Comparing Beowulf, The Odyssey, And The Holy Bible

Throughout history, there have been many books that have stood the test of time. There are many example of books that have achieved this: Beowulf, The Holy Bible, The Odyssey, and Romeo and Juliet. These pieces of literature have retained popularity though years, decades, and even centuries. The themes and concepts of timeless literature can have parallels to the culture of today’s world. This literature provides the modern world with an insight into the culture of the books’ era. The Holy Bible shows an era when the Roman Empire was largely in control of Europe. It marks the transition from into a religious era. Beowulf is thought to make taken place during the medieval era. Beowulf is part of timeless literature when it comes to the topic of a change in religion influences a change in the culture. Beowulf shows the transition from pagan beliefs to the beliefs of Christianity.

There was a transition in Anglo-Saxon religion during the medieval era.

Anglo-Saxon went from a belief-system based on paganism to one based on Christianity. Beowulf is a heroic folktale that illustrates the fight between the good, Beowulf, against the force of evil, Grendel, Grendel’s mother, and the dragon. Beowulf is able to defeat every last one of these monsters. Beowulf is a representative of Christianity. While, the monsters are representative of the elements of paganism. This shows that Christianity is the rightful, true path of religious belief since it overpowers paganism. This is shown in the story of Beowulf, “Grendel…would have killed more, had not mindful God and one man’s daring prevented that doom. Past and present, God’s will prevails” (71). This shows that the good, Christianity, will overcomes the evils of paganism. By using these elements of religion in this way, Beowulf is being used as a method of education. It is teaching the public that Christianity is the proper system of beliefs. As J. R.R Tolkien analyses, in “Beowulf: The Monsters and the

Critics”:
But if the specifically Christian was suppressed, so also were the old gods. Partly, because they had not really existed, and had been always, in the Christian view, only delusions or lies fabricated by the evil one, the gastbona, to whom the hopeless turned especially in times of need. Partly because their old names (certainly not forgotten) had been potent, and were connected in memory still, not only with mythology or such fairy-tale matter as we find (22).
The downwards look on pagan elements, from a Christian point of view, is a major reason of the change of religious preference.
Beowulf educates the reader, many times throughout the epic, why they should believe in the Christian God.