Fate : The Influence Of Fate In Beowulf

Beowulf, now an old man, says in his final boast, “I’ve never known fear, as a youth I fought in endless battles. I am old, now, but I will fight again” (lines 607-609). Beowulf realizes the dangers of going into battle as an old man, and despite still knowing that his strength and fighting skills were not what they used to be still goes into battle against the ferocious dragon in order to protect his homeland from the villain. Unfortunately, as Beowulf was fighting saw that “for a time (the shield) held, protected Beowulf as he’d planned; then it began to melt, and for the first time in his life that famous prince fought with fate against him, with glory denied him. He knew it, but he raised his sword and struck at the dragon’s scaly hide/And the Geats’ ring-giver did not boast of glorious victories in other wars” (lines 666-671/678). As Beowulf fights the dragon, he comes to realize that he is not going to win and is going to meet his fate. All the battles he had previously fought had him fighting alongside fate, not against it, but now he realized that this is the battle he would not win. Still, Beowulf fights on knowing he would die. He, as stated in the quote, does not seek any pride nor has he in any of his battles and would valiantly fight until his death. These actions Beowulf has portrayed ultimately

Until Beowulf died, his internal battles and external battles were never ending. Once he won an external battle, his external battle, pride, would only get bigger. This would go on and on until his last battle where he finally fails due to the betrayal of his people. The one time Beowulf needed the Geats, they ran like cowards resulting in their almighty kings death. Without Beowulf’s internal and external battles he would have never lived in

Beowulf: A New Telling by Robert Nye is about a character named Beowulf who has to fight evil by using strength, but by also using cleverness. Beowulf’s name means “bee hunter” and Beowulf loved bees. In the story a hall is built it is called Hall Heorot. “By day it towered above men’s heads like a second sun, so bright were it’s walls and roofs”(p. 5). Once the hall is made, a monster comes and eats people at night.

The nature of fate also made a major impact upon the sense of doom and death. Fate played a major role in pagan society during this time period and this is demonstrated when, in his old age, Beowulf goes to fight the dragon and it says, “That noble prince would end his day on earth, soon, would leave his brief life, but would take the dragon with him”. This means that Beowulf accepts that he will die eventually and is leaving it up to fate whether or not he kills the dragon or if he is killed so, this allows him to fight with no fear just like he did against Grendel. During this time period life expectancy was much shorter which led to the sense that death was always right there waiting. Couple the short life span with the chance of war or disease killing you and life became a thing to cherish with death being the only thing a person was guaranteed to as even infants died before they could even do anything. Disease that today would be no problem for our modern medicine would wipe out entire towns and villages. With the wrong luck everything you worked for in your life could be wiped out and there is nothing that could be done.

An epic story is one that combines elements of supernatural powers and heroic deeds with plebeian troubles. In Beowulf , the unknown author paints a typical yet magnificent tale that is one of the great epic chronicles of the Middle Ages. Like the poems of Homer, Beowulf possesses terrible monsters, men with supernatural powers, the search for glory, and deadly defeats. However, this medieval account brings a new element into the folds: the association between established religious forces and personal choices. The concepts of predestination and fate intertwine in this work with the idea of free will.

A Twist of Fate for the Great Hero Beowulf Fate seems to be an ongoing theme in the works of Boethius and Beowulf. Whether it is a belief of Christian providence or pagan fatalism, the writers of these works are strongly moved by the concept of fate and how it affects the twists and turns of a person’s life. Fate is most often seen as the course of events in a person’s life that leads them to inevitable death at some time or another.

Before each and every battle that Beowulf takes on, there is always a specific section that speaks about fate and what is to come with death. Gruesome descriptions of battle and fate ending in death is brought about extremely casually and often. When Beowulf first meets King Hrothgar to help him protect his kingdom from Grendel, he immediately tells the king, “Whichever one death fells / must deem it a just judgement by God” (Heaney ll. 440-441). Since this epic poem was composed within an era of blooming Christianity, it is shown that Beowulf is fully leaving his life within the hands of God. Beowulf believes that only God has the power to take a life when he believes it is their time; persuading the audience that it is right to fall into the same belief, causing more of a major impact on the world today. Once God

Beowulf affirms this belief when someone got close to the dragon but didn't die; saying "So may a man not marked by fate easily escape exile and woe by the grace of God" (81). This idea of fate is carried through as Beowulf fights the dragon and dies. "That final day was the first time when Beowulf fought and fate denied him glory in battle" again attributing all his previous successes and his ultimate collapse to the power of God.

