Beowulf and Grendel

The original Epic was obviously Paganistic due to the time period of it’s creation. But, as time wore on, the rewriting and

touching up of the manuscripts by various sources including religious

monks, caused the characters to have slight Christian characteristics.

These Christian themes have become very important to the epic to add

am element of depth that wouldn’t be possible in modern times due to

the lost of the Anglo-Saxon culture and beliefs. An example of the

Biblical motif in Beowulf is Grendel. Grendel it biblically described

[ Grendel] was spawned in that slime,

Conceived by a pair of those monsters born

Of Cain, murderous creatures banished

By God, punished forever for the crime

Of Abel’s death. The Almighty drove

Those demons out, and their exile was bitter,

Into a thousand forms of evil--spirits

And feinds, goblins, monsters, giants,

The Biblical reference in the epic has become a modern day archetypal motif, and serves to give the listener an idea of the extent of Grendel’s pure evil and gives a logical explanation for Grendel’s

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The element of religious tension is quite common in Christian Anglo-Saxon writings (The Dream of the Rood, for example), but the combination of a pagan story with a Christian narrator is fairly unusual. Like Babel, though, Herot only serves as a symbol of

downfall more than one of glory because it causes many deaths and the

coming of Grendel. The Beowulf poet is often at pains to attribute Christian thoughts and motives to his characters, who frequently behave in distinctly un-Christian ways. The period following Hygelac's death is an important transitional moment for Beowulf. The story is set in Scandinavia, before the migration. Auden, Geoffrey Hill, Ted Hughes, and Seamus Heaney, the 1995 recipient of the Nobel Prize in literature, whose recent translation of the epic is the edition used for this SparkNote

In his youth, Beowulf is a great warrior, characterized predominantly by his feats of strength and courage, including his fabled swimming match against Breca. By the time the story of Beowulf was composed by an unknown Anglo-Saxon poet around 700 A. A traditional figure of medieval folklore and a common Christian symbol of sin, the dragon may represent an external malice that must be conquered to prove a hero's goodness. The Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian peoples had invaded the island of Britain and settled there several hundred years earlier, bringing with them several closely related Germanic languages that would evolve into Old English. The poem suggests that, by sacrificing himself, Beowulf unnecessarily leaves his people without a king, exposing them to danger from other tribes. Beowulf also has a religious motif to his character. Having purged Denmark of its plagues and established himself as a hero, however, he is ready to enter into a new phase of his life.

In his youth, Beowulf is a great warrior, characterized predominantly by his feats of strength and courage, including his fabled swimming match against Breca.

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