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The Anglo-Saxon Culture In Beowulf

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The Anglo-Saxon European culture holds a major piece of history when it comes to Europe. The Anglo-Saxons, as a culture, did not generally know how to read and write, so their entertainment stemmed from other aspects. Their entertainment came from the scops, who would tell the stories of war torn times, legends of ancient warriors, and monsters. Their oral history and entertainment lead to the creation of Beowulf and this epic holds the Anglo-Saxon values in high esteem. The poets and oral history were valued because they immortalized the greatest warriors and the Anglo-Saxons strived to be immortalized. Through this major societal push to be remembered and hold a legacy, the Anglo-Saxons valued warriors for the loyalty, strength, and courage they pursued. These values are important to Anglo-Saxon culture and to its literature. Beowulf, both the epic and the character, represents these values of loyalty, strength, and courage time and time as seen by the melded perspective of Anglo-Saxons and the Christian scribes in this piece of literature. Loyalty to the King and the warriors is seen as a sign of immortalizing character throughout the Anglo-Saxon history. This is depicted by …show more content…

He shows off brute physical strength and great mental strength within every line he is mentioned. Beowulf fought for five nights in cold water with nine monsters and still battled and won against Breca (Raffel 398). This story encompasses the mental strength to fight within water for five nights against nine monsters and Breca, but also shows the physical strength of an incredible warrior because Beowulf wins against every single opponent within this story. Beowulf kills Grendel with his bare hands and kills Grendel’s mother underwater with a magical sword. Throughout this entire story it is apparent that Beowulf is infamous for the strength he possesses in his physical being and his mental

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