Beowulf

Written Response #1

The Christian and pagan cultures are mixed in the poem Beowulf. During the time it was written the culture was going through a big change from pagan worship to Christianity. With this there are some confusions of where the real evil actually exists in the poem and in our own lives today. In today's world many people believe in some sort of being that is much higher than us known mostly as God or whatever fits best to the religion. As people do this they believe that their God has plans for them and knows all evil. "And the Geat placed complete trust in his strength of limb and the Lord's favor."(669-670) This quote means that people trust what their god has plans for them because God is the almighty. Although many people believe this, the challenge is for others to understand people have their own belief system. A lot of people feel that what they believe is right and wrong. That is one of our world's problems today. People think because a few people belong to a religion and they do something bad, it is the religion that is evil and not the people. Some religion practice vengeance but most are peaceful and get bad names for bad reasons.

"And may the Divine Lord in His wisdom grant the glory of victory to whichever side He sees fit."(685-688) Beowulf is saying that whichever person or thing wins in the battle, God will choose. It is like that today when a people say when someone dies or has something good happen to them, they say this is how God wanted it to be. It's true that we believe that we do have some kind of plan from our creator.

The poem shows its pagan side also with how heroism and wealth is portrayed. The warriors back then wanted as much fame and fortune as they could, so they could be remembered forever. "This is my hope; and for his heroism, I will recompense him with a rich treasure." (385-386) Beowulf