The role of fate in Beowulf
Fate was a major factor in the life of pagan cultures of any time period. This is welldocumented in the epic poem Beowulf, in which a pagan warrior wins because it is hisdestiny to win, not because of any free will. This is amply demonstrated throughout the For instance, in line20, the text states "then Scyld departed at the destined hour."This is but one of many examples that demonstrate the role of fate in death in pagansocieties. They believed that a man could not do anything to avoid it, but had to embraceit. This may be one of the reasons that Beowulf goes to confront the dragon; he feels thepull of fate, and realizes that if it was his time to die, he would die. If, however, he wasfated to live, that would allow him to triumph. Therefore, there was nothing he could'vedone to alter his future. This is partially elaborated on by the text in lines 1580-1583: "The
to reach the end of his days on earth, his life in this world. This isstrange since it seems to be at odds with the idea of an omnipotent being that can't knowthe future because we're still creating ours, yet is still omniscient. In this way, theoutcome of the entire battle is known even at the beginning of the story, giving it a bit ofan omniscient point of view. " This idea that fate is inflexible, that the future is already planned, is in partresponsible for the massive amount of blatant foreshadowing in the story. So too was the dragon, though he had guarded the hoard for generations," and in lines1717-1721: "fate hovered over him, so soon to fall on that old man, to seek out hishidden spirit, to split life and body; flesh was to confine the soul of the old man only alittle longer. Many modern cultures, including ours, subscribe to theChristian idea of free will, the idea that we are in charge of our own destinies. The mortals in the story do not know the outcome of theirlives, but it is revealed to you almost constantly. Great writersfrom across the world have written on the topic of fate, but Seneca described the paganidea of fate best when he said "What must be, shall be; and that which is a necessity to himthat struggles is little more than a choice to him that is willing. "; lines 955-956: "But one of the feasters lying on his bed wasdoomed, and soon to die. " This is the idea of fate inBeowulf. ------------------------------------------------------------------------**Bibliography**. Other examples of fate andforeshadowing intertwined are in lines 644-646: "But after that night fate decreed that heshould no longer feed off human flesh. The idea of fate is universal, either on a conscious level like the Anglo-Saxon andNorse religions state, or a subconscious level, as in our own modern culture. This can be seen inhoroscopes, fortune cookies, the idea of psychics, and even the idea that there is someonefor everyone implies some amount of fate. ", lines 715-718: "Grendel's death, his departurefrom this world, was destined to be wretched, his migrating spirit was fated to travel farinto the power of fiends.
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Anglo-Saxon Norse,
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story outcome,
amount fate,
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