Christian Elements In Beowulf Essay

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In Beowulf, Beowulf is torn between his Christ heart to help others as well as the selfish reward of Paganism. Throughout the poem, many examples of pagan and Christian elements are shown. However, I do have one favorite Christian element that I came across when reading. One of the acts, “Further Celebration at Heorot,” Hrothgar remind Beowulf of the Greek lesson tragedians. He also tells him the one of Christian philosophy:”… that wealth, accumulated through the grace of God, must be shared unselfishly.” This is used to remind Beowulf of himself, and his pride. Throughout the story, at times he shows too much pride and forgets about God. Through the story Beowulf acknowledges God as his protector. When Beowulf compares his battle with Grendel 's mother, he states that, "The fight would …show more content…

I say this because at my Church we believe in recantation. Once you die, it is said that you come back into another body, and so on. The body you are in is a treasure that God has given us. God created us all as a gift. Now what you do is your decisions, but the sins come with it, and the way you live your life. Just like how Beowulf did, he lived his life as wanting to help others, to treasure his world, but at the same time he wanted the greed of attention. He wanted the treasures afterwards like a pagan had wanted. One pagan practice that had standed out to me was shown when Beowulf states that he can defeat Grendel, it’s like saying the good vs. the bad, but throughout the whole time, he continues to say that fate will decide (Beowulf 456). Fate is heavily relied upon in the pagan tradition. In the poem, going back to the battle between Grendel’s mother and Beowulf, it is said that in the pagan society, that a death must be average. (Beowulf 1577) Grendel’s mother must kill Beowulf to average the death of her son. Stating that, it goes the other way with Beowulf too. He is trying to average the death of Kinsmen. He had to “… settle that sore.” Which later on in the story he

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