PAGANISM AND CHRISTIANITY IN BEOWULF1

Paganism and Christianity in Beowulf1

Paganism and Christianity in Beowulf

Introduction

Most people believe that the Beowulf was originally Pagan and rewritten by a Christian who sought to apply Christian characters to the original text. Scholars disagree on whether the main thematic point was Pagan or Christian. The narrator, however, places events in a Biblical context because of the push at the time to convert all people to Christianity. Beowulf, by intertwining Christian beliefs and old Pagan elements of lore becomes a standard of literature that is hard to surpass. This paper discusses various aspects of the story from the view point of Paganism and Christianity.

Influence of paganism in the story

Beowulf was written in during the period of 8th century when Paganism was being forgotten, and Christianity was being brought in the story. So, this is when during the time when people were converting to Christianity. There is a lot of Paganism and Christianity mixed together throughout the story of Beowulf, but, there is more evidence that points out Paganism.

One Pagan example is that Beowulf is no ordinary human being. In his battle against Grendel, Beowulf insisted that he would not use any weaponry. Instead, he had fought with his two bare hands and all of his might. Also, when he went to visit Grendel's mother, he had swum down to the entrance of her cave, which took a, full day to get to the bottom. No sane human, can stay underwater for 24 hours (Buhres, p. 19).

He also does a lot of anti-Christian activities. In the story, he kills creatures which are breaking one of the Ten Commandments, and he does everything for fame and fortune. He does not do it to protect the people; he just wants to get his name known and famous. The story was also re-write by a monk, so you never know what actuality was and what was changed around. Beowulf also seems to pray to various Gods multiple times during the story of Beowulf.

In most Pagan stories, a dragon (Grendel) is the widespread problem and usually ends up being a slayer by the Heroic icon (Beowulf.) The author depicts that it is a battle of good versus evil, which is an example of medieval folklore during the age of Paganism (Chin, p. 44).

So, although there is a combination of Paganism and Christianity throughout the epic, it can be believed that the conclusion of the epic is more revolved around Paganism due to the fact of the inhumane powerful abilities of Beowulf (Daniel, p. 119).

The concept of fate has been used in the text of the Beowulf a number of times. This extensive usage of the idea of fate represents Pagan view in the text. All the characters that are in the story of Beowulf are accepted the notion of fate. For instance, the scene where Hrothgar feels that he would not be able to meet Beowulf again he never asks why that is happening to him rather accepted this as a part ...