Beowulf

The Christian references were hard to pick out but were pointed out graciously. He owned the land and was the greatest warrior around. He fought with honor, acted with honor, and dies with honor. I then began to think if they little lessons would have all been there is the monk had not thrown all the Christian allusions in the text. Regardless of how they got there, the lessons are there and are important to understand the “mini-stories” in the epic story. The fact that the thief asked for Beowulf for help was never put into the same category as when the thief asked Jesus for help on the cross when they were getting crucified. All these points symbolize what Beowulf was in a religious sense and displayed what a monk can do to put a Christian tone into the epic. Honor is a big thing when it comes to medieval warriors. After reading the story with this idea in my head, I realized there were a lot of little lessons hidden between the lines of the story. The detail in which the story is told is amazing. This subtle correlation, as obvious as it is when it’s brought up, is hard to pick up. I wondered how the story would have been if it wasn’t translated by a Christian monk.