Christianity's Role In Beowulf

Christianity’s Role in Beowulf In Beowulf, the author implements Christianity throughout the novel to express their strong beliefs on Christianity. Therefore religion’s role in the novel is to attempt to convert readers, which is shown through the character’s actions, thus creating religious symbolism. This is shown in the novel in various ways: before anything is done, God is always put first; and where Grendel and his mother live symbolizes separation from God. When Beowulf goes and fights Grendel’s mother, and Beowulf himself dies saving the people of his land, are just a few symbols of Christianity in the novel. The author placed such Christian emphasis into the epic to show how important religion was in people’s lives back then, and their

Before Beowulf decides to fight Grendel without armor or any weapons he says that he will accept any decision that God makes. “And may the Divine Lord in His wisdom grant the glory of victory to whichever side He sees fit.” (685-687). This shows just how important religion is to them because everyone depends on God, and leaves everything up to him. In the novel after anything happens, God is always thanked, after the fight with Grendel’s mother Beowulf thanks God for the victory. The author specifically says that the cause of Beowulf’s victory against Grendel’s mother is faith and God’s grace, “holy God decided the victory. It was easy for the Lord, the Ruler of Heaven, to redress the balance once Beowulf got back on his feet” (1553-1556). While Beowulf was fighting, he fell and God helped him up, and what the author wants the readers to understand is that Beowulf could not have made it without God’s

Beowulf found out the dragon had been awakened by a thief, and that the dragon was roaming around Geatland harming people and destroying buildings including Beowulf’s home. “Then Beowulf was given bad news, a hard truth: his own home, the best buildings, had been burnt to a cinder, the throne-room of the Geats” (2324-2327). Beowulf did not want the dragon hurting any of his people so he took it upon himself as king to protect his people even if he knew that he would probably not make it out alive. Everything Beowulf did was for his people, “I give thanks that I behold this treasure here in front of me, that I have been allowed to leave my people” (2795-2797). By Beowulf getting this treasure and dying by killing the dragon is almost similar to how Jesus died on the cross to save everyone, Beowulf also saves his people. Religion is very meaningful throughout the whole novel; the author uses numerous scenes and actions to try and get his point across on the importance of Christianity during this time. He uses multiple examples from the novel to persuade readers to convert to Christianity. This is why religion is strongly emphasized to get readers thinking about