Boo, Who? In the classic Disney tale, Monsters, Inc., two outcast monsters strive to be apart of the elite team of scarers. Although the scarers wreak terror, we recognize the monsters’ fears when a little girl, Boo, enters the extraterrestrial world. Although the story is about changing tradition and love, it reveals the intimate relationship between fear and the individual. Moving away from fuzzy blue monsters and green spheres with legs, monsters still serve as an indication for the fears of specific time periods. Set somewhere between the 5th and 6th century, Beowulf, translated by Seamus Heaney, is the story of a brave warrior who fights three, not so fluffy, monsters to save villages in modern-day Scandinavia. The monsters in Beowulf
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After Beowulf bravely murders Grendel, it is the mother of all monsters, quite literally, who comes back to attack the village. The town observed with fear as the “vehement mother avenged her son and wreaked destruction,” (Heaney 145). The monster they thought to be the cause of all of their problems was gone, but the real issue was not over. There were still repercussions to the action. The mother monster shows the Anglo-Saxon’s feared blood retaliation. Anglo-Saxons valued community; when part of the community was tampered with, the family and community would be soon to follow. Grudges were feared. The concept is also shown in the Anglo-Saxon idea of a weregild, a sum paid to the family of a victim in order to eliminate the fear of repercussion. Retaliation was so dreaded that a specific payment and term of a weregild was created to reference the solution to the problem. The fear of family stretched beyond monsters attacking, to actual family attacks and creating permanent …show more content…
The Anglo-Saxon society held the Pagan religion as their center. Paganism did not believe in an afterlife, instead, they focused on the only life they were certain of: “[Paganism had] no transcendent deity who acts as judge and no concept of sin, logically no need for salvation...exist[ed]” (Afterlife). Since the belief of an afterlife was not yet developed in Paganism, and there was no logical need for one, the Anglo-Saxons only valued human lifespan. The dragon proves this belief while guarding the treasure, a significant value in mortal life. The dragon separates the men from their earthly reward, proving what the Anglo-Saxons aspired for was not given readily. Beowulf, now a righteous king, fights the dragon - with help from a new brave soldier, Wiglaf - in what turns out to be Beowulf’s final battle. Beowulf perishes in the fight but Wiglaf is successful in the battle and comes out a new hero of the community. Beowulf, for all intensive purposes, is instantly replaced after his death. Although Beowulf is remembered, it speaks to how the Anglo-Saxons feared their mortal end was unimportant and, with no promise of an afterlife, the ultimate
After Beowulf bravely murders Grendel, it is the mother of all monsters, quite literally, who comes back to attack the village. The town observed with fear as the “vehement mother avenged her son and wreaked destruction,” (Heaney 145). The monster they thought to be the cause of all of their problems was gone, but the real issue was not over. There were still repercussions to the action. The mother monster shows the Anglo-Saxon’s feared blood retaliation. Anglo-Saxons valued community; when part of the community was tampered with, the family and community would be soon to follow. Grudges were feared. The concept is also shown in the Anglo-Saxon idea of a weregild, a sum paid to the family of a victim in order to eliminate the fear of repercussion. Retaliation was so dreaded that a specific payment and term of a weregild was created to reference the solution to the problem. The fear of family stretched beyond monsters attacking, to actual family attacks and creating permanent …show more content…
The Anglo-Saxon society held the Pagan religion as their center. Paganism did not believe in an afterlife, instead, they focused on the only life they were certain of: “[Paganism had] no transcendent deity who acts as judge and no concept of sin, logically no need for salvation...exist[ed]” (Afterlife). Since the belief of an afterlife was not yet developed in Paganism, and there was no logical need for one, the Anglo-Saxons only valued human lifespan. The dragon proves this belief while guarding the treasure, a significant value in mortal life. The dragon separates the men from their earthly reward, proving what the Anglo-Saxons aspired for was not given readily. Beowulf, now a righteous king, fights the dragon - with help from a new brave soldier, Wiglaf - in what turns out to be Beowulf’s final battle. Beowulf perishes in the fight but Wiglaf is successful in the battle and comes out a new hero of the community. Beowulf, for all intensive purposes, is instantly replaced after his death. Although Beowulf is remembered, it speaks to how the Anglo-Saxons feared their mortal end was unimportant and, with no promise of an afterlife, the ultimate