Pagan and Christian Tones in Beowulf - Research Paper Example

?Outline Thesis: In examining the text and symbolism within the epic poem Beowulf, it is clear that the changes from paganism towards Christianity are represented within the text. I. Introduction II. Overview A. Establishing the historic time frame B. Pagan and Christian tones in the work C. Disagreement on pagan and Christian symbols III. Summary of Story A. Grendal B. The dragon C. The meaning of the two stories combined IV. Paganism in Beowulf A. Dispute of paganism in Beowulf B. The acceptance of paganism towards converting to Christianity. C. Beowulf’s divine righteousness V. Christianity in Beowulf A. Christian authorship B. Genesis in Beowulf C. The transition from OT to NT in comparison to paganism to Christianity VI. Conclusion Client’s Name Professor’s Name Class Date Christianity in Beowulf Introduction The epic poem Beowulf is a tale of gore, high adventure, and spiritual awakening which denotes the pagan religion as it is leaving the medieval world to the space in which Christianity came to change the rules of their world. The tale is a story of heroism as it was seen in ancient traditions, a monster setting upon a community with a hero coming to save that community from the plague of damnation that fell upon them. The story has deeper meaning in relationship to the culture from which it came. Scholars have defined the meanings as they relate to the emerging Christian themes that were relevant to the contemporary changes in spiritual worship of the time. In examining the text and symbolism within the epic poem Beowulf, it is clear that the changes from paganism towards Christianity are represented within the text. Overview According to Cavill, the Uncle and King of Beowulf is identified as Hygelac who is also referred to in The History of the Franks, written by Gregory of Tours as Chlochilaicus. This piece of information places the time and setting for the poem within the 6th century, located in southern Sweden and Denmark (15). There is no clear history on how the story came to be, what traditions brought it from pagan Germanic people into English literature, nor any sense of clear authorship. Where the changes took place that placed Christian concepts into the poem are also not clearly defined. Cavill writes that “The generally accepted salient facts in relation to religion in Beowulf, however, seem to reduce to two: that the poem deals with characters who were historically heathen and the poem as it is recorded in the manuscript is the product of a Christian poet” (16). The work was likely passed into the English tradition through oral translations, then wrote down to reflect the current cultural factors that was influencing most work of the later middle ages. The earliest known copy of the work is in the Nowell Codex which is named of its first known owner Lawrence Nowell who lived during the 16th century. It is likely that this version of the story was written in the 11th century, but some evidence also places it as early as the 8th century (Kiernan121). There are two points of reference that can be used in describing the infusion of Christian overtones to the text of Beowulf. The first is that it was a pagan story that was then revamped in order to support the burgeoning Christian religion, or that it was a secular text through which the new versions reflected Christian imagery. It is not only the Christianized text that can be seen within the work, but the Latinized literary form that is evident as the Christian-Latin literature began to shape the development of Anglo-Saxon literary efforts (Orchard 130). Klaeber, Fulk Bjork and Niles suggest that the concept of a pagan version of Beowulf has been reputed. That there are Christian elements has been clearly established by scholars who have examined the work, but the pagan elements do not seem to emerge. Despite this, Klaeber et al defines the setting as the pagan past with the “expressions pertaining to Christian belief” to be numerous (xviii). The development of the story has a great number of historic interpretations from which to define its origins and meanings. The concept of the ‘monster’ would seem to relate to pagan ideas about the world with the emergence of Beowulf as the hero and the many Christian elements that surface to be a part of the overall expression of the transition from one spiritual culture to the next. Scholars do not agree with this perspective for the most part, however, and see the poem as a secularized hero tale that was then transferred into a Christianized work of literature. Not all scholars agree and an examination of opinions can bring to light the potential for understanding the nature of religiosity in the work. Summary of Story             It is necessary to go over the basic