Beowulf Good Vs Evil Essay

The battle of good vs. evil has been used as the theme of stories for centuries and the epic poem Beowulf is no different, however, in this poem the ageless theme is used both literally and figuratively. The battle of the hero and monsters uses the theme literally as so many other stories do, but upon closer examination the theme is given a twist. That twist is religion, during the time Beowulf originated the people were undergoing religious change. These people had been pagans for centuries and they lived as such. However, the people had recently undergone the conversion to Christianity, though the conversion did not completely strip them of their pagan mentality, in this new religion paganism was evil and was seen as the enemy. This poem

These people had practiced paganism, a religion associated with evil and overall wrong doing, which plays a huge role in the poem itself. This famous poem is littered with the paganistic ideas that still existed in the world during the time of its origin. In the presentation Beowulf: A Pagan and Christian Fusion? By Aoife Mooney it is stated, “This work was written after the Anglo-Saxons were already Christianized, yet the pagan traditions that had dominated their lives were still present in their minds...”. These ideas and references drip from the pages of Beowulf and help contribute to the epic theme of good vs. evil in the poem. The pagan ideas in Beowulf help to contribute to its theme of good vs. evil; these pagan ideas are represented in part by the poem’s antagonists. The poem contains the line, “Till the monster stirred. That demon, that fiend...” (Beowulf, 5) in reference to the epic’s first antagonist Grendel. In this quote monsters and demons are mentioned in relation to Grendel, but as the story progresses Grendel’s mother and the dragon are also spoken of as such. The words monster and demon are linked to the pagan religion as well as the world’s conception of evil. Through the inclusion of these paganistic details the poem receives its evil element and the basis for this historic epic