A story of heroes and monsters. Beowulf, written sometime between the 8th and 10th century AD, is the oldest surviving piece of literature written in Old English and one of the very few works written by a person of the Anglo-Saxon culture. The epic poem has stayed an important piece of work through generations and generations. The epic poem Beowulf has managed to stay an important manuscript due to its message that has remained constant in society and because of its significant representation of the Anglo-Saxon culture. The medieval manuscript shows the mindset of a culture and how violent and turbulent there society truly was. Upon examining the text one can find an example of how the society might have imploded in the law of wergild. Wergild,
…show more content…
He is a Christ-like figure that was symbolic and supposed to be a savior for the people of the geats, or you could imply that he could also be the savior for the writer’s culture. The appeal in this is that it is unhuman like and not a likely attitude for people to have. If you polled the whole world what their greatest fear was most of them would say death. Even though this statement shows Beowulf’s mortality in his death, it also shows how heroically his people believed he died. Most people want to be remembered forever and Beowulf has accomplished this in his death while slaying the dragon. Even though the manuscript is a thousand plus years old it still presents a good message to people. Beowulf sticks to his own standards and doesn’t give in to peer pressure This another one of the countless universal messages presented in Beowulf.
Historically the epic is very useful as a source of knowledge about a certain people. Not many writings from these people and this time period exist so Beowulf is the biggest source of knowledge on the Anglo-Saxons. It also is one of the largest preserved works on the Old English Language. The poem is historically significant because there is no other resource with more information on the Anglo-Saxons and the Old
He is a Christ-like figure that was symbolic and supposed to be a savior for the people of the geats, or you could imply that he could also be the savior for the writer’s culture. The appeal in this is that it is unhuman like and not a likely attitude for people to have. If you polled the whole world what their greatest fear was most of them would say death. Even though this statement shows Beowulf’s mortality in his death, it also shows how heroically his people believed he died. Most people want to be remembered forever and Beowulf has accomplished this in his death while slaying the dragon. Even though the manuscript is a thousand plus years old it still presents a good message to people. Beowulf sticks to his own standards and doesn’t give in to peer pressure This another one of the countless universal messages presented in Beowulf.
Historically the epic is very useful as a source of knowledge about a certain people. Not many writings from these people and this time period exist so Beowulf is the biggest source of knowledge on the Anglo-Saxons. It also is one of the largest preserved works on the Old English Language. The poem is historically significant because there is no other resource with more information on the Anglo-Saxons and the Old