framework of the story to then know how to extract the Christian elements from the tale. The story opens with the events of Grendel breaking into the long hall of Heorot where he is routinely taking and eating its inhabitants. Although many from the Danish kingdom have tried to kill Grendel, no one has been up to the challenge. A hero who comes from the Geatish kingdom, Beowulf, hears of the story and travels to the site of the killing and offers his services to the king. The first night he is there he tears the arm from Grendel, proving that he has the skills to defeat the monster. Grendel dies from the wound and while the Danes celebrate Grendel’s mother approaches to avenge her son. The next morning Beowulf swims to the bottom of a lake to kill the mother and more celebration occurs as he is successful in his efforts (Wilson 126).             Sometime after his return to the Geats he attains the position of king. He is king for fifty years, but a slave steals a goblet from a dragon, waking the beast who attacks the Geatish people. Beowulf and twelve men go to defeat the beast, but the fires of the dragon are too much for Beowulf whose men all leave him except for one named Wiglaf. They defeat the dragon, but Beowulf has been mortally wounded by the venom in the dragon’s bite. Wiglaf admonishes the warriors who left and the Geats reporting that they will never survive the ages without a leader such as Beowulf (Wilson 126).              The narrative of the story has two distinct tales within the overall poem. The first is that of the event with Grendel with the second being that of the event of the dragon. The first event is one of triumph over evil. That Grendel and his mother are evil is unquestionable, but in the story of the dragon something more is happening. Grendel has an antiquated effect. His story feels like it comes from the dark places that inhabit the old stories in the Anglo-Saxon traditions. The story of the dragon takes in newness in which freedom, vengeance, and a more complicated dynamic emerges. The two tales have the dynamic of the OT and the NT, one telling the tales of old, the next telling the tale of transition. Paganism in Beowulf The idea of paganism in Beowulf has been disputed on the basis of a number of different ideas. The concept of Wyrd which means fate, the duty of revenge, and the dependency on the comitatus which refers to a sovereignty that rules through the king and a set of warriors who act with him, are more often now attributed to secular cultural values (Benson 35). Benson argues that there are a number of pagan elements that cannot be so easily dismissed. The observance of cremation and the funeral ship is one pagan element that is hard to ignore. As well, the recognition of omens supports a pagan perspective on spiritual means of information. Benson writes that “The difficulty in Beowulf is that the pagan elements seem to confound the aesthetic effect, to destroy the consistency of tone. Instead of casually mixing pagan and Christian, as so many medieval poets do, the Beowulf poet goes out of his way to draw our attention to the Danes heathen sacrifices” (36). Luizza explains this discrepancy by saying that Beowulf is a product of its time, but is influenced as much by the separation from its origins through migration and conversion (34). The defining element as to whether or not paganism is within the poem would only be decided if an original copy of the poem without the Christian elements still existed. That, unfortunately, does not exist. That there is no condemnation of paganism directly seen in the work presents the problem with assigning paganism within the textual meaning. Scholars seem to look at the idea of paganism as something that would have been condemned by later writers, creating a text in which a specific reading of domination through Christianity would have been present. Looking at history, however, can answer this question as to why the idea of paganism has grown out of favor as there is no high contrast between the two devotions. Luizza writes that “Beowulf seeks to explore both the bridges and the chasms between the pagan past and the Christian present; it teaches secular readers how to be pious, moral, and thoughtful about their own history, mindful of fame and courage while aware of its limitations and dangers” (35). He goes on to write that Beowulf is a recreation of the pagan mentality by a Christian writer whose intentions seem to have been to connect the old pagan past to the Christian present, evident in the repeated phrase “in those days of this life” (Luizza 36). It is possible that some of the scholarly opinion of a secular origin as opposed to a pagan origin is due to missing that there was a culture of acceptance in the 6th century of pagan worship in order to fold them into