Tess Xu
Ms. Kimball
ELA4
October 5, 2014
My Understanding of Beowulf
The only one manuscripts of the poem Beowulf was written with 10th century Old English West Saxon dialect.This manuscript is preserved in the British Museum in London now.This work is anonymous product.(Information got from Wikipedia)The poet combined heroic legends, myths and historical events together.With the Christian view of the arguments, he wrote around 3182 lines’ poem.
Anonymous poet made Beowulf high rating,regarded him as a good king-the king of the people,the king that the people loved , the country's defenders, mildest,kindest to partner,most generous to the people and loved the honor!Epic Beowulf reflects the values of tribal society.For warriors, the highest virtue is loyal and brave. Loyal to the king, which is means loyal to the collective.The bravery would led warrior to achieve self-improvement.Although people believe in fate, but the brave people will be saved from the hands of fate.A brave soldier, before finally being defeated by fate,must had did some heroic deeds!These deeds would make him live forever in the memory of future generations of people.So he gained immortality and become immortal hero.
These values of tribal society is pagan, non-Christian. On the other hand, the epic "Beowulf" is also an expression of the Christian struggle between good and evil works.Grendel was Cain’s offspring! He and his mother represent the evil monster.Beowulf beat them, which is a symbol of good over evil. Dragon’s symbol in the church parable is Satan.Beowulf defeated the dragon, which also symbolizes Jesus Christ defeated Satan. Moreover,Beowulf reflects the spirit of the Savior.Especially the heroic Beowulf is portrayed as mimicking characters -Jesus Christ;High moral character, good-natured, kind, brave and unyielding fight to the evil forces, ultimately rescued the suffering of the people and sacrificed.So old English epic Beowulf and religious epic seems to have...