A Deeper Meaning

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Throughout early English literature, it is highly apparent that novels and poems had much deeper meaning than just a story for entertainment. Many of these stories were great works used for religious purposes to show that good will always triumph over evil. Two great works that utilize this are the epic poem, Beowulf and the great allegorical poem, the Faerie Queene. Though these literary works were written almost eight centuries apart, it is apparent through biblical allegories, symbolism, and descriptions that both were written for similar purposes of religious influence, but they were written to different Christian audiences. Through their comparison, there are many similarities and differences in the biblical allegories pertaining to each fight with the dragon. In each story, the dragon is meant to symbolize the epitome of evil, but they symbolize two different types of evil. They are very different in their descriptions of the two dragons and the fight. Through acknowledgement of these similarities and differences, it becomes very obvious to whom the work is directed towards.

Beowulf and the Faerie Queene share many likenesses in the biblical allegories applying to each fight with a dragon. In both fights, Beowulf and the Redcross Knight portray an image of Christ. The Redcross Knight shows greater similarities to Jesus through his three day fight with the dragon in which he is saved from near death by a well of life and a tree of life. The three day fight is a direct correlation to Jesus’ death and resurrection which occurred in three days. The well of life in which Redcross Knight is healed is a symbol of baptism. Baptism is a symbol in itself of the washing away of sins and the restoration of perfection which ...

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... Philippians 4:13 which says, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” By having his hero succeed in an impossible feat, he attracts non-believers and skeptics of the sixteenth century who are fearful of hell due to his gruesome representation of sin. In doing so, he interests them in redemption through the one and only, God.

. Though Beowulf and the Faerie Queene were written almost eight centuries apart, it is apparent through biblical allegories, symbolism, and descriptions that both were written for similar purposes of religious influence, but they were written to different Christian audiences. One was geared towards non-believers and skeptics of the sixteenth century. The other was geared to eighth century Anglo-Saxon warriors and Vikings, but both were written for the same purpose to glorify God and expand the number of His followers.

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