Role Of Christianity In Beowulf

The epic text is written from a Christian perspective. The importance of Christianity is seen throughout the text. First, Hrothgar builds Heorot because he wishes to give glory to God:It came to his mind to order his men to build a hall, a master mead-house far mightier than any seen by the sons of earth, and therein would he bestow to young and old all that the Lord should give him, save people's land and the lives of men.In the movie, Hrothgar and his Danes are Pagan. When Unferth comes to Hrothgar to see if the Danes should pray to the new Christian Lord Hrothgar says no.Therefore, the ideology of Pagan and Christian are alternated.

The expression “Jesus take the wheel” is quite common in today’s world, but just because it is a modern saying does not mean that it did not have any relevance in earlier time. Throughout the story of Beowulf, a comparison between Christianity and paganism had always been a topic discussed both within the text and spoken aloud in the classroom. Likewise, in this instance, man-made issues serves as a mirror of paganism and trust in God becomes Christianity. Many factors throughout section three revert to paganism rather than Christianity because there was no trust in God. Details such as pride, arranged marriage, and death are the major aspects of man-made issues in this section.

   The Christian influences in Beowulf ultimately came from the Christian/Catholic Church of Rome which converted Romans, and thereby the Roman legions and thereby the occupied provinces. Also the Christian/Catholic Bishop of Rome sent missionary priests and monks to the British Isles to proselytze the population. There are additional considerations too.

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.

Christianity is shown through Beowulf being like Christ in his sacrifice and deeds. Although Beowulf was not the Son of God, and Christ was not the most powerful warrior in the world, there are many similarities between the two. Both Beowulf and Christ give up their lives to save everyone: “Seeing him stretched on the ground … A torn and bloody corpse. But Beowulf’s Killer was dead, too,” (Line 2823\ Line 2825) This parallels Christ dying to save humanity from sin. The dragon is symbolic of the devil because in the same way that Christ defeats the Devil through his sacrifice, Beowulf defeats the dragon through his sacrifice. There are other symbolic parallels between Christ and Beowulf like the twelve apostles and the twelve mourning Geats: “And then twelve of the bravest Geats Rode their horses around the tower, Telling their sorrow, telling stories Of their dead king and his greatness…”(Line 3169\

In the religious aspect of Beowulf, there are two categories for the Anglo-Saxons religion, Paganism and Christianity and in this story there are many ways that they correspond with these religions. Paganism, an example for this would be when Grendel invaded the towns looking for omens, which is food or him taking something from the town and its people. Christianity, an example of this would be how Beowulf and his men prayed to God and they thanked him a lot due to all of the battles and them hoping for a safe voyage when they had

Beowulf is a legend told since 500 A.D. that originated in Scandinavia. During the 500s time period, many beliefs and values among the Danes and the Geats were influenced by Anglo-Saxons, the great conquerors at the time. Anglo-Saxons believed in Christian beliefs and some pagan beliefs as well. Throughout the epic poem, Beowulf, one can gain the knowledge of how the Anglo-Saxons were through literary devices about their religions.

Each and every day we encounter struggles, internal conflicts and external battles throughout one's life. When facing conflict, a man will make his move and the other will proceed to as well. A true warrior would not lose without putting up a fight. Every battle shows right and wrong, good and evil. Jesus symbolizes the virtuous, while the devil symbolizes the wicked. Both serve as substantial contributions to the lives of everyone in this world. The devil fights to take over everything in a person's life. All of mankind has an obligation to fight back, to not let the devil take over their souls, and to call on Jesus for help. Jesus stays right by their side at all times, watching over them at all times. God and his righteousness strikes fear in the devil. The devil fears his power may one day diminish and his world would cease to exist. Because of this, the devil puts in a greater effort as an attempt to win the battle against each individual soul. The widely known epic poem, Beowulf, proves this theory. Some people assume that in Beowulf, the Christianity through the story was added in by Christian monks on a mission to lead the pagan communities closer to an understanding and constant relationship with God himself. The two completely different views help bring the story together to create something so advanced that keeps the reader guessing. Through centuries of the poem being told, it has made its way to high school literature textbooks. Every character in the story

The people of the middle ages lived their lives with a multitude of worries. Epic poems like Beowulf helped to ease the minds of these people by implementing two important themes: religion and courageousness. The poems use of religion helped listeners of the poem to increase their faith in the Holy Father as someone to protect and keep them. The poem also uses the courageous exploits of the hero Beowulf as an inspiration for them to be more courageous in their own lives.

Beowulf is an epic poem combining different stories consisting of contrasting elements, such as paganism and Christianity. Within these stories of Beowulf and the followers of Beowulf, as well as the enemies, paganism actually played the role of the largest religion practiced versus that of Christianity. The stories that make up this epic go by their own titles like, The Wrath of Grendel, The Coming of Beowulf, The Battle with Grendel, The Monster’s Lair, The Battle with Grendel’s Mother, The Last Battle, The Spoils, and The Farewell; all of these stories consist of the comparing and contrasting of paganism and Christianity. Within each of these stories, Christians take on the emotions and behaviors of paganism.

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

The character Aldred who is 20 years old and his cousin Alfred in medieval Anglian kingdom in the seventh century, were Alfred has committed a crime by killing someone. Alfred and his family will have to pay a huge amount of compensation as a punishment of the crime. Due the punishments made by the kings no residence of northumbria would think of violating the rules. This punishments helped to reduce the crimes happening in northumbria. Northumbria was ruled by many kings. Also the people of northumbria did not follow a particular religion. The region of Northumbria history has continued to revolt against the government for crime and justice, religion, and origin of Northumbria territory and Anglo Saxon.

Beowulf started as an oral tradition, passed down from generation to generation until translated into written form by a Christian monk. Therefore, the values, culture, and traditions from the ancient times mix with the new Christian values and melt with other cultures to create the Anglo-Saxon society. In this piece, the Anglo-Saxon culture is revealed through the depiction of the values Christianity, loyalty, and bravery. Though once a pagan culture, the Anglo-Saxons were brought the message of Christianity by the Romans and blended those beliefs into their culture.

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

Throughout the story of Beowulf, the concept of religion plays a significant role. The Christianity ideology views state that man can survive and do great things through the protection of God. A strong desire of pride is also represented in the form of a hero in Beowulf, which in a sense goes against Christian morals. This clash with Christian morals in Beowulf was in the context of pride vs. humility and selfishness vs. sacrifice. In the book, Hrothgar first explained to Beowulf that pride without humility will only kill him. Beowulf struggles to find his roots as a follower of God, as well as maintaining his views and actions of Paganism.