's title hero and his circumstance, become an allegory for the story of Christ. In this sense, Beowulf can be seen as a Christian story of salvation.

In 1960, M. B. McNamee published a compelling and strongly supported journal article called “Beowulf: An Allegory of Salvation.” In the article, McNamee argues the frequent Christian allusions found throughout the Beowulf poem all serve their purpose in shaping the story for what it’s meant to be: an allegory of sin, redemption, and salvation; characters in the story represent common figures found within the Old Testament and the New Testament, as he chooses to represent Beowulf as a Christ-like figure, and Grendel and his dam as the devilish forces of Hell, and the Devil himself. The various Christian elements McNamee introduces and supports are interestingly explained and

Christian faith is very much a part of Beowulf’s author, whose faith embodies the work. Many of the epic’s monsters and demons can be referenced back to the Bible. Grendel, his mother, and other monsters are descendants of “Cain’s clan, whom God had condemned for being the first murderer; consequently causing for his kin to suffer the same fate as Cain. God made it clear to Cain that he would restlessly wander the Earth as his punishment, and so his descendants did “haunting the marches / marauding round the heath / and the desolate fens” (Heaney 5). These fabricated characters, “the powerful men of old, the famous men,” are the offspring of those angels expunged from heaven “when the sons of God came to the daughters of man” (Gen. 6:4). By creating this great lineage in Beowulf’s monsters, these “smiths of woe” (Chaney 206) strike fear into the hearts and minds of those hearken the scop’s epic. With the help of these myths, people began to create the idea that Christianity might be their only form of defense against Grendel-like monsters. Mainly causing for believers of these demons to turn their devotion to God, because only through him would they be

Beowulf is an epic poem written in England by an unknown author. On the surface, Beowulf looks like it is a pagan epic. The characters and the events in the story give the reader the illusion that it has nothing to do with Christianity. But if the reader looks beyond the surface they will see that many of the people represent biblical characters and that the events are similar to stories in the Bible.

The next area that Christianity played a role in the poem is with the life of Beowulf all together. The life being related to Jesus as mentioned before him and his 12 companions to him telling them not to follow him. The role starts with Beowulf himself and his relation to Jesus. The two of them can in most cases be called heroes. Both surprisingly for their virtuous sprits and belief in faith. Beowulf through the story does many honorable deeds in saving people and slaying monsters; about the same as what Jesus had been doing. The point I am trying to make is that even with all these deeds Beowulf eventually dies. This in return shows how a Christian should perceive their life. That even with the al giving God and savior death in coming and

Believe it or not, Thor was not just a fictional superhero that appeared in comics created by Marvel. Ultimately stemming from Proto-Indo-European religion, Thor is a prominently mentioned god throughout the recorded history of Germanic mythology and paganism. Pagans, a member of a community observing a polytheistic religion, dominated Southern Europe society and literature until Christianity slowly drove out paganism around the 700s. Before Christianity spread throughout Europe, especially in early Germanic culture, paganism was the foremost means of transcribing values, and past events. Written down in approximately 1,500 A.D. by an unknown author, Beowulf was originally a pagan fable that became a Christian allegory upon its transcription by Christian monks. However, as scholars have debated over the religious context in Beowulf, the attempts by the monks to turn the epic poem into a Christian parable ended merged, including both pagan and Christian aspects. The epic poem Beowulf encompasses Christianity and paganism through the trust in God, wyrd, and the importance of one’s sword.

The representation of Christian Theology in Beowulf is uncanny all throughout the story. Although, the story of Christianity may not be what some people pull out of this story, there is some evidence that Beowulf maybe the same, or resemble God. Throughout the story, Beowulf is faced with Monsters and Creatures that threaten his people's safety. These creatures being so evil and cruel, could be represented as Satan himself. As the story progresses the portrayal of Beowulf makes him out to be almost immortal and Godlike. Nevertheless Beowulf and Christian Theology have many corresponding themes.

While reading Beowulf, more so the modern English remake, one would not think in depth about the similarities that can be seen between the Bible and Beowulf. Fortunately for my fellow readers I have found an article titled, Beowulf, the Old Testament, and the Regula Fidei, that points out the many references of the Old Testament in Beowulf. According to Christopher M. Cain’s article, the poet of Beowulf was Christian and was utilizing the well-recognized legacy of epics to persuade Pagans into converting to Christianity.

    Christian references/allusions appear in Beowulf on six dozen occasions. Some scholars of the Anglo-Saxon period express erroneous notions regarding the arrival of Christianity into Britain. Janet Backhouse in her book The Lindisfarne Gospels, says that these gospels, written about 700AD, were made in north-east England “less than a century after the introduction there of Christianity” (Backhouse 7). Her view of dating Christianity in Britain to the time of Pope Gregory the Great in the 590’s is a popularly held misconception. The truth of the matter is that Christianity, which later Christianized Beowulf, arrived into Britain very many years earlier than this.