Research Paper On Beowulf

Beowulf was written in England during the 8th century. The poem, Beowulf, was written during the Anglo Saxon era in Britain. It was written during that time when a huge change was going to happen in the religious ways of the people that they were so accustomed to. It instilled in the Anglo Saxon people a huge sense of honor, sense of duty and morality that was not seen in the earlier times. Beowulf, an epic and narrative poem, is a reflection about many of the Anglo-Saxon ideals and concepts. This epic was written after the Anglo-Saxons were already converted to Christians, yet the pagan traditions that had sticked to their lives were not of the distant past; they were in fact relatively recent. Even as a work of fiction, the legitimacy of Beowulf being in a historical context may be questionable. The same pagan concepts that were found in Beowulf, however, could also be found

Beowulf was an auditory poem that the Anglo-Saxon people used to sit and listen to, rather than reading it on paper. Due to the tradition of passing down of the poem from time to time orally, many things got left out and changed from its original meaning. There are many situations in the poem where the poet creates a mix-up of beliefs and combines both pagan and Christian beliefs together. Throughout the poem it is noticed that sometimes pagan concept is referred while on the other side it is shown that it is God’s fate that will lead to victory over the difficulties. We can see that although Beowulf believes that the presence of god is with him in order to win the battle; he also says that it is his destiny to win over his enemies. We can see this during the scene in which Beowulf is going to fight Grendel:

"And many the Divine Lord in His wisdom grant the glory of victory to whichever side He sees