Many of the people who lived in England in the 7th century were Anglo-Saxons who composed many stories about a hero fighting multiple monsters. One of the stories that were told by these people was called Beowulf, an epic about a hero named Beowulf who was part of the Geats, who assisted King Hrothgar. Beowulf encounters many evil monsters such as Grendel, who attacked King Hrothgar’s mead hall at night, Grendel’s mom in revenge for killing Grendel, and a dragon who was guarding treasure. Beowulf has many parts in the story that had darkness included in it such as physical darkness such as line 30 where it states “Then, when darkness had dropped, Grendel went up to Herot, wondering what the warriors would do in that hall when their drinking …show more content…
The second monster, Grendel’s mother, lives under a lake described as dark and murky at the bottom. Furthermore, in a historical viewpoint the people who wrote the story of Beowulf, the Anglo-Saxons, believed that when there was light, there would be connections to God and order and believed when there was darkness, there was evil, uncontrollable chaos and evil monsters. Before the story starts, it gives a brief historical background about the Anglo-Saxons in relation to Beowulf. The Anglo-Saxons had two kinds of cultures, which were Pagan Anglo-Saxons and Christian Anglo-Saxons who lived in England. In the background section of Beowulf it states (“The missionaries who converted them to Christianity.) Which explains that a lot of people in England were at one point following Pagan culture until missionaries in England came and converted a lot of them to Christians. In Pagan culture, a lot of the beliefs in their stories describe life controlled by faith where people are struggling with evil for a part of the world and in Christian culture, they believe that the choices people make in life are centered around their creations. In conclusion, the story Beowulf includes both Pagan and Christian beliefs in the story as the characters Grendel and Grendel's mother and the dragon represent the dark aspect of the Pagan culture of the epic and the choice’s Beowulf makes in the story when fighting the evil monsters represents the Christian culture part