Judaism and character beowulf assignment

Beowulf’s strength is being compared to God’s; however, the hero’s strength is being used for his own glory, not Gods, making the first battle Pagan and not Christian. Our great hero’s second battle was against Grendel’s mother. Beowulf had to face the wrath of a mother whose son was injured and eventually died. She came for revenge and would stop at nothing until Beowulf was dead. “ Scholars have shown that Anglo-Saxon values were not eradicated after conversion to Christianity; many, including the revenge ethic, continued to coexist with Christian values for many years” (Brenner 20).

Although Grendel’s mother is a woman, she proved to be even more competition for Beowulf than Grendel was, “ He’d have traveled to the bottom of the earth, Edgetho’s son, and died there, if that shining woven metal had not helped??? and Holy God, who sent him victory, gave judgment for truth and right, Ruler of the Heavens, Once Beowulf was back on his feet and fighting. Then he saw, hanging on the wall, a heavy sword…. But so massive that no ordinary man could lift its carved and decorated length.

Have the brave Geats build me a tomb, when the funeral flames have burned me, and build it here, at the water’s edge high on this spit of land, so sailors can see this tower, and, remember my name, and call it Beowulf’s tower…”(802-816). He recognizes that God was the one that made it possible for him to have the treasures but he goes on to tell Wiglaf to get the Geats to build him a tomb in honor of himself. He doesn’t mention anything about building a church to represent all that God has done for him, he wants everything to be about himself and that is not something a Christian would do.

Although our story Beowulf was written during the time of the Anglo-Saxon conversion from Pagan to Christianity, we can clearly see that our character and our story is truly Pagan influenced. The Christian references had little effect on the true feelings of our main character even though he did try and incorporate them into his thinking. In the end he was always true to his Pagan beliefs which made this story a true Pagan English Epic poem.