Clash or Assimilation?

Beowulf reflects the clash of two different cultures: 1) the old paganism of the Germanic, Scandanavian, or Nordic tribes, the people who became known as the Anglo-Saxons who conquered the British Isles; 2) and the new Christianity introduced to the British Isles by Roman missionaries.

Some scholars argue that there is no clash but that the older pagan values were assimilated into the new Christian culture and that elements of the pagan -- Wyrd (fate), comitatus, loyalty to a lord -- became secular values easily accepted by newly converted Christians. Readers can easily see how new Christianity is to the Beowulf poet and presumably his audience by the absence to references to the New Testatment of the Bible. Christ's precepts, such as forgiving thy neighbor, turning the other check, are never mentioned. The values of the Old Testament -- eye for an eye (revenge), duty, and obedience to God, justice -- were more in keeping with their ancient values. In spite of the absence of references to the New Testament, some scholars believe that the story itself is a Christian parable or allegory. In this interpretation, Beowulf is a Christ-like figure, and Grendel and other monsters represent the devil.

Pagan Philosophy:

The Anglo-Saxons -- Beowlf, Hrothgar, etc. -- in the story represent heroes from Germanic tribes before they conquered the British Isles. These Germanic invaders were not Christians but believed in gods such as Woden and Thunor; and they believed in Wyrd, fate, an impersonal, uncontrollable force. The highest values were loyalty to a chief and the duty of vengeance. Revenge was not something that originated in passion and spontaneous action, but was a system of law and order: if someone killed your chief or a member of your family, it was your duty to balance the score and offer killing for killing. Revenge was a duty often leading to ruin but society had no other way of punishing the wrongdoer.

The story of Beowulf fighting monsters is not typical of the majority of heroic poems of the Scandinavia or Germanic tribes. What is typical are the stories inside the Beowulf story, the story of Finn and Sigemund. In these stories and in other sagas apart from Beowulf, the point is that the hero must choose between two wrongs. Obviously, there is no happy ending.

It's interesting that tragic stories are what interested these people. They could easily have written about their successes in battle which were many at this time, for in this Heroic Age of the Scandinavia and Germanic tribes, they were conquering Europe and founding kingdoms from the Black Sea to Spain, from Africa to England; they have sacked Rome. But when it comes time to tell stories, what they like to remember are their defeats and deaths. Why? Disaster "is the acid test of character. The valour of [a hero] can only be proved by their fighting against tremendous and terrifying adversaries, with the universe crashing about them, the sun darkened, the stars falling from their places, flames playing against the sky itself, the earth sinking into the sea. Fate can put men and women into positions whence it seems impossible for them to emerge with honour. They are judged by their choice, still more, perhaps, by the steadfastness with which they carry out their chosen aim. . . . The intense interest of poets in this type of story does seem to show that the aristocracies of the Nordic peoples felt that man's will was free and, therefore, in some way superior to the Fate that crushes him. . . . Fame is for the man who has the courage to choose: whether he chooses resistance to the uttermost against hopeless physical odds, knowing that his death is ordained, or whether he chooses one course rather than another of two that are hateful to him, and makes something magnificent of it by a single-minded pursuit of it. About the references to Fame . . . It is an assertion that there is something greater than Fate: the strength of will and the courage of human beings, and the memory which could preserve their deeds. Fame and human character: these were the two things against which Fate could not prevail. . . . For the Northern peoples there was no reward in a future life, since the doctrine of Valholl never seems to have made much headway against he far older beliefs that the dead man lived on in his grave-mound or led a shadowy existence in Hell. So, as the Anglo-Saxon gnomic verse says: . . . 'Fame is best of all' (Phillpotts 5-6).

Works Cited

Kiernan, Kevin S. "The Legacy of Wiglaf: Saving a Wounded Beowulf." Beowulf: Basic Readings. Ed. Peter S. Baker. New York: Garland, 1995.

Phillpotts, Bertha S. "Wyrd and Providence in Anglo-Saxon Thought." Interpretations of Beowulf. Ed. R.D. Fulk. Bloomingdale: Indiana University P, 1991.