Beowulf was a lot harder to read but easier to understand (at least the big picture) than I thought. I think to make sure that this does not go to far off track I'm just going to go off the questions.
The first one has to do with the Christianity that was incorporated by the monk who wrote it down. There is a huge emphasis on deeds, the glory received from them, and the immortality that a warrior achieves by their deeds. Those are to a certain extent the pagan end of things. The monsters that Beowulf fights are also a pagan element. Christianity figures heavily in the narration. There is also a lot of Christianity incorporated into the dialogue. These tend to be more dominate just from sheer volume. The pagan elements are more subtle and don't scream that they're there at the top of their lungs. I do think it is interesting that Christianity was incorporated so heavily into the story. From what I've heard it seems like the monks who transcribed these stories did a really good job of leaving them alone. P-dise talked about that whole thing where they copied letter by letter.
I thought that the other part would be longer but I'll talk about something else since I don't know how long this is supposed to be. How about Anglo-Saxon hero traits? I would say that being brave was fairly important. The more brave and courageous deeds, the better off you are. A certain element of conceit also appears necessary from the standpoint that you are more likely to do some things if you have tendencies toward that. It would also seem fairly important to be able to hold your liquor since so much of Anglo-Saxon life centered around celebrations where alcohol was not just present but part of the celebration.
This is what I got out of the story. I'm sure I was wildly off topic but that's ok right? I am going to the boy's soccer game now.
6 comments:
I think I agree with just about everything you said. I liked your point about monsters like Grendel being part of the pagan aspect of the book. And the Anglo-Saxon hero thing was good too. "Hold your liquor"...what? :) Anyway, have fun at the soccer game, and I'll see you tomorrow.
I agree with you on the pagan themes are not being screamed at the top of their lungs. The Christianity aspects are shown way more than they pagan ones.
I think I mentioned this on Carmen's blog, but I think I noticed that whenever pagan themes were brought up, they were being painted in an unfavorable light.
Case in point: Grendel.
I think you offered very good insight, Anna. I had not thought about the monsters being pagan. That is a very good observation. There are monsters mentioned in the Bible... something about a leviathan... something.. I can't remember exactly where it is, but it's in the Old Testament somewhere. But that was a very different thing than Grendel.
I also liked what you said about the heroic traits. I would also add to that, the hero looks after his "peps"... when Beowulf basically gave his last will and testament before he went off to kill Grendel's mother. And getting lots and lots of stuff for your heroic deeds. This is a good thread. Did anyone else see heroic traits that we didn't mention?
I agree with you, there are A LOT of Christian references in the book, and they mask over the Pagan ones, you almost have to try really hard to notice the Pagan themes.
Christianity is a huge thing in this book, and I think it is weird that it wasn't really part of, it was an after-thought by a monk who copied it down. It seems especially strange becasue of the magnitude of it. There are a ton of Christian references and they weren't even there in the first place. So if you think about it, although it didn't change the story, it changed at least part of it.
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