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Taylor Huston

Anne Myers

October 5, 2015

Beowulf and the Decline of Pagan Ideas

Beowulf, a heroic epic written during between the 8th and 10th centuries concerning a

great Danish warrior and his feats of strength and talent throughout his life, is primarily divided

into two sections. The first describes a young Beowulf, one with courage as well as incredible

strength and bravery. This section is comprised mostly of his victory in vanquishing two mon-

sters from a neighboring kingdom. The second section depicts Beowulf later in his life. His

strength is failing him in his old age and he is overwhelmed and killed during an intense grapple

with a dragon. Beowulf is often seen as the epitome of an Anglo-Saxon hero in the pagan tradi-

tion. The author uses the two sections of the poem to first, highlight pagan values and traditions

with Beowulf’s success and exuberance and then undercut and display the deterioration of these

ideals with his death. The purpose of this is to illustrate the decline of pagan traditions and to im-

ply that they cannot last as they do not complement traditional Christian practices and beliefs.

Beowulf serves as an ideal Anglo-Saxon pagan hero in many respects. The first is that he

has incredible physical strength. His fortitude allowed him to accomplish great tasks, the likes of

which no one other warrior could perform. His strength and success led to his fame, another im-

portant aspect of the pagan tradition. Beowulf’s goal of increasing his fame and telling of his ac-

complishments is essential and gives him greater honor when compared to other warriors as well

as other members of the Danish lands, including royalty. This can be seen when Hrothgar re-

ceives Beowulf in his castle. He says, “Now Edgetho’s/Brave son is here…And I’ve heard that
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when seamen came…Higlac’s/Young prince showed them a mighty-battle grip…I shall greet

him with treasures,” (374-384). This shows that Hrothgar, a mighty Danish king, has heard of

Beowulf and his accomplishments and immediately treats him with regard and respect. This

glory is aided by Beowulf’s boasting and his extreme pride and confidence in his abilities. He of-

ten tells tales of his past glories. For instance, in his conversation with Unferth, a warrior of

Hrothgar’s who challenges Beowulf, he tells of his adventures in the sea when he killed 9 sea

monsters. This directly contrasts Unferth who is viewed as less of a warrior and a man because

he is not as famous as Beowulf:

…I’ve heard
No tales of you, Unferth, telling
Of such clashing terror, such contests in the night!
Brecca’s battles were never so bold;
Neither he nor you can match me
(581-585)
Clearly, fame and accomplishments are a major feature in determining a man’s status and the

amount of respect he commands in a traditional pagan culture. This, however, means nothing if a

man cannot continually accept and succeed in new challenges. Although Beowulf already has a

degree of prominence, he is desperate to prove that he can take on Grendel, a new and more chal-

lenging opponent that he believes will more truly test his abilities. Beowulf travels uninvited to

Hrothgar’s kingdom and requests a chance to prove himself, “That this one favor you should not

refuse me—/That I alone, and with the help of my men,/may purge all evil from this hall,” (430-

432). Upon completion of his task of vanquishing Grendel and his mother from the Danish King-

dom, Hrothgar congratulates Beowulf and tells him that he has achieved his goal, “Your fame is

everywhere, my friend,/Reaches to the end of the earth, and you hold it/in your heart wisely,”

(1703-1705). At the peak of his life, Beowulf has at last attained the kind of notoriety that he has
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long desired. Hrothgar, in response and according to Anglo-Saxon pagan tradition, shares trea-

sures with Beowulf as a reward for his victory. Beowulf, although he earned these rewards alone,

he shares with his band of followers and grants a large portion of them to his king, Higlac. Upon

returning to his homeland he describes Hrothgar’s generosity to his ruler:

He opened
his store
Of gems and armor, let me choose as I liked,
So I could bring his riches to you, my ruler,
And prove his friendship, and my love.
(2146-2149)
This highlights the tradition of sharing rewards, which emphasizes the importance of kinship in

an Anglo-Saxon community, as well as the intense loyalty expected between a warrior and his

ruler. In this way, Beowulf seeks fame not only to benefit himself, but to benefit his king, his

kingdom, and his followers. Beowulf upholds many central pagan values and serves as a prime

example of a pagan warrior and hero. His successes and adventures depicted in the first section

of the poem focus on highlighting the prominence of values though his character. This positive

view of pagan traditions deteriorates as Beowulf does in his old age in the second section of the

poem.

The second section of the epic undermines the pagan values and shows their failure.

