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Beowulf | An Overview of Themes in Beowulf

Essay discussing prominent themes in Beowulf, including the tension between its pagan and Christian elements, fate, good and evil, allegiance and blood ties, honor and reputation, and wisdom and action.

Whether we consider it to be an intentional theme or an incidental artifact of the poem's authorship and composition, the tension between its pagan and Christian elements is an over-arching feature of Beowulf. In the very first line of his text we are alerted to the fact that the poet is depicting a world that existed in the past, for his story is set "in days gone by" (l.1). Many scholars have asserted that the unknown author of Beowulf was an Anglo-Saxon Christian who wrote in the first half of the eighth century about a Scandinavian hero, Beowulf, who, in turn,...

[The entire page is 1785 words long]

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