While reading Beowulf I was able to find a connection between the dark ages and christianity at this time. Beowulf makes a connection of the Pagan people coming together, and unify as a community. The death of Grendel is not actually a being but most likely a representation of the people destroying the disconnection between each other.
“So Grendel ruled in defiance of right, one against all, until the greatest house in the world stood empty, a deserted wallstead.” (1.Beowulf, 144-146)
In the reading of Beowulf and the death of Grendel, I was able to find similar connections to the time period and the connection of what is going on in the story. The time period of this story was written around the 8th and 11th century, which is also during the time of the dark ages. During which we had a lot of death and miscommunication between people, plagues were also a big part of the dark ages. You could say that the quote from above is “Grendel” or the plague that brought down even the greatest house or the buildings in the world to become empty by deaths of diseases. When Beowulf actually killed Grendel in the text it says “…clan chiefs from far and near down wide-ranging roads, wondering greatly at the monsters footprints. His fatal departure was regretted by know one who witnessed his trail…” (1. Beowulf, 838-841) The departure of Grendel caused the community of the Danes to come together as a people and nobody regretted what has happened to him because it allowed the community to strengthen again. If we also look even further we can connected that the death of Grendel could refer to the relationship with Christianity and this could have been an early disconnection with Paganism and allowed the monotheistic culture to slide itself into its place within the literature. If you read the poem called “Dream of Rood” that was also written around the same time as Beowulf, it is a Christian story of Christ connecting to the Anglo-Saxon tongue. “reveal in words that it is the tree of glory, on which Almighty God suffered for mankind’s many sins.”(2.Dream of the Rood, 97-99) In this poem you will notice a lot of reference with the cross being a tree, the tree is a highly beloved part of Anglo-Saxon culture, so bringing in the cross as a tree brings a connection of Christianity with the people. Also in Paganism within Anglo-Saxon culture they believed that only warriors were able to move on into heavens or Valhalla, but in Christianity this allowed everyone to be embraced into heaven which brought in a better cause for people to be more accepting of Christianity. Both of these writings have significant examples of the connection of Christianity and may be the reason of how people got influence during the dark ages.
1. Heaney, Seamus. Beowulf: a New Verse Translation. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2000. Print.
2."Rood Home Page." Enter Dream of the Rood. Web. 07 Sept. 2011.
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