Research the discussions of whether or not Beowulf is a Christian or Essay

Research the discussions of whether or not Beowulf is a Christian or pagan poem and rationalise how modern audiences should understand it - Essay ExampleIn many ways, it was an inspired approach, and Christianitys evangelical methods helped the religion seep across the West and take firm root among its people. Still, the marriage of Christian virtues and local usance was not always a natural one, and Beowulf is one of the best examples of this battle between old and impudently ethics. Though Beowulf is considered the first Christian epic by many literary historians, one can too argue that Beowulf is the last stand of pagan faith in the North a cautionary rehearsal about the repercussions of adopting Christian values over the ones that had served the Northern leaders well in pre-Christian times. In fact, Beowulf top executive be read as a battle, not just between the hero and the three monsters of the tale, tho between the traditional Norse values and the new Christian ethos. Like Shakespeares Titus Andronicus or I Samuel in the Old Testament, Beowulf feels anachronistic much of its content could easily be lifted and reset as the plot for a modern action film. The critical events of Beowulf center on force play like a good action movie, the violence is the point, and the rest of the narrative is wrapped around it in a sensibly gratuitous bow. (This may be one reason critics like W.P. Ker have classified Beowulf as economy class literature despite its historic significance.) This emphasis on violence is one of the most salient examples of the contradict between Christian virtues and pagan values in Beowulf. As Thomas Prendergast points out, Beowulfs ostensible rejection of violence an adoption of Christian pacifist values it belied by the relish with which the poem describes the violence it contains For even as the works narrator cautions against the idolatrous seductions of violence, the work unfolds as an idolatrous memorialization of the pleasur es of violencea pleasure compulsively repeated in