While doing research for our binders, I'm sure many of us came up with A LOT of information on the role of religion in Beowulf. The author seemed to be particularly good at balancing Christianity and paganism, and as Laz said, working together in relative harmony. Obviously there's a lot to discuss, and a million different places you could begin, but here I go...
Some of the Christian influences in this story are obvious. The reference to Grendal as Cain's decendant, the use of "He" in capital letters, the alusions to Biblical themes. However, there are also pagan influences (the men praying to "heathen" gods, the ideal man having super-human powers, etc). I think this will eventually lead to questions about the author. Was he a Christian?
One piece of research I picked up was an essay entitled "The Christian Coloring in the Beowulf" by F.A. Blackburn. The author suggested that most scholars beleive one of three thigns about the author:
1. The author was a Christian, who heard about the (pagan) story and used it as matieriel, making it more Biblical.
2. The author was Christian, who used old story ideas (which were not in the verse form yet) and added Christian meanings and influences to them.
3. The author was a pagan, and at a later date other authors edited it.
From what I understand, all three of these ideas basically have the same major idea behind it: It was a pagan story originally, with some kind of later Christian influence.
It is my personal beleif that the pagan and Christian references in this story have to do with the balance and collection of Beowulf. Laz said that Beowulf had MANY different versions when told. I think its fair to say that most of the earlier ones were entirely pagan based (before Christianity had spread), and as the years went by, some added Christian elements to the story. The author of this version wanted to balance out the Christian and pagan elements, adding in enough of both so that neither story was destroyed. He seemed to do a good job of it. Opinions?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
This site has a logical theory that I agree with: "What is clear about the religious colouring of Beowulf is that while it is clearly Christian, there is little Christian doctrine. References are only to the Old Testament narratives and concepts easily refigured from their pagan equivalents. It seems that Beowulf tells of a period in the midst of religious change being neither entirely pagan, nor fully Christian [or to be an attempt to integrate Germanic history into an old testament time frame]."
This makes sense because Christianity was still a fledgling religion when this poem was written. Undoubtedly there were some countries on the outskirts of Europe that didn't really fully assimilate Christianity until later on. So there were a lot of pagan and christian influences simply because of the time period it was written in.
The idea of having balance is one that I wouldn't mind agreeing with. Perhaps the author saw benefits of both paganism and Christianity and sought to give them equal say in the poem. Taking my first paragraph into account, one could say that this poem is actually secular; it doesn't preach more than it just simply tells a story.
I just realized something.
This story actually foreshadowed the crusades. This story's plot deals with the Danes and Geats taking back what was theirs (Heorot and the Geat kingdom). The crusades dealt with Christians trying to take back Jerusalem from the Muslims. The major difference though was that the latter failed.
I don't think there are many clear references to paganism/we don't know the characteristics of paganism in enough detail to pick out any references, so I think it's hard to draw clear comparisons between pagan references and Christian references.
Albert, I agree with the theory you found... Based on the time when this version of Beowulf was written down, it makes a lot of sense.
You also said that "I don't think there are many clear references to paganism/we don't know the characteristics of paganism in enough detail to pick out any references, so I think it's hard to draw clear comparisons between pagan references and Christian references."
However, there are many clear references to paganism, one of the biggest being Beowulf's funeral. His funeral contains a myriad of pagan references. Beowulf is cremated (not something usually advocated by Christianity) and a great tomb, decorated with gold and other treasures is built for him. There are hundreds of other references to paganism in the story as well (idea of fate/destiny, etc.).
That's true
I forgot that funeral pyres are pagan. And fate is also pagan.
silly me
Are we basically assuming that anything practiced in the Greek/Roman times is pagan in nature?
The real question, though, is whether or not those pagan/christian references are of any consequence. According to the theory I posted, those references are just a reflection of what was going on during the time the poem was written. So is the poet trying to illustrate something through deliberate pagan or christian references? I don't think so.
I agree with you, Albert. I think these refernces are simply references to both the time of the story, and the time of the author. We can possibly understand more of about where/when a poem was written by the religious undertone in them, but I really don't think it demonstrates anything further.
Just an interesting thought about paganism and Christianity...
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I beleive Beowulf and the Geats reference Christianity (in a positive note) more than the Danes do. Does this possibly suggest the author's preference for Christianity? The side he chooses to be strong (the Geats) have faith in a more Christian higher power, and therefore are the stronger people?
Anisha, while I agree that that is an interesting theory, I'm not sure how much textual support it has. Considering, as we talked about in class, Hrothgar, king of the Danes, serves as (one of) the superego figures and is one of the most Christian-like characters, I don't think we can say the poet portrayed the Geats as the definitively "more Christian" tribe. Some interesting statistics from an article I read ("Beowulf, the Old Testament, and the Regula Fidei" by Christopher M. Cain): the poet-narrator, who speaks 61.7% of the poem, makes 65% of the Christian references; Hrothgar, who speaks 8% of the poem, makes 17% of the references; and Beowulf, who speaks 18% of the poem, makes 13% of the references. If we examine these statistics we see that Hrothgar makes a significant amount of the Christian references in Beowulf (even more than Beowulf himself). Therefore I don't really think we can say that the poet was commenting on the strength gained through practicing Christianity, because I don't think he was trying to portray either tribe as "more Christian" than the other.
Post a Comment