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Examples Of Anglo Saxon Values In Beowulf

700 Words3 Pages

Jason Garbacz
Mr.Smith
Brit. Lit. 10
8 February 2023
Anglo-Saxon Values Shown in Beowulf In literature timeless values are shown throughout every story. During the Anglo-Saxon period, many stories were told through scops and other oral traditions. They would tell stories of strong heroes that prevail in battle and fight monsters. These stories would contain values that the Anglo-Saxons believed were timeless. One of the stories that show many of their values is Beowulf. Beowulf is about a hero that helps out a village by defeating many strong monsters. Beowulf contains Anglo-Saxon values that appear throughout the story multiple times. The major Anglo-Saxon values that are shown are bravery, fame and fortune, and fate. Fame and fortune is an Anglo-Saxon value that appears throughout Beowulf many times. During the story of Beowulf the main character and epic hero Beowulf, fights monsters for the fame and treasures that it brings. Beowulf always gives long boasts before he fights the monsters to seem braver, more heroic and to increase his reputation …show more content…

Fate is constantly shown in the story and the main characters all strongly believe in fate. In his long boasts Beowulf talks about fate a lot. Beowulf seems to think that everything that he does is because of fate. All of his battles Beowulf says are brought together by fate. He says that fate will decide who will die in his battles. Even when Beowulf is dying he says that he is dying as fate intended. Beowulf mentions fate a lot in his boasts an example of this is when he says “I mean to stand, not run from his shooting flames, stand until fate decides which of us wins''(line 620-623) During the Anglo-Saxon period fate was a thing that they believed in a lot and thought that every person meets their fate. So in their stories they had all of their characters talk about meeting their fate because of their belief that everyone has a

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