American Society Vs Anglo Saxon Values Essay

Before England was the superpower it is known to be today, it was a small country inhabited by many groups of people over time. First to England came the Celts, then the Romans, and then the Anglo Saxons. The Anglo Saxon’s traveled to England from the northern countries of Germany Norway and Sweden. When they arrived, they brought their gods with them. The Anglo Saxon’s religion consisted of multiple gods and goddesses and their own view of Heaven and what it would be like. The Anglo Saxon’s also loved poetry, and they used it to keep track of the history of their people. Beowulf is an epic poem that was past down by the Anglo Saxons from generation to generation. The poem is infused with multiple elements of their pagan religion.

Beowulf demonstrated another important Anglo-Saxon characteristic, bravery, when he fought the dragon. Beowulf knew he was old when he decided to face the dragon but did not back down from the fight at hand. He decided to stand and fight the dragon instead of running even when he knew he could not defeat the beast by himself. Like the true hero he was

The Anglo-Saxon culture came from the ethos which arose from years of progress and understanding. This culture a unification of independent principalities brought together by one king known as Alfred the Great. The true sense of the culture came with the values of loyalty, kinship, and bravery, which present themselves in the epic tale of Beowulf whose violent victory propelled him from mercenary to rightful warrior and respected hero. where the birth of a hero came from the actions of a rightful warrior.

Anglo-Saxon heroes have only a few things in common with modern day heroes. One of the things is that they both want to improve the society that they come from. "That I, alone and with the help of my men, may purge all evil from this hall" (Raffel

1) Explore the ways in which Beowulf does and does not embody the heroic ideal of the Anglo-Saxons.

Each individual culture has many cultural truths that a group of people follow and believe in. Cultural truths are principles, values, or standards important to a group of people, which display moral behaviors that are respected and immoral actions that are scorned at. Also, cultural truths are norms in a society that you are born into and are expected to do daily because they shape the lifestyle of a group. For example, during the Anglo-Saxon period, there were a number of cultural truths that were applied to everyday actions and attitudes. An epic poem, composed based on the Anglo-Saxon period called Beowulf, written by an unknown author translated by Seamus Heaney, depicts many of the cultural values of the time period. In the poem, is it revealed that all the cultural values in the Anglo-Saxon culture are developed from the idea of a warrior culture. The epic poem is about a hero named Beowulf from the Geats tribe who goes off and helps Hrothgar and the Danes defeat a monster, Grendel, who attacks their mead hall. Before Beowulf meets his fate he fights three monsters, which includes Grendel, to protect the lives of people in two different tribes. Within the epic poem Beowulf, there are several of cultural values presented and focused on such as, courage in battle, fidelity to one’s word, and loyalty to kinsmen, which are all demonstrated by Beowulf.

Anglo-Saxons refers to settlers from the German regions that migrated to Britain during the fall of the Roman Empire. In the story Beowulf, his actions portray him, indeed be an epic hero. Both Christianity and Paganism are both portrayed throughout the epic Beowulf. Beowulf frequently speaks of God throughout the story, while there are also many Pagan elements that are evident throughout the story as well. In addition, "It 's hard to ignore the Christian and Pagan elements in Beowulf. These types of elements are what define the heroic warrior in the epic Beowulf"(Vengeance the Pagan and Christian Inspiration). Throughout the epic Beowulf, while the Anglo-Saxons followed Christianity, they had a hard time letting go of the Pagan beliefs when things got hard.

The country of origin for Anglo-Americans is considered Western Europe. Also, Anglo-Americans are considered an ethnic group with European descendants. (Rosdahl & Kowalski, 2017)

Every culture has its own set of beliefs values and customs. Cultural beliefs, values, and assumptions are directly and indirectly acquired throughout a lifetime. A culture is the sum of a group’s way of life and this is no different with the ancient Anglo Saxon culture. Cultures usually have distinct figures that reflect their culture as a whole. The importance of religion, values, and heroes are reflected a great deal in the epic poem of Beowulf accurately showing the Anglo Saxon culture as a whole.

Some of the most common values during the Anglo-Saxon period include courage, loyalty and generosity. The Anglo-Saxon era was almost always in the state of war which is why it is a time when fighting is valued more than working things out. This meant that heroes of this period fought for fame, glory, and pride. Heroes were expected to boast. Beowulf, the best symbol for Anglo-Saxon heroes, proves this by volunteering to fight the monster just because he was bored and wanted to do something he can brag about. In the story, Beowulf boasts of his bravery by talking about his past battles and victories. Beowulf basically acts more for his own glory than for the general well-being to his people. While in our modern period,

R.E.M. ....Religious, educational and moral values. These are the three values that affect society today the most, I think. Society may look down on people if they do not live by what society thinks is correct. For example if a persons values are corrupt then society will look down on that person, but if a person has real high morals then society will think that they are fake of just a “goodie”. In society today you will be looked down anyway your moral beliefs are.

Although viewed as ruthless savages, the Anglo-Saxon culture was not founded on the sole idea of barbaric brutality. The Anglo-Saxon beliefs were established by loyalty, generosity, and valor. As a result, the people of the Anglo-Saxon culture lived life by these ideals which created a great thirst for fame in being the best version of themselves. If one was decent at fighting, they would train to be the best fighter they could be, or if someone was intelligent they would devise complex riddles to boast of their intelligence. In order to fulfill their beliefs, there were many aspects of the Anglo-Saxon culture that were not only prevalent in their day to day life, they were expressed through their literature as well. In Beowulf, the

In modern society, the people we look at as heroes are simply people we idolize and respect. These “heroes” distinguishing feature from regular society is often values we wish to posses. Similar to the heroes we create today, people of the Anglo-Saxon period characterize heroes as people with bravery, courage, honor, intelligence, boasting, loyalty, strength, and a sense of duty and justice. Beowulf, a well-known Geat in the Anglo-Saxon period, displays bravery and courage, a sense of duty, and consistently boasts about his accomplishments.

Beowulf travels around the land, battling the huge, malicious creatures that debilitate his kingdom. He does so for the benefit of his kingdom and at the same time, he improves the situation his own reputation. In Beowulf, the Anglo-Saxon hero is all around characterized by the actions of Beowulf. The qualities mostly seen throughout the Anglo-Saxon period are strength, bravery, loyalty and belief in God. Beowulf states “So I praise God in his heavenly glory...” this shows Beowulf’s faith in God and how religion was an important characteristic of the Anglo-Saxon period (Heaney, 1778-9). Clearly, Beowulf is a perfect representation of an Anglo-Saxon hero. His strength and courage are unparalleled, and he is much more honorable than any of the corrupted knights around him.

In terms of values, their point of view can be a bad view for us. Beowulf provided us information about the expected values before. A person can be heroic if he shows bravery. A brave man that can