Christian
references and influences pervade the Old English epic poem , perhaps in
part because the poem was probably transcribed by an early English Christian monk. In any case,
the poem is full of Christian ideas and , as in some of the following examples (taken from the
Seamus Heaney translation):
- In lines 12-17, God is credited with
assisting the Danish nation by giving them yet another good king. This very early reference to
God makes the important point that everything good comes from God and that all people (and all
peoples) depend on Gods favor and mercy. - Hrothgar, the latest in a long
line of good Danish kings, is praised for dispensing his God-given gifts to young and old
among his people (72). - After Hrothgar has built and occupied his glorious
hall, he and his people sit and listen as a poet celebrates Gods creation of the earth; they
listen to
. . . the clear song of a skilled
poettelling with mastery of mans beginnings,
how the
Almighty had made the eartha gleaming plain gilded with waters . . . .
(90-93)
- Grendel, the evil and destructive
monster who now begins to torment the Danes, is explicitly associated with
Cains clan, whom the Creator had outlawed
and condemned as outcasts. For the killing of Abel
the Eternal Lord
had exacted a price . . . . (106-08)
- References to God recur repeatedly during the opening sections of the poem,
as when the Almighty is said to have made Cain anathema (110); and when the poet mentions
giants . . . who strove with God (113); and when Grendel is called God-cursed (121); and
especially when some of the Danes are condemned for religious back-sliding when they worship
Satan as a way of coping with the threat posed by Grendel (175-86). In response, the poet offers
an emphatic declaration of Christian belief:
.
. . blessed is hewho after death can approach the Lord
and find friendship in the Fathers embrace. (186-88)
It would be easy to offer an extremely long list of such references to the Christian
god as they appear throughout Beowulf and as they profoundly color the tone
and meaning of the poem.
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