Among these values are physical strength, boasting and confidence, making and upholding great

promises, loyalty, the giving of gifts, and amassing fame and fortune. This parallels the failure

and degradation of Beowulf in his old age. In his youth, Beowulf’s strength was unparalleled,

giving him such confidence that he was sure that he could take on any task. This is not so later

when he contemplates his upcoming conflict with a dragon that is terrorizing a local kingdom.

Although he is unsure if his strength will fail him, a marked difference from his overwhelming
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confidence in his abilities in the first section, he decides to face the dragon anyway, prioritizing

glory in battle and accomplishment over his own life, saying that he will, “‘..fight again, seek

fame still,/If the dragon hiding in his tower dares/to face me.’” (2513-2515). Although this is an-

other promise Beowulf makes, it is one he cannot uphold. He is unable to defeat the dragon

alone:

As Beowulf fell back; its breath flared,

And he suffered, wrapped around in swirling
Flames—a king, before, but now
A beaten warrior. None of his comrades
Came to him, helped him, his brave and noble
Followers; they ran for their lives, fled
Deep in a wood.
(2593-2599)
This failure of Beowulf directly parallels the failure of pagan ideals. His physical strength is not

enough to overcome his enemy, degrading his status from one of high status to one of defeat and

inferiority. The idea of loyalty is also abandoned as his followers, apart from Wiglaf, do not

come to his aid. Pagan traditions are also shown as failing after the dragon is finally defeated

with the help of Wiglaf. Beowulf names Wiglaf as his successor, expecting him to continue the

tradition and share the treasure they have recovered from the dragon’s hoard it was guarding.

Wiglaf, instead, knowing that the other men abandoned their ruler, violating the unspoken rules

of loyalty and kinship, requests that the treasure be burned along with Beowulf’s body. He is ex-

tremely angry at these warriors and refuses to act in accordance with custom. He says, “And now

the giving of swords, of golden/Rings and rich estates, is over,/Ended for you and everyone who

shares/Your blood,” (2884-2887). By not sharing this, Wiglaf abandons tradition and clearly

shows that the heroic and pagan ideals embodied by Beowulf no longer have a place within their
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kinship community. This section uses Beowulf’s failure and old age to illustrate the decline of

previously celebrated pagan values and traditions. Beowulf’s death parallels the death of pagan

ideals and shows that the community no longer has a use for these practices.

The author has a clear purpose in first highlighting pagan values and traditions and then

undermining them and illustrating their decline and failure. Namely, the author comments on pa-

ganism and imply that its failure was imminent and that Christian beliefs should be celebrated in-

stead. This can clearly be seen early in the poem when the author interjects to praise Christian

readers and their beliefs as compared to pagan beliefs:

…Let them
Beware, those who are thrust into danger,
Clutched at by trouble, yet can carry no solace
In their hearts, cannot hope to be better! Hail
To those who will rise to God, drop off
Their dead bodies and seek our Father’s peace!
(183-188)
By discussing the failure of pagan ideals, the author is showing readers, who are for the most

part Christian, that the old practices of paganism are no longer valid. Beowulf serves as an exam-

ple to these readers. He epitomizes a pagan hero, and the fact that he was abandoned and be-

trayed by his followers and the community surrounding him moves on in a way that is not con-

cordant with previous tradition, shows the readers that one cannot reach fulfillment in an envi-

ronment that upholds pagan values and beliefs. This is seen both literally in that Beowulf dies in

a way that leaves him and the community disillusioned, but also in that they do not have hope of

an afterlife as in the Christian belief. The author leaves the reader thinking that Beowulf’s death

and thus pagan ideals leave no room for hope or satisfaction in this life or an afterlife at the same

time that he praises Christians and encourages their beliefs.

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Overall the two sections of the epic poem Beowulf, depict the decline of pagan tradition

and the degradation of Beowulf, an exemplar of pagan ideals and heroism. First, the author high-

lights heroic ideals in Beowulf’s successes and then undercuts them with the description of his

death. The ideas of loyalty, the giving of gifts, physical strength, the accumulation of glory and

treasure, boasting, confidence in one’s abilities, and the act of making and upholding great prom-

ises are emphasized by Beowulf’s victories in the defeat of Grendel and his mother, but are seen

as failing when Beowulf is defeated by a dragon and his successor abandons tradition in the com-

munity after his death. The main purpose of the author in showing this decline is to illustrate that

pagan values are no longer valid and prove to readers that if one chooses to believe in these

ideals they cannot reach physical or spiritual fulfillment.