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Essay On Heaven And Hell In Beowulf

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Heaven or Hell
In the story, Beowulf, there are many differences between Herot and Grendel’s home. Herot is described as an amazing place filled with joy, love and rejoicing, while Grendel’s home is dark, dank, and depressing. These differences are very telling of the time the story was written and the effect religion had on the people of the time. The two places are very contrasting, much alike Heaven and Hell in the Christian faith.
Grendel is living in a place of terror and pain, while the people of Herot living above him are all happy and joyful. Grendel’s home is very miserable for him. As stated in the story, Grendel’s home is very dark and full of evil. “...living down in the darkness, [Grendel] growled in pain, impatient as day after …show more content…

The author of this story has basically made a real life version of Heaven and Hell. He uses Grendel and his home as a reference to Hell. This is so because in the story, it says that his home is dark and that Grendel is a demon and a fiend. Herot is used to symbolize Heaven, where the rejoicing and the love goes. In the story, Grendel attacks the city and demolishes thirty soldiers who lay happily asleep. This symbolizes when a Christian loves God, he will be attacked by Satan. Satan will try every way that he can to divert you away from God, and that is exactly what Grendel did as well. “And sometimes they made vows to the old stone gods, made heathen vows, hoping for Hell’s support, the Devil’s guidance in driving their affliction off.” (Lines 90-93). These lines let us know that evil did prevail over these people. They turned away from God and turned toward stone gods, even to the Devil himself for help. This compares with the time. Being a Christian in a paganist time would be hard and trying on one’s faith. The Devil could use this to his advantage and try to cause one to lose their faith, to turn away from God, just as the people of Herot

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