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Religious Themes In Beowulf

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Themes in Beowulf
Beowulf is one of the longest surviving poems; it was around before the medieval times. Beowulf is one of the most famous English epics (a poem or story based off oral tradition), lost throughout the ages and was rediscovered in 1800’s. It has been studied by scholars, students, and teachers ever since. Over these years’ people have questioned the different themes used to interpret it: Was he a Christian or pagan hero? Was he a good warrior and king? What impact did family and tribe have on the story? Each one of these interpretations has merit.
Beowulf is the story of a hero who kills many monsters. One of these monsters is Grendel, who is a demon attacking King Hrothgar’s land and killing his subjects. Beowulf kills Grendel with his bare hands, and then the monster’s wicked mother, in revenge, attacks our hero, but Beowulf kills her. Towards the end of the epic, he is king of his own land, and he must attack a dragon. He wounds it, but Beowulf is slain in the fight and a monument is raised in this name.
Some interpreters have seen it as Christian story. We know that Beowulf was actually rewritten (1) since the original copy would not have had any Christian elements because it predates the Catholic missionaries; the new retelling was for the Christian audience (1). This rewriting of Beowulf created some problems within the story as they didn’t want to completely destroy the original aspects of the epic (2). Some of the inconsistencies are Hrothgar

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