the Christian religion. Pope Gregory I created a policy in which pagan temples were to be converted into churches with many of the celebrations of paganism converted to have Christian meaning. Thus, the period was highlighted with meaningful interactions that were intended to be positive and supportive of the development of a Christian culture through the acceptance of pagan tradition (Luizza 36). An example of this would be the transformation of the Winter Solstice into Christmas. The story of the hero, however, is positioned as a tale from which the power of God overcomes a spawn of hell. In the poem Beowulf is fighting an enemy of God with the support of God. The story is in tandem with the story of Cain and Able, the monster Grendel being a descendent of Cain (Luizza 36). Even as the tale ends in the death of Beowulf, the tale exudes Christian ideals as the gold and pride cannot support creating a society which in the end “consume even the Geats themselves…the world of Beowulf however noble and attractive, is consumed by its own force” (Luizza 36). The end suggests that the pagan world cannot be sustained and that the new Christian world was sweeping away the pagan. Christianity in Beowulf            Pope Gregory I and a man named Augustine (although not the one most thought of as a leader of the Church) shared a room at one time, thus Pope Gregory I sent Augustine to Kent who established a mission that survived as long as Augustine was alive, but died with his death. Emissaries of this sort were sent into the Anglo-Saxon world in order to bring them into Christian religious worship. Aldhelm was trained in Christian belief under Hadrian, Maeldubh and Theodore who had been sent by Pope Vitalian who picked up the transition of the English Isles and continued to send leaders in order to transform them from paganism towards Christian belief. Wallon states that the version of Christian belief that emerges within the text of Beowulf reflects the structure of belief from Aldhelm. The teachings that he passed on to the people of West Anglo-Saxon origins seem to have been placed into the Beowulf text, reflecting his influence in the region (81). One of the reasons that it is possible that the text dates from the 8th century is that Aldhelm was a teacher within the Anglo-Saxon world during this time.             One of the problems that emerge from the text is that it seems to have very little reflection of any of the texts of the Bible other than the first two from Genesis. This lack of direct reflection of the rest of the Biblical text supports the idea that it is developed during a time when the Christian texts were new and largely unavailable. This comes in conflict with some speculation that Aldhelm might have been the author of the original text from the 8th century. His take on the tale may be the same text that is copied into the Nowell Codex. According to Orchard there are a great number of similarities in the syntax of known works by Aldhelm and the oldest known copy of Beowulf (1994 94). This conflict of meaning to fact, supposed history to implied history, plagues the study of Beowulf as meaning and fact comes into conflict on a series of elements of the works.             Kinsela, however, believes strongly that the text was written by a single author who was decidedly Christian. The portion of the poem that is often referred to as “The Song of Creation” supports the idea that it is set to the story that is related within Genesis. The text reads             …the poet’s clear songs, sung Of the ancient beginnings of us all, recalling The Almighty making the Earth, shaping These beautiful plains marked off by oceans  The proudly setting the sun and moon  To grow across the land and light it; The corners of the Earth were made lovely with trees And leaves, made quick with life, with each Of the nations who now move on its face… (lines 90-98)                                                                         (Kinsella et al xv) There are clear parallels with the story of the Creation and it is clearly and unapologetically presented as a part of the story which may be interpreted as making a strong statement about the foundation of the story as presented by the writer as a Judeo-Christian based interpretation.             Just as there are parallels with the story off the creation, there are specific continuations of the stories that began with Cain and Abel. As Cain’s offspring, Grendel is the nemesis of God. While Beowulf may not be a child of God’s religion, he is His champion. They share the same enemy and Beowulf is the solution to the evil that has grown from the origin of Cain. Gwara writes that “For the audience, this coherence strongly endorses Beowulf’s righteousness as a divine avenger and legitimizes the monster fights in Beowulf’s world on the grounds of moral authority” (46). In the divinity and righteousness of the heroic space in which Beowulf conducts his heroism, he is given validation for his position within the story as conductor of God’s will.             