Battle of the Religions

“Ethelbert, king of Kent (reigned c.560-616), who married Bertha, the Christian daughter of the king of Paris, and who became the first English king to be converted to Christianity (St Augustine 's mission from the Pope Britain in 597 during Ethelbert’s reign prompted thousands of such conversions)”("Anglo-Saxons."). This was the first time that you started to see mass conversions from Paganism to Christianity which led to more stories containing Christian elements. They included multiple things into their literature which reflected their culture and customs. In the story Beowulf says, "Often, for undaunted courage, fate spares the man it has not already marked"(Heaney 113).This represents the value of courage and bravery in the Anglo-Saxon culture which was a major

Here Beowulf gives the outcome to God. As mentioned earlier, Grendel met his fate the night Beowulf was waiting for him. This clearly is contradicting since both dogmas are used to describe the same occurrence. In the fight against Grendel's mother "Almighty God would ... turn the tide of his misfortunes" (Beowulf 61). He also says that God decided the victory in the same fight.

In this part of the poem, one can infer that King Hrothgar is man with Christian belief, but only momentarily, as a last attempt, resorted to his old ways. King Hrothgar’s actions are reflective of the Anglo-Saxon period by jumping from one religious idea to another in a short amount of text. During the final battle between the fearsome Dragon and Beowulf, in his dying words, Beowulf thanked God for all that God had given him (Beowulf 816-818), and shortly after while crowning Wiglaf the next king, spoke of how “Fate has swept out race away”(Beowulf

In England during 939 AD, the English King Æthelstan died and was succeeded by his son Edmund I. Soon after King Edmund's coronation, he faced military threats from King Olaf Guthfrithson (Olaf III of the Norse-Gael dynasty and King of Dublin) whom still laid claim to York which ... ... middle of paper ... ... the Vikings decided to stay in England and entered into King Æthelred II's service as mercenaries, based on the Isle of Wight. On his way to Norway, King Olav stopped on the Northern Isles to Christianize them by summoning Jarl Sigurd and ordered him and all his subjects to be baptized as Christians. Stating that if he refused, he'd have him killed on the spot and would ravage every island with fire and steel. Not surprisingly, Jarl Sigurd agreed to King Olaf's demand and the islands became Christian in 995 AD.

The tales of Beowulf were already ancient legend when the poet began his work (whenever that was; dating the poem seems to be another of those old controversies with dates ranging from the 7th to the 11th centuries). The author skillfully uses this material to construct an entertaining tale while at the same time attempting to reconcile the concepts of the pagan wyrd (fate) and dom (renown or worth) with the Christian concepts of grace and final judgement. So it is that we have a poem that is overwhelmingly a pagan story, suffused with the old Germanic warrior culture ethos, yet sprinkled with many loosely Christian comments and a few explicitly Christian passages. However, it should be noted that while we refer to these passages as Christian, no reference to Christ is to be found within the poem. The first of the Christian passages occurs when we are introduced to Grendal: God had condemned them as kin of Cain.

They attacked and raided areas in the North Sea throughout the third and fourth centuries. By the end of the sixth century, the Saxons had taken all of the Roman territory within north-west Germany, as far as the Elbe River. The Angles joined the Saxons in the invasion of Britain in the fifth and sixth centuries. British resistance to the 'Anglo Saxon' invaders in the second half of the fifth century ended with the Anglo Saxon’s victory at the battle of Mount Badon. After the British were defeated, though, the Angles and the Saxons continued to fight over their religion for many years (Irvin, Vacca, Probst, Beers, p.46).

While Beowulf is getting ready for battle with Grendel, Beowulf prays to God asking that He give victory to whichever combatant seemed more just. Then, during the battle against Grendel, the author tells of how Grendel had now learned “what it meant to feud with Almighty God” (490-492). Here is another area of tension found in Beowulf, except this time it is an argument of deity beliefs. This alone would cause major tensions between the Christians and Anglo-Saxons. The Christians are monotheistic in beliefs, meaning that Christians believe in only one God.

By “silencing the enemy” in our lives, we can remove strongholds that Satan has set up in our minds simply by singing the praises of God and walking in the spirit. As the writer wrote in the last half of his book it is time for the church to rise out of passivity and aggressively move out in the spirit “against the powers of hell”. It is time for Zion to awake out of it’s slumber and become the victorious church of God. .

St. Augustine and these missionaries introduced the technology of writing. Within a century of Augustine’s landing, primitive works of history and deeply seeded religious poetry began to surface in a language that we now consider as Old English. Bede (c.672-735) is remembered as a great historian and theologian. His Old English works provide us with a glimpse into an otherwise mysterious period known as the “Dark Ages.” There were many invasions from 787 - 1042 primarily the Vikings or Danes. Due to them The English Language began to be simplified along with its vocabulary.

When Beowulf hears of Grendel’s exploits in Denmark, he travels to the “distant” land, without hesitation, to rid the Danes of that “demon…conceived by a pair of those monsters born of Cain, murderous creatures banished by God”. Beowulf’s courage is displayed even more when he chooses not to fight with weapons, despite knowing that the “fiend” has sharp claws and teeth, for Grendel does not use them. After Beowulf arrives in Denmark, he tells of his acts of courage and bravery, his “boast” convincing Hrothgar to let him protect the meadhall. After Grendel is defeated, Beowulf’s courage becomes even more evident when he is also asked to rid the Danes of Grendel’s mother. On...