Scandinavian Religion In Beowulf

The villagers who celebrated in the Heorot under King Hrothgar may have been terrified by Grendel and his Mother but there was a far bigger threat to the very fabric of their society and culture. Throughout the poem you can clearly identify Interpretatio Christiana that helped not only shape Scandinavian religion but Christianity itself. Scandinavian culture wasn’t the only culture to be shaped like this. When reading Beowulf I am reminded that people die off not as friends or family, but as entire villages and kingdoms. They’re supposed to live on through their stories, but when changed it’s a whole other piece of them dying as well. The biggest threat to the Scandinavian people is the change of their stories to match Christian beliefs and

Hrothgar’s older brother died and was only able to call upon Beowulf for help due to the debt of his father. While Solomon power was passed down to him but asked God for the wisdom to rule his kingdom and therefore stayed in the favor of God, they both built structures of celebration Hrothgar the Heorot mead hall and King Solomon with his temple these buildings monumized their reign. Women depicted in Christianity are usually depicted as weak, cruel but a running theme in the bible is for mothers to be self-sacrificing and loyal this is apparent in the story or King Solomon and the baby which is made to show that King Solomon had wisdom but also to show the heart or a mother and cruelty of a woman the story goes that two woman living in the same house had infant sons one woman accidently smothered her child in her sleep so she tried to claim that the living child was hers so they brought this situation to King Solomon who declared that he would cut the baby in half so each could have a side. The true mother cried out to give the baby to the other woman just let him live the other woman told him to cut the baby in half so King Solomon gave the baby to the woman who cried out knowing a true mother would not allow her child to be killed. Grendel’s mother following the depiction of women was a demon disobedient to God when her son was killed, she snuck into the mead hall to avenge him like

In the underwater battle hall Beowulf has a light shine down upon him where he gives God glory a popular belief in Christian culture that you cannot accomplish something without the grace of God even Jesus gave glory to his father. Men in the bible are usually depicted like the ones in Beowulf strong and unbreakable with the glory of God. When the last supper took place the Disciples begged Jesus to stay hidden like Beowulf’s people asked him to stay and let someone else but both understood they were the only people who could help the land but Jesus rose after three days Beowulf stayed