Fate is defined as “something that unavoidably befalls a person; that free will does not exist” (American Heritage Dictionary). Fate is one of the central themes in the three Germanic Epics: The Nibelungenlied, Njal’s Saga, and Beowulf. In all the stories, the characters believe everything that occurs is predetermined. Hagen believes that he is fated to die in The Nibelungenlied; Njal sees the future through his dream in Njal’s Saga; Beowulf defeats Grendel’s Mother because fate has decided that he should win in Beowulf. Evidently, almost all of the characters in Germanic epics have a fatalist view towards life. In contrast, America was founded on the notion that everyone has free will. From the Declaration of Independence to the Bill of Rights, people are ensured the right to create their own future. Currently, this idea still stands, since America is often labeled the “Land of the Free [Will]”. In a paper published by Dr. L. Robert Kohls, director of international programs at Washington and S.F. State University, he claims:
Americans do not believe in the power of fate. In the American context, to be “fatalistic” is to be superstitious, lazy, or unwilling to take initiative. Most Americans find it impossible to accept that there are some things that lie beyond the power of humans to achieve. Americans believe every single individual should have control over whatever in the environment might potentially affect him or her.
From Dr. Kohl’s extensive study of different cultures, he accurately describes the average American’s belief that they are in control of their future. Despite the contrast, Americans are much more inclined towards believing in fate than they appear. In reality, the Germanic idea of fate is in...
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...ree will is nothing more than an illusion. In the end, fate will prevail.
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Njal’s Saga. Trans. Magnus Magnusson and Hermann Palsson. London: Penguin Classics, 1960. Print.
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Fate seems to defy humanity at every turn. A man may have his life planned out to the last second, but then some random force intervenes and he dies the second after he has completed his life plan. Some believe in fate, believing that our lives are predetermined from the moment we are born. Other people believe that everything is random, the result of some god rolling the dice in a universal poker game. Still other people believe that each and every person is in total control of his or her destiny, every step of the way. Who is to say which viewpoint is false? Every culture has a unique perception of the role of fate in our lives, and no group has the "right answer," simply a different answer. Taking into consideration the views of other cultures can help an individual refine his personal viewpoint on this inconceivable subject.
Heaney, Seamus. Beowulf: A New Verse Translation. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2000. Print.
Beowulf. Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces. Expanded Edition Volume 1. ED. Maynard Mack et al. New York: Norton, 1995. 1546-1613.
Many times people may feel overwhelmed by a higher force unalterable to them. This force may control something such as their fate. In the Anglo-Saxon culture, a popular belief was that of fate. The writers of Beowulf may have known that not all people believe in the power of fate.
In English literature and Greek mythologies fate and free will played colossal responsibilities in creating the characters in the legendary stories and plays. The Greek gods believed in fate and interventions, predictions of a life of an individual before and after birth which the individual has no control over their own destiny. Free will and fate comingle together, this is where a person can choose his own fate, choose his own destiny by the choices the individual will make in their lifetime. According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, the definition of free will is the “freedom of humans to make choices that are not determined by prior cause of divine intervention”. Fate and the gods who chose their destinies directed Gilgamesh, Oedipus and Achilles.
Abrams, M.H., ed. Beowulf: The Norton Anthology of English Literature. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2001.
Webster defines fate as a “ a power thought to control all events and impossible to resist” “a persons destiny.” This would imply that fate has an over whelming power over the mind. This thing called fate is able to control a person and that person has no ability to change it.