One perspective on the overall meaning of Beowulf within the framework of the story is to demonstrate that the pagans were noble, but that without Christianity they were doomed to fail as a culture. A more expanded perspective is that Beowulf and his followers represented the Old Testament, their culture unable to develop further as the OT had been set aside for the revelations of the triune (Wilson 126). This connection to the Old Testament may be a clear sign that the text is revealing the meaning of the transition between one set of beliefs to another, mirroring the transition from the OT to the NT with the transition from paganism to Christianity. This specific transitional theme can be seen as it is represented through the transition from the time of Beowulf where his presence meant the existence of the Geats until his demise signaled their end.             The second story within the text can be seen as an allegory to the experience of Christian emergence. A slave, one of the meek, flees and finds freedom. In the process of running away he falls upon the dragon and coming into possession of treasure, although through theft, finds riches. This wakes the ire of the dragon and sending him into the Geats, which can be seen as the OT, and is killed, the beast of the old destroyed by those of its time. Beowulf is abandoned by his people, his followers, but in his death comes the demise of the OT. While a bit of an imperfect allegory, it still tells the tale of the end of one time and the beginning of the next in which freedom is a part of the story. The violence is not against or with the slave who is now free, but within the elements of the old period. Riches in the form of the chalice are left in the hands of the slave, just as is the Kingdom of God. Conclusion Cavill writes that “Readers of Beowulf are now in apparent agreement that the frequent Christian references in the poem fit easily and naturally into their contexts and give every sign of being simply an unconscious part of the normal language and thought of the poet” (16). However, this does not seem to be a thorough examination of the text. Although the Christian elements do have a natural feel, the parallels to transition and to the new overtaking the old are clearly evident in the work. While the story of Grendel fits into the old frameworks of both the OT and paganism, the story of the dragon comes across as an allegory of the new replacing the old as the Geats fade, the covenant of the OT is replaced, and paganism is not thrust out of the Anglo-Saxon world but transitioned towards Christianity through acceptance and tolerance of customs and traditions. Where many scholars have dismissed the presence of pagan based origins, the importance of the pagan references can be placed into the allegorical content of the relationship of an honored past even as it is replaced with a new tradition. The full intentions of the writers and those who passed on the oral traditions may never be fully revealed, the mystery of the current form has many interpretations with many outcomes in academia. Works Cited Benson, Larry D. “The Pagan Coloring of Beowulf”. The Beowulf Reader: Basic Readings. Ed Peter Blake. New York: Garland Publishing Inc, 2000. 35-50. Print. Cavill, Paul. The Christian Tradition in Anglo-Saxon England: Approaches to Current Scholarship and Teaching. Suffolk: D.S. Brewer, 2004. Print. Gwara, Scott. Heroic Identity in the World of Beowulf. Leiden: Brill, 2008. Print. Kiernan, Kevin S. Beowulf and the Beowulf Manuscript. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1996. Print. Kinsella, Kate, Sharon Vaughan, Kevin Feldman, Donald D. Deshler, Burton Raffel, and Emily Bronte?. Prentice Hall Literature: The British Tradition. Upper Saddle River, N.J: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2007. Print. Klaeber, Fr, R D. Fulk, Robert E. Bjork, and John D. Niles. Klaeber's Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburg. Toronto, Ont.: University of Toronto Press, 2008. Print. Luizza, R. M. Beowulf: A New Verse Translation. ON, Canada: The Broadview Press, 2000. Print Orchard, Andy. Pride and Prodigies: Studies in the Monsters of the Beowulf-Manuscript. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 1995. Print. Orchard, Andy. A Critical Companion to Beowulf. Cambridge [England: D.S. Brewer, 2003. Print. Wallon, William. “The Christianity of Beowulf”. Modern Philology. 60.2: 81-94, 1962. Print. Wilson, Douglas. Omnibus Ii: Church Fathers Through the Reformation. Lancaster, Penn: Veritas Press, 2005. Print. Read More