Christian And Pagan Values In The Epic Poem 'Beowulf'

This sentence is false. As a famous paradox, this previous statement triggers deeper thought; if the sentence is, in fact, false then it would be true, but if the sentence was true then it would have to be false—it just doesn’t make sense. Like a paradox or oxymoron, pairing Christians and pagans together in the same system doesn’t make sense and seems complicated because of the drastic differences in belief and values, but for some reason, it works and can exist. In the epic poem Beowulf, the unknown author does just this and blends the two religions and their values together. The characters in Beowulf frequently juxtapose Christian and Pagan values by thanking both God and fate at the same, intentionally demonstrating that these two value …show more content…
Throughout this epic poem, the characters mention both Pagan values such as fate and giants and then immediately after mentioning important Christian beliefs such as God or Heaven. In one of his statements when he is about to travel to fight Grendel, Beowulf mentions that “God must decide” (Beowulf 28) what will happen and then a few lines later says that “[f]ate will unwind as it must” (Beowulf 28). By mentioning both of these clearly different values within the same conversation shows that whatever religion Beowulf considers himself a part of is deeply rooted in both Paganism and Christianity. It would seem that God making the decisions and fate unwinding would not work together; if fate continues on, it wouldn’t make sense that God would be allowed to decide what happens, but if God decides what happens, it doesn’t really make sense that fate would continue on as it has. But the belief that God will make some decisions and fate will continue on from those decisions shows how this combination of beliefs helps the characters to be understanding of whatever is happening in their