[Zealot of Rebellion]

Those that have read the poem know that the almost Godlike Beowulf is hired by the Danes to kill a vicous Demon named Grendel. Those that have not know now. But what is the point of this epic? I believe that it can be a couple things.

It could be a Christian Propoganda. After all, they constantly praise god after Beowulf succeeds in doing something or they pray for mercy when something horrible occurs like the revenge of Grendel's mother. This was also written in a time when most of the Scandanavians were converrted to Christianity. The 8th century (Supposedly Beowulf's Time) they were still Pagans.

It could be Philosophy. The Scandanavian Society believed that a trip to their heaven was bought through battle, here it is bought through heroic deeds. They Constantly say that Grendel and his Mother are demons, yet they have human eotions and codes of honor like the humans do. Revenge, boasting (which Beowulf does his share of), and Heroism are all ways of keeping ones reputation. So colliding with a being that has human emotions can't be all evil, especially if it goes by the codes of men. But his life ends with the dragon, a beast that hoards treasure and kills mercilessly without reason. Beowulf goes alone against the beast and is brought a grevious wound in his neck by the drgon's fangs, later found to be poisonous. Wiglaf comes to his aid and proves his valor by wounding the beast in the neck and Beowulf stabs the creature's hindquarters. So in the end the dragon and Beowulf both die. So that when evil truely does collide with good there can only be total destruction and and a bleak future as Geatland is left to be taken by their bloodthirsty neighboors.

My Question is, what do you think the poem is about?

[Buck Williams]

obivously it was christian propaganda. Almost every story with dragons, giants, or demons was changed to be used for converting the pagans into christains. Most of the time the demon, dragon ect represents the pagans and the hero represents the christains. the hero defating the monster is symbolism for christianity conquring the pagans

[Al Khabir]

WHen th epoem was written, Saxon Englands conversion had already come about (it is believed). It was written about a time before in the past. I personnally believe that it was simply a story, written by some monk or other who had a fascination with the times of conversion. As he was a monk christianity does play a dominant role, but I dont beleive that it was intentionally written as propaganda. When we talk of propaganda though, remember that this is a time whaen the church actually beleived and practiced what they preached, not the time of the "career cardinals".