Beowulf: Germanic Pagan And Pre-Christian Culture

Beowulf Analysis
Beowulf is an old English poem, it emerged as an oral legend then it was written down during the Anglo-Saxon period. It was greatly influenced by the Germanic invasion and the separation of the Roman Empire. Therefore, Germanic pagan and pre-Christian culture were shown in the stories. Through Beowulf, it is clear to see that Germanic society emphasizes courage, loyalty, generosity, and strong individual reputations; secondly, the differences and similarities between Germanic culture and the culture of Hellenistic and the Roman Empire can be analysis from their religion and literature; lastly, epic heroic myths are useful for learning history because it is good for people to study its culture and political system of that time.
In Beowulf, kings, heroes are pursuing to establish their reputations. Beowulf desires the personal glory, that is the main reason why he would like to go to Denmark to kill Grendel and its mother. Before the battle, Hrothgar said: “Never since I took up targe and sword have I at any instance to any man beside, thus handed over Heorot, as I here do to you.” (26) And after Beowulf won the battle, Hrothgar said to Beowulf that he would treat him as his sons, and gave him everything that he had. This war will let him have an immortal individual reputation. (35-36) These two different parts both illustrate that individual reputations are an essential part for people in their lives. Because people believe that a brave soldier, before eventually dead, they must have their heroic deeds. These heroic deeds will let them live forever in the memory of future generations of people. In that way, they will gain the eternal
In Beowulf, it refers a lot of words like “whale-path”, “swan-road”, “seal-bath”, and all of these words are connected with “sea”. As a result, from here can see, Germanic culture are associated with the sea, and they develop and flourish through water because people can receive food from the sea, and develop sea trade. Same as a Germanic culture, Hellenistic, and the Roman Empire also develop with water. In addition, all of them believe god or gods. The Germanic culture of the Danes, Geats, and Swedes are influenced by the pre-Christianity and pagan culture. Before Beowulf was written down, the Germanic culture was influenced by pagan culture and during that time the Roman Empire also emphasizes pagan culture. However, after Beowulf was written, pre-Christianity religion impacts Germanic culture and the culture of the Roman Empire. In Beowulf, Grendel was a descendant of Cain and he represents evil. Beowulf beat them, that means good over evil. And at the end, Beowulf fought with the dragon, the dragon represents “Satan” and Beowulf defeats the dragon that means Jesus defeat Satan. That reflects the spreading of a culture of pre-Christianity. The Beowulf story at the begin time are connected with pagan culture but by the time the story was written down, almost includes the culture of Christianity. This is the process of conversion to Christianity. That is their