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Beowulf Paganism Essay

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Beowulf: Pagan or Christian Literature? When we are first introduced to the epic story of Beowulf, one could easily assume that this was meant to be Christian piece of literature. Whether a reader is aware of it or not in the epic story of Beowulf there are themes of paganism present, the author may have been aware of these themes that they were putting to possibly let the read draw their own conclusion of the story. From the Anglo-Saxon point of view Beowulf is seen as a Christian type of poetry; however, based on the pagan ideals presented in Beowulf, there is reason to say that Beowulf is a form of pagan literature (change from a thesis to a statement). In Support of this thesis six scholarly articles as well Books will provide evidence…show more content…
Clark goes on to point out that the author of the Beowulf only goes on and mentions to four separate events: (1) creation;(2) Cain’s Murder of Abel and his banishment ;(3) the flood; he also thinks that the last one could be (4) Last Judgment. Clark goes on to state that because of these four possible being mentioned in the text that the audience as well as the poet absorbed very little from the constellations that might constitute Christianity. Also to support his argument that Beowulf is a pagan work of literature Clark states that Hrothgar the wisest of the Danes does not know the origin of the monsters, while it is mention that the origin of Grendel traces back to Cain there is lack of substantial evidence to fully back up this claim; “ Nor does Hrothgar know the story of the flood which is represented on the hilt of the ancient sword, the work of the giants”(Clark 45) while there is the mentioning of these specific events they lack sufficient evidence therefore one could only speculate they are
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