John Gardner explicitly conveys the motif accident to indicate that fate controls all creatures’ destiny. In the last chapter of Grendel, the major difference between Beowulf and Grendel appears at where Grendel totally attribute his failure in battle to “accident” (169). Grendel thinks that Beowulf is just a human, and he can beat Beowulf or at least flee away. But Grendel still loses in the battle due to an accident that he slips on a puddle of blood. Grendel expresses his word to Beowulf or fate with a sense of irony. He could get away from this situation, but an accident happened and it brings everything back to the predestined path which predicts that Grendel will lose and die. Accident is a thing that is not planed or out of expectation which is supposed to lead Grendel out of the control of fate, but it ironically traps Grendel in the story. Further, John Gardner mention accident in Grendel’s last few words which says that “Poor Grendel’s had an accident, (so) may you all” (174). These words to the animal and also to the readers can be either taken as a curse or

Beowulf: A New Telling is a book for people that need reassurance that light will overcome darkness and that we need to accept that we have some darkness inside of us, then our weaknesses can become our strengths. Beowulf has to face many faces of evil, including Grendel, the cruel slimy creature who murders Beowulf’s friends and She, the wife of Cain and malicious monster that lives at the bottom of a pool of blood. He becomes king of Geats and is famous all throughout the land.

First, Grendel is an angry demon who has been attacking Hrothgar’s Kingdom and hurting the villagers for twelve years. Some people refer Grendel as, “Grim demon”. Beowulf is informed about Grendel destroying the kingdom and hurting innocent people. One night Grendel had struck Beowulf’s men with his brutal strength. After Grendel slaughtered all the men, Beowulf walked up to Grendel tried to grab, but Beowulf grabbed Grendel’s arm and held onto him with a firm grip. Grendel was trying his best to escape Beowulf because of his brute strength. For example, “you could hear Grendel’s claws cracking.” Beowulf through Grendel’s urge to rip Grendel’s whole arm and part of his chest off. Beowulf watched as Grendel died slowly from the amount of blood loss.

He thanks God for him allowing the suffering to end, for Grendel to be beaten and ending the war between men and the monsters. The idea of fate is brought up again later on in the poem as well. In his battles he says that fate will decide who will win the battle, in the fight with Grendel, his mother and as well as the Dragon: "I won't shift a foot / when I meet the cave-guard: what occurs on the wall / between the

Fate is often a topic of interest in many literary works, as it provides an insight to readers as to how a person’s success or demise can be credited to their own doing or to the world’s chaotic web of tragedy that afflicts those at random. In Beowulf, pagan belief describes fate as an affliction through unmerciful forces of death and destruction that befall people at random. Actions and events that occur around us are mainly out of our control, though we can influence them at times, yet, we are susceptible to the world’s destruction, death, and failure. For these reasons, I believe: nature is hostile and uncontrollable at times, and that Beowulf can be described as a failure due to his inability to prevent conflict that befalls his country after his death.

It is consistently difficult to understand in old world literature, from Homeric epics to Virgil's work, The Aeneid, what the relation of fate is to the Pantheon of gods. There seems to be an ongoing debate within the texts discussing whether "fate" is the supreme ruling force in the universe and the controlling element of the lives of men, or whether fate is the will of the king of gods, Jupiter. In, The Aeneid, several situations and instances of the use of fate are presented to the reader. The direction and destination of Aeneas's course are preordained, and his various sufferings and glories in battle and at sea over the course of the epic merely postpone his unchangeable destiny.

Fate is an essential part in the poem "Beowulf" by Seamus Heaney. Fate follows beowulf throughout his life, from starting off as a strong fierce warrior, to his ruling as a king. Fate is shown in Line (455), although he fought all these monsters, he is still alive because of fate and god's will. Seamus Heaney states “he was destined to face the end of his days, in this mortal world, as was the dragon, for all his long leasehold on the treasure.” (Lines 2342-2344), this contributes to Beowulf's life because it shows that no matter how powerful he was or whatever he did, he would be defeated eventually. Line (572), fate refers to saving a hero, but only if he is courageous, a hero such as Beowulf for all his courageous efforts and putting and