Anglo-Saxon Beliefs In Beowulf

In the epic, Beowulf, translated by Burton Raffel, many of the Anglo-Saxon beliefs are portrayed. They are shown through a story about Beowulf, a strong, respected warrior, who helps the Danes and their leader, Hrothgar, with their problems. He helps kill Grendel, a monster terrorizing the Danes, along with Grendel’s mom and a dragon. Out of these Anglo-Saxon beliefs, two stand out the most, revenge and the cycle of war. Throughout Beowulf, these two beliefs are highly regarded in Anglo-Saxon and this epic. In Anglo-Saxon belief, when someone was insulted or killed, vengeance was necessary. This belief was very prominent in Beowulf. In this epic, Beowulf expresses these beliefs when he says, “Let your sorrow end! It is better for us all / To avenge our friends, not mourn them forever” (1384-1385). This shows how Beowulf believes that …show more content…
In order to believe in revenge, cycle of war would come along with it and vice versa. This is shown in the epic with the fights that go down between Beowulf and the monsters he defeats. These ideas were important in Anglo-Saxon population because they helped shape how they lived in their daily lives, and why they did some actions, such as declaring war on another group, and that group fighting back. These ideas are not used today because violence is seen as wrong, and without the use of revenge, the cycle of war cannot happen, but in the period that Anglo-Saxon people were around it was very obvious in what they believed in. In this epic, the Anglo-Saxon beliefs are shown very blatantly. They have an influence on the way this story was made, and they helped shape the story’s plot. Of the Anglo-Saxon beliefs the cycle of war and revenge were most shown throughout the book, and they were the reason why the book was even made in the first place. These beliefs helped because the book to be what it is today, and they helped make it as popular as it is