The following was originally posted in response to a classroom forum:
Forum 2: For credit, post a response (of approximately 200 words) to the topic below and to at least two other classmates of 100 words.
1. The Anglo-Saxon Period in literature begins to merge an ancient warrior past with a new awareness of religion. What evidence of these influences do you see in the readings from this packet?
The best examples of the mixing of Christian and varied pagan beliefs that I can see lie in the tales of Beowulf and the Dream of the Rood.
In Beowulf we read of a king who is serving of his people and fearless of his travels in far lands with varied spirits and elves abound. Obviously our strong heroic leader and adventurous exploits are familiar of the pagan faiths. Yet, there is also mention of God and and his divine creation of the world; elements which are undeniably Christian. Further, we might be able to make some sort of a tie between Beowulf and Christ, though no mention was made of the Savior. Telling of how mighty the king was, and how he helped his people and bore faith in the troubled times, battling evil might easily sway someone to see how a heroic and noble savior of earth could be able to rise above. If one could have faith in this story, then one could have faith in the Christian stories.
The Rood applied persuasion in a similar manner to Beowulf. In the Rood, we here the telling of the Crucifixion; further we hear the telling from the viewpoint of an element of nature—an item which a pagan could easily see as being as alive spiritually as man. We are told of how Christ—an almost every-man, yet something more—bore such terrible inflictions from his evil captors. We see Christ as a hero—a man who should be honored and worshiped for the pains and suffering inflicted upon him in our names. This piece helps show how older selfless acts leading to martyrdom still exist in this new religion, and that the greatest martyr for the cause is the son of God.
These stories are quite successful in mixing and selling the concepts of Christianity to people of pagan faiths.
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