The Old English poem Beowulf

The poem fuses historical temporal such as the story of Hygelac with folk tales of monster fights, and the phraseology has been given a Christian coloring that places the poem in the first half of the eighth century. Elements in Beowulf indicate that the feed has been derived from an earlier oral tradition. Old English poetry is make up of a piece of repeated phrases called formulas. These be characteristics of the oral tradition. commencement at line 867 in the poem, the method of composition of a poem by a Danish scop is described, and it is likely that this is the dish up that produced the original "Beowulf" as well long before it was write down by a scribe. A later passage, send-off at line 2105, also details the telling of stories and places a stress on the ability to remember the old stories as an important qualification for a poet (Irving 5-8).

The pigboat is also august in the society of Beowulf, a poem which includes both the pleasure seeker religion of early Britain and the

Wiglaf points show up that with the leader dead, the kingdom of the Geats will be vulnerable to attack, incisively the fear Hrothgar had when Grendel was attacking his newly built hall. Wiglaf in detail berates the troops for having abandoned Beowulf in his hour of need, showing that they are not brave bounteous or punishing enough to protect the kingdom and that they may deserve the fate that could watch them if they are not able to find another strong leader and to be prepared for whatever attacks may come.

Hopper, Vincent F. "Introduction." In Beowulf Together with Widsith and the Fight at Finnesburg in the Benjamin Thorpe system and Word-for-Word Translation. Woodbury, New York: Barron's, 1962.

There are a number of inconsistencies and apparent inconsistencies in Beowulf related to Christianity. While the poet calls on perfection and speaks of God's grace, the Danes were pagans, a fact which the poet also acknowledges.

The principal pagan elements in the poem are Beowulf's funeral, allusions to wyrd (fate), and Beowulf's obvious concern with worldly honor as a means to achieve immortality. The cremation of Beowulf is clearly a pagan rite: "The cremation was so firmly established in heroic literature that it passed on unchanged into the Christian menstruation" (Ogilvy and Baker 33). The older Beowulf is betrayed by the cowardice of his troops, and yet in Wiglaf he may have found a jr. man to carry on his tradition.

Fame is the motivation for the action taken by a hero like Beowulf, so that the hero will be remembered by the people, and the giving of gifts is another management of assuring that the hero will be remembered. This drive toward fame is the geomorphological basis of heroic society, as can be seen in the story of the fabled Scyld in the prologue to Beowulf. The poet describes how he comes to rescue the lordless Danes from anarchy and to establish for them the Scylding dynasty. He gains his position through ferocity against neighboring tribes until he obtains t
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