Beowulf & Kit
Both Christopher Marlowe’s work and the epic poem Beowulf represent great literature from their own times. While Marlowe’s work made him the foremost writer of tragedy in Elizabethan England, in many ways it predates its time in the late Renaissance in categories such as religion and stage drama. On the other hand, Beowulf is an exemplary piece of epic poetry that portrays the culture of the area that is now Britain in the days of Old English. Marlowe’s plays, specifically The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus, and Beowulf greatly contrast in their portrayals of their own societies and how the writers of the works would have fit into their own cultures as well.
The first manuscript of Beowulf in written form is dated on palaeographical grounds to the late tenth to early eleventh century, or somewhere around the year 700 AD (Jack). Around the time of what is thought to be the conception of the Beowulf poem the area of what is now Great Britain had started to fully convert to Christianity but retained much of its pagan culture. The Anglo-Saxon warrior culture had thrived on the island, and their culture greatly contrasted to that of the Christians.
The epic Beowulf has long thought to be an …show more content…
Despite the poem’s pagan origins, the manuscript of Beowulf that exists today was likely written by a Christian person. This is suspected because only members of the clergy were trained to read and write. The poem contains many pagan elements, such as the importance of one’s sword and the glorification of warriors dying while in a noble battle. However, a great amount of Christian elements are found throughout the epic poem. For example, Grendel the monster is said to be a descendant of Cain, the biblical man who killed his brother Abel and was responsible for the first human murder in the Book of Genesis (Donoghue). The Christian god is also referred to in several lines when Beowulf is fighting Grendel’s mother in her court
Both Christopher Marlowe’s work and the epic poem Beowulf represent great literature from their own times. While Marlowe’s work made him the foremost writer of tragedy in Elizabethan England, in many ways it predates its time in the late Renaissance in categories such as religion and stage drama. On the other hand, Beowulf is an exemplary piece of epic poetry that portrays the culture of the area that is now Britain in the days of Old English. Marlowe’s plays, specifically The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus, and Beowulf greatly contrast in their portrayals of their own societies and how the writers of the works would have fit into their own cultures as well.
The first manuscript of Beowulf in written form is dated on palaeographical grounds to the late tenth to early eleventh century, or somewhere around the year 700 AD (Jack). Around the time of what is thought to be the conception of the Beowulf poem the area of what is now Great Britain had started to fully convert to Christianity but retained much of its pagan culture. The Anglo-Saxon warrior culture had thrived on the island, and their culture greatly contrasted to that of the Christians.
The epic Beowulf has long thought to be an …show more content…
Despite the poem’s pagan origins, the manuscript of Beowulf that exists today was likely written by a Christian person. This is suspected because only members of the clergy were trained to read and write. The poem contains many pagan elements, such as the importance of one’s sword and the glorification of warriors dying while in a noble battle. However, a great amount of Christian elements are found throughout the epic poem. For example, Grendel the monster is said to be a descendant of Cain, the biblical man who killed his brother Abel and was responsible for the first human murder in the Book of Genesis (Donoghue). The Christian god is also referred to in several lines when Beowulf is fighting Grendel’s mother in her court