A Comparison of Christian Influence on Beowulf and The Saga of King Hrolf Kraki

Scholars have argued about the religious stance of the epic poem Beowulf for centuries. Although the man who put the poem down on paper, known as the Beowulf poet, was a devout Christian, the actual poem itself is pagan. There are many clues in the epic that lead us to this conclusion such as the numerous references to pagan symbols, namely the symbol of fate. Also, the central idea of revenge in the poem opposes the ideas of Christianity. The poem also contains many breaches of the Ten Commandments, which prove that the story is not Christian. However, the biggest clue to the paganism of Beowulf is the scene that contains the burial of Beowulf and the building and idolization of the tower, all of which go directly against the Christian religion.

Christian Sybolism in Beowulf Within the poem Beowulf, the poet utilizes the Christian religion to symbolize the elements of good and evil and Heaven and Hell. Beowulf is the oldest known English epic poem. The manuscripts date back to about 1000 A.D., when two scribes wrote it down for posterity. The poem was handed down from the Anglo-Saxon period, and through the retelling of the poem, it changed a little each time.

Thompson, Stephen P. “The Beowulf poet and His World.” In Readings on Beowulf, edited by Stephen P. Thompson. San Diego: Greenhaven Press,1998.

Beowulf is an anonymous poem that takes place in Denmark and Geatland, the modern day Sweden. It tells the tale of a kingdom in Denmark, ruled by King Hrothgar, which is in peril and how a hero comes to save it. Beowulf was estimated to be written in the 8th to 11th century during the Anglo-Norman period making it the oldest surviving epic poem in historians’ possession. Though parts of the original manuscript were destroyed in a fire, around 1731, the work has still proven useful to scholars and researchers today. It was first translated in 1818 by Icelandic scholar Grímur Jónsson Thorkelin, J. M. Kemble wrote the first modern English translation in 1837. It has been a great influence to modern writers, like J. R. R. Tolkien (Snell).

Beowulf was written around 1000 A.D. and tells of a time between 400-600 A.D. The people of the time were recovering from war and lost hope of seeing better days, which is where Beowulf came into play. The British longed to have a hero figure – someone who represented strength and courage. The fictional story of Beowulf is not only a story of a hero but of a man of faith. Religion is a prominent feature in the tale but only after many years of being passed down through oral tradition (a tradition in the Anglo-Saxon culture).

There are stories told all over the world handed down from generation to generation. Some remember these stories by memory, but are lost in time, and some write them down to be remembered forever as a part of history. Beowulf is one such story that has been mysteriously remembered for many centuries. I’ve very much enjoyed reading Beowulf. However, since this story has been around for so long many people have added, reduced, or omitted bits and pieces of the story. In other words, it has become an almost epic legend, never knowing if it was real or if it is rumor. And like any rumor being told to others, the story gets better and better over time like a fine wine. Since this poem has been around for many centuries, it is clear in much of the readings that Christianity is highly incorporated, even though the poem is composed of a Scandinavian hero that is pagan and the poem gives us an overview of what Anglo-Saxon culture would have been like. Most scholars are sure that this poem was composed in England and that it was written sometime between the 8th and 11th century. We read in many books that during the 6th and 7th century, England was converting to Christianity. In view of the fact that most of the sayings in Beowulf are Germanic paganistic sayings I believe that since the narrator was Christian, he incorporated many of the sayings to be in beatitude form and that it seems clear that he only referred to one god instead of many which is the ideal way of Paganism.

Christianity had recently took hold in England at the time of the writing of Beowulf. Many people believe that Beowulf is a Christian story, when in fact it is not. Instead, the poem reflects a society that has a deep pagan background and has brought with it stories from its pagan past. Beowulf is a Germanic tale that was likely first composed in the first half of the eighth century, but it was not until the late tenth century that it was committed to parchment. At the time of its writing, the Germanic tribes were clearly pagan, as seen by such evidence in the text as Beowulf’s cremation at the end of the epic and the direct reference to swearing oaths at “pagan shrines” (line 175). As Christianity’s teachings and values began to take root in these pagan societies over the decades and eventual centuries, the stories of the Bible began to be worked into the tale as it was told, retold, and retold even again. When it came time to be written—probably by a Christian monk (or monks) whose beliefs, it is fair to say, flavored the work—the bards and storytellers had crafted an epic with the Christian permutations already in it. However, that is not to say that the writer was ignorant when it came to what message he desired to relate to the reader.

Beowulf predates the conversion of Anglo-Saxon England to Christianity, and “it is admitted by all critics that the Beowulf is essentially a heathen poem” (Blackburn, 1897, p. 205). Beowulf is interpreted from an oral custom to a composed original copy amid the European Medieval times. It is important for the copier to adjust the lyric to be adequate for a world that is overwhelmed by the Christian Church. The force of the Congregation for this period is relatively supreme, and it is unsatisfactory for barbarian or agnostic saints to be elated over the powers of insidiousness. By adjusting the rapscallion lyric to contain obscure suggestions to Christianity, the transcriber makes the epic story acceptable to his Christian group of onlookers. At the point when Beowulf is thought to be a Christian story, solid moral stories may be found in the characters of Beowulf and Grendel. Beowulf, the Geatish warrior, is a purposeful anecdote for Jesus Christ. In spite of the fact that Christ is not suggested, but he continuous speaks to God around the reference and attributions to Lord of the active parts of the story. Beowulf makes satisfactory to the Christian culture of medieval

In Beowulf, there are many different allusions and examples of the Christian Anglo-Saxon culture in addition to their society. The author alludes to the characters comparison to Christianity, the idea of wyrd, and important biblical events in history. The author uses many biblical references to support the ideology that the Anglo-Saxons were of the Christian decent.

Beowulf and The Saga of King Hrolf Kraki There are so many similarities between the hero of the poem Beowulf and The Saga of King Hrolf Kraki, an Iceland saga representing 1000 years of oral traditions prior to the 1300’s when it was written, that these similarities cannot be attributed solely to coincidence. The Cambridge History of English and American Literature states that the hero of the poem, Beowulf himself, may be the same person as Bodvar Biarki, the chief of Hrolfr Kraki’s knights (v1, ch3, s3, n13). George Clark in “The Hero and the Theme” mentions: “The form of Beowulf taken as a whole suggests both the ‘Bear’s Son’ folktale type (especially as we find it in Scandinavia) and the ‘combat myth’. . . .” (286).