Fate In Beowulf

Beowulf is a story of the early Anglo-Saxons. The Anglo-Saxons were a pagan people for generations. However, after arriving in England they began to convert to Christianity. But aspects from their pagan beliefs, such as the role of fate, remained. Fate was seen