Benedict Vs Beowulf

Although many of the ideals and values of the Germanic people and those of Roman descent were vastly different during the period when the Roman Empire was ending, both groups of people had some similar visions of how to live their lives. For example, as described in The Rule of St. Benedict and Beowulf, both the former Roman people and the Germanic people believed in some sort of immortality. While their ideas of immortality differed, both groups trusted that their lives, if lived a certain way, could lead them to attain a type of eternity after their deaths. As shown in The Rule of St. Benedict, the former Roman people believed that a kind of immortality could be achieved in the form of salvation and receiving an eternal life in Heaven after
their deaths. The monks written about by St. Benedict lived their lives, from the time they entered the monastery to the time they died, behaving in ways in which they believed would lead to their salvation. Everything the monks did, from eating to talking to sleeping, were done in some way as to please God. The times in which they ate every day were organized so that they would have enough time to read psalms multiple times a day. The meals that the monks ate were small so as to avoid overindulgence which they believed to be “inconsistent with the life of any Christian” (Benedict 62). At night the monks slept fully clothed so they “[would] always be ready to arise when the signal [was] given” (Benedict 49) so that they could read their psalms whenever they were called upon to do so without any time wasted. They refrained from speaking when they did not need to in order to prevent themselves from accidently speaking in sin. These details of the monk’s routines show how every aspect of their lives were devoted to pleasing God so that they would eventually reach the eternity that would come with their salvation. In order to gain this eternal afterlife, the monks had to live altruistic lives by the rules of the monastery and submit completely to God, and therefore surrender fully to their abbot, as he “[held] the place of Christ in the monastery” (Benedict 21). Failure to follow these principles included anything from being “stubborn or disobedient or proud” to “[grumbling] or in any way [despising] the holy rule and [defying] the orders of his seniors” (Benedict 49-50), and could lead to excommunication or other forms of punishment. If the monks failed to live by these standards and did not amend their behavior, they would lose their chance at salvation and therefore forfeited their eternal life after death. In the pagan Germanic society that Beowulf is set in, the form of eternity that was sought after had nothing to do with religion or a Heavenly life after death.
Instead, the Germanic people spent their lives searching for a way for themselves to figuratively live on after their death. They meant to make their name and deeds known by people long after they are no longer alive. When Beowulf travelled to Heorot, he planned to “grapple with the fiend, [and] fight to the death” (Beowulf 439) with nothing other than his bare hands. He intended to defeat Grendel by himself with no weapons because he was known for his strength and wanted to prove himself to his lord Hygelac. He wished to show that he was stronger than everyone else by defeating a creature that no other man had been able to wound. Later Beowulf would also take on other creatures such as Grendel’s mother and a dragon in order to promote his name. Like other Germanic people of his time, Beowulf spent his life trying to create a legacy for himself through his actions so that his name and life would live on for eternity. For Beowulf, the only way to achieve this “immortality” was to accomplish great feats that others could not. They feared that if they died without great accomplishments, they would be forgotten and their family or name would not live on in the future. The Germanic soldiers would lose their form of eternity if they did not seek to make a name for themselves or if they abandoned their leader. When all of
Beowulf’s people, except for Wiglaf, abandoned him during his fight with the dragon, they sacrificed their chance of being eternally known. They also defamed their families name and caused their kinsmen to “become wanderers without land-rights” (Beowulf 2884). The portrayal of eternity as Heaven in The Rule of St.
Benedict and the representation of eternity as a legacy attached to names and deeds in Beowulf shows how both societies value perseverance and loyalty without limits. In The Rule of St. Benedict, the monks are expected to accept orders given to them even if they are impossible. They are supposed to be loyal to their superior and endure any hardships while “trusting in God’s help” (Benedict 92) so that they will ultimately be able to enter Heaven and gain eternal happiness. The largely Christian society near the former Roman Empire believed that nothing was impossible as long as they trusted in God and devoted their lives to believing in His power. In Beowulf, the soldiers are meant to be devoted to their leader and follow him into battle regardless of what they think will happen. The Germanic society valued persistence and determination in the face of conflict even if that struggle was likely to end in the soldiers’ deaths. They believed that “death [was] better for any earl than an existence of disgrace” (Beowulf 2887-2888) and would rather fight and die for their people than run away in the face of a seemingly impossible task. Although the two societies differed in what they had faith in, the Christians having faith in God and Heaven and the Germanic people having faith in allegiance devotion to their ruler, both spent their time lives searching for one form of eternity or another and wanted to make sure that they
would somehow live forever. Therefore, the Christian and Germanic people both strived to create a society that valued diligence and they dedicated their time in a menacing and volatile world to pursuing a form of eternal life after death.