Fate was a major factor in the life of pagan cultures of any time period. This is well
             documented in the epic poem Beowulf, in which a pagan warrior wins because it is his
             destiny 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 pagan
             societies. They believed that a man could not do anything to avoid it, but had to embrace
             it. This may be one of the reasons that Beowulf goes to confront the dragon; he feels the
             pull of fate, and realizes that if it was his time to die, he would die. If, however, he was
             fated to live, that would allow him to triumph. Therefore, there was nothing he could've
             done to alter his future. This is partially elaborated on by the text in lines 1580-1583: "The
             eminent prince was doomed to reach the end of his days on earth, his life in this world.
             So too was the dragon, though he had guarded the hoard for generations," and in lines
             1717-1721: "fate hovered over him, so soon to fall on that old man, to seek out his
             hidden spirit, to split life and body; flesh was to confine the soul of the old man only a
             This idea that fate is inflexible, that the future is already planned, is in part
             responsible for the massive amount of blatant foreshadowing in the story. In this way, the
             outcome of the entire battle is known even at the beginning of the story, giving it a bit of
             an omniscient point of view. The mortals in the story do not know the outcome of their
             lives, but it is revealed to you almost constantly. Other examples of fate and
             foreshadowing intertwined are in lines 644-646: "But after that night fate decreed that he
             should no longer feed off human flesh.", lines 715-718: "Grendel's death, his departure
             from this world, was desti...