Germanic paganism

Messages and Symbolism During Beowulf’s Battle Against Grendel’s Mother Under the credible assumption that a Christian – or, some speculate, many of them – actually wrote Beowulf, rather than merely edited it, its author faced, and confronted with the writing of the epic, a singular obstacle: persuading pagans to convert to Christianity by describing Christianity, which also condemned and promised to abolish the system of blood feud, as compatible with pagan culture, to an extent. This theme…

Neo-Paganism is a modern religious movement that seeks to combine beliefs or ritual practices from customs outside the main world religions. Neo-paganism also known as “earth Religion” practice an earth-centered religiousness. “The perception of the divine manifest in the physical world is the quintessential component of a Neo-Pagan identity”. (“Neo-Paganism as a Nature Religion”) People who practice Neo-Paganism are seeking to regain a sense of being one with nature. To make sure this is done…

Secondly, the epic poem further connects Christianity to the Paganism through the allusions to Cain, the murderer of Abel. Grendel is the antithesis of man and Hrothgar’s sinister counterpart as king. It can be inferred that Grendel is the result of all of Hrothgar’s misgivings of conquest during his youth. Grendel is described as: “A powerful demon, a prowler through the dark… a fiend out of hell… Dwelt for a time in misery among the banished monsters, Cain’s clan, whom the creator had…

While Pompey’s work lacks some of the variety a self-actualized person might require, she does challenge herself to work efficiently and construct her narrative when she free time. In addition, Sir Phoebus has awarded Pompey tremendous responsibility because of her expertise capabilities. She achieves this despite the limitations of the era and her understanding that she may not have the perfect job, but she does have the ability to find it satisfying. In showing her autonomy, Pompey reveals she…

Language and literature remain often much longer then the cultures that inspired them. Beowulf is one of the oldest pieces of Anglo-Saxon poetry with its manuscript fating back to the early 1000s. Though the manuscript being written by hand could have been copied for a much longer period of time. Beowulf as a manuscript can be seen as the intersection of two cultures. In its original form the poem was part of a long tradition of oral poetry. When this tradition was final written down it was…

Modern Paganisms such as Wicca serve primarily to fulfil the spiritual needs of believers in a manner supporting their pre-existing ideological convictions; as is shown by the diversity of opinion regarding the sacred within this spectrum of New Religious Movements. There are a multitude of sects within Modern Paganism, all claiming roots in the primordial past. In reaction to the growth of secularism throughout the 20th Century, various groups self-organized based upon a revived ‘natural…

Religion in Beowulf Religion is a sensitive issue in Beowulf, because this story was taken from early medieval times period when the pagan religion was practiced. However, the story has been Christianized because it was told in late medieval Anglo-Saxon Britain and the Christianity was widely practiced this time. If this story was told in early medieval time it would have been told more about pagan, but because of the time period and the number of audience was Christian, the ideas of both…

Christianity in Beowulf The devout followers of the Christian religion have a long-standing reputation for adapting and manipulating antecedent and subsequent “unholy,” outright pagan symbols, practices, and traditions to have their righteous agenda subsumed into popular culture, such as Christmas or December 25th - which, to Christians, is the birth of Jesus Christ, but historically was the celebrated day of the birth of the pagan god, Mithra, the Greek god, Dionysus, and the Phrygo-Roman god,…

had roles similar to priest along with their normal leadership roles. It is also believed that pagan worship involved the sacrifice of horses, but know other animal sacrifice is known. However, we do know that when the Viking people converted from paganism to Christianity the pagan gods they previously worshiped did not disappear. Instead the Viking people simply changed the language that they used to refer to them, rather than calling them gods they started to use them as myths. Many of these…

There can be many parallels made between these ‘Sir Gawain and the Green Knight’ and the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Apart from the fact that Tolkien is said to idolize the author of the poem and even released a translated version in the mid 1900s, Tolkien stresses many of the same themes as the poem. From temptation to Christian themes and morals, Tolkien weaves many elements from the poem into his trilogy. Although the poem outright states Christian themes, Tolkien was against making Lord of…