I had been thinking about this for a while, but couldn't really come to a concrete answer. My question is this, if the author of this poem were of any religion when the poem was originally told or made up, how would it have effected the story as a whole? I.E., if Christianity were around when the poem was made, not just written, how would it change the way the author wrote about the characters. Would he have used the Cain and Able story? How would he adress god or heaven?
Also, if anyone knows something about another major religion, how do you think it would have changed the story? I was also trying to seperate the religious aspects of the story from the basic backbone of the story. It seems like the action in the story, such as the fights and wars, are part of the backbone of the story while the backgrounds of the characters (grendel), and the motives for fighting came from religion. (By motives I mean they thought they would go to heaven if they died defending their people, or the fact that god would reward them.)
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I think that if religon, such as Christianity was put into play during this story, it would have been totally different. If Beowulf was truely a strong believer of a religon, such as Christianity, he probably wouldn't have killed Grendel or Grendels mom. Since one of the ten commandents is thou shall not kill, if a religon was put into this story, it would have changed it completely...just quick random thought.
~Rachel~
im a wicked bad speller so i apoligize for any misspelling :]
I would assume that if the main religion of the time Beowulf was written was Christianity, that there would be many more references to it in the story, besides the allusion to the story of Cain and Abel. I think that Christians view god simmilarly to the way that the Danes and Geats did(ie:"The Almighty Judge","The Lord God", "Head of the Heavens"," High King of the World") The Anglo- Saxon culture seems to revolve around their "religion", that is, that glory will bring you good fortune from god. (One example of this is the part in the poem where they refer to their mail shirts as a direct gift from god.) Although Cristians today are not like that, they do have the central belief in one almighty god and controller of everything. Although somewhat irrelevant to the topic, I find this simmilarity in religions interesting.
Killing Grendel and Grendel's mom wasn't murder. Most Christian religions that believe in those ten commandments don't stop their members from joining an army and participating in war. The fight against Grendel was considered a war, and Beowulf was justified in killing Grendel even if he were a Christian. What should the soldiers have done: wait around in a peaceful mood until it was their turn to die?
To Mark:
Incidentally, some Christian faiths today do not believe in an almighty God. God was decided back in about 300 AD to be everywhere and yet nowhere, but how can an ALMIGHTY God have all power in the universe and yet does not have a form? How could a supreme being have LESS majesty and definition than man? It is not possible for man to have superiority over it's maker, but still, those early church leaders (and some today) came to a consensus that God is (although they stated to the contrary) not almighty.
Just clarifying. Unless you're further confused, in which case I'm not.
my bad...
I think that not only religion, but also how theocentric the society was during the time Beowulf was written greatly impacts the story. If the religion were changed to Christianity, and the society was just as theocentric, the result would be a story that has the same general characteristics ( like characters that portray religious ideals), but obviously more Christian. If you changed the theocentricity of the society, the story would be greatly impacted. If you took the focus totally out of the church, Beowulf could have different motives for fighting, and the whole concept of kings would be completely restructured. And that is regardless of whether or not you change the religion...
the fact that there wasn't a total set religion to begin with makes the story even more interesting because they sort of set the basis for the religions to take place. also if the religions were set in the story when it was written or when it ws being told, i think that the people of the time period wouldn't have realized what it meant because they didn't believe in it anyway.
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