Remaking Beowulf as a Christian Hero
The story of Beowulf is full of religious references and symbolism, but is it truly a Christian story? According to the narrative, Beowulf is an instrument of God, an instrument of righteousness called by God to perform His will for the Danes. In stark contrast to his good, is the enemy, Grendel, the incarnation of pure evil. These two characters appear to represent the forces of good versus the forces of evil. It would be easy enough to leave the story that way, but it appears that Beowulf is written intentionally to make the main characters appear more important by adding Biblical references to the narrative. By creating characters of a Biblical stature, the story as a whole has an added importance. The story was to be important enough that those who told it and those that heard it would never forget the tale.
This gruesome creature was called Grendel,
notorious prowler of the borderland, ranger of the moors,
the fen and the fastness; this cursed creature
lived in a monster's lair for a time
after the Creator had condemned him
as one of the seed of Cain - the Everlasting Lord
avenged Abel's murder. Cain had
no satisfaction from that feud, but the Creator
sent him into exile, far from mankind
because of his crime. He could no longer
approach the throne of grace, that precious place
in God's presence, nor did he feel God's love. (102-113)
Grendel is likened to Cain in this passage, but he seems to show characteristics of the devil as well. He is called a prowl...
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...ciety. The pagan religions were passing away and being replaced by new traditions and a new religion. Maybe this version of Beowulf is like a remake of an old movie done forty years ago. It had been revamped to fit in with the times. If it had, it was a good idea, because this "modernized" version of Beowulf has certainly stood the test of time.
Works Cited
Blackburn, F.A.. "The Christian Coloring in the Beowulf." In An Anthology of Beowulf Criticism, edited by Lewis E. Nicholson. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1963.
Bloom, Harold. "Introduction." In Modern Critical Interpretations: Beowulf, edited by Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1987.
Frank, Roberta. "The Beowulf Poet's Sense of History." In Beowulf - Modern Critical Interpretations, edited by Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1987.
It is common opinion that Beowulf was written by a Christian poet. This was probably true because at the time when it was written, most of the few people who knew how to read and write were in the clergy. There are various references within the poem to elements of the Christian religion. However, the story is about Pagan people and certain aspects of their culture are even glorified. The ambiguity of Beowulf’s religious content has caused confusion as to what significance religion had in inspiring the author and in what manner the author meant to inspire or influence his audience. I do not think that Beowulf is a Christian allegory because Beowulf had very little in common with the Biblical figure of Jesus Christ. I think that religion was not the primary thematic concern of the writer. Although there are discrepancies between the two styles of thinking, Beowulf seems to praise values which were considered moral and good among all humanity, both Christian and Pagan.
Francis, Erik Max. Beowulf. From The Harvard Classics. Volume 49. P.F. Collier & Son, 1910. Etext version by Robin Katsuya-Corbet. Online. Internet. November 26, 1998. Available HTTP: http://www.alcyone.com/max/lit/beowulf/
Damrosch, David, and David L. Pike. “Beowulf.” The Longman Anthology of World Literature, Compact Edition. New York: Pearson, Longman, 2008. 929-970. Print.
Anonymous. “Beowulf.” Beowulf: A New Verse Translation. Seamus Heaney, trans. New York: W.W. Norton &Company Ltd. 2001. 2-213. Print.
The use of religion in the story alludes to the fact that Beowulf is a Christ figure by showing the reader that God has sent Beowulf to defeat Grendel, similar to how Jesus was sent to Earth to absolve people of sin. In the following quote, Beowulf is fighting Grendel and the narrator describes God’s impact on Beowulf. “The monster wrenched and wrestled with him/ But Beowulf was mindful of his mighty strength,/ The wondrous gifts God had showered on him:/ He relied for help on the Lord of All,/ On His care and favour. So he overcame the foe, /brought down the hell-brute” (Beowulf 1269-1274). The “ wondrous gifts” that God had bestowed upon
Beowulf. The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Volume A. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 2006. 34-100.
Robinson, Fred C. “Apposed Word Meanings and Religious Perspectives.” In Beowulf – Modern Critical Interpretations, edited by Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1987.
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One of the first literary work studied by our class was “Beowulf,” the longest and greatest surviving Anglo-Saxon poem. The poem is packed full of Christian and Pagan elements that are constantly fighting for the dominant position. In order to understand these thematic elements portrayed throughout “Beowulf,” we must first discover
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Beowulf. Holt elements of literature. Ed G Kylene Beers and Lee Odeel. 6th ed. Austin: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 2008. 21-48. Print.
Beowulf has been estimated to have been written over twelve hundred years ago. According to The Norton Anthology Of English Literature, “It is now widely believed that Beowulf is the work of a single poet who was a Christian and that his poem reflects a well-established Christian tradition,” (37). This conclusion was likely drawn by accounting for the time at which Beowulf was written and factoring in most people in the area of where it was believed to be written had already been converted to Christianity. In a way, this provides the best explanation for why Beowulf contains a high level of Christian influences for the story to have taken place when it did. Dr. J. Michael Stitt of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas says that, “Much of this epic poem is dedicated to conveying and exemplifying the heroic code which values such attributes as strength, courage and honor. Conflicting with this ideology are other factors such as Christianity, and these tensions affect the lives and decisions of the narrative's characters.” If the one of the main focuses in Beowulf is the heroic code and the heroic code convicts with the authors beliefs than why did he write it? This is not to say that authors do not write about things that they ...
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