Faith In Beowulf Essay

Of all the great heroes in epics and movies alike, each one of them has his or her great traits as well as fatal flaws. Unfortunately, our hero’s fatal flaw is losing faith in God and he loses his life because of that. In the epic Beowulf, many references to Paganism and Christianity are found throughout the tale due to the author’s belief that faith in God assures victory whereas faith in paganism assures defeat. Paganism and Christianity parallel the struggle of holiness and evil throughout the epic, and in many cases, faith in God is the key to Beowulf´s success as he defeats monsters and protects the village of Herot. Beowulf faces foes such as Grendel and Grendel’s mother who utilize magic spells to fight as read, “that sin-stained demon/

Beowulf, still keeping his faith in God, believes that God is punishing him for his wrong doing, and he is sorta right. (Death ln 16-19). Perhaps Beowulf realizes his mistake in trusting in the worldly things to keep him safe and secure, rather than God, but it is revealed to the reader that this is not the case. Against impossible odds, Beowulf chose to rely on his armor and weapons to keep him safe; however, these things failed him. (Death ln 89-90). Because of his choice to not trust in God, Beowulf ends up dying, but he is still not aware of his mistake, (Death ln 160-161). God could not let him continue life with His blessing upon him if Beowulf could not keep his faith in God. This ends up being his fatal mistake that results in his death. Through the epic Beowulf, the reader realizes the author’s use of paganism and christianity is to reflect the idea that putting faith in worldly things and not putting faith in God leads to a person’s ultimate demise. It is through God that Beowulf had such a successful and blessed life. It is through ungodly things that Beowulf ended up dying a tragic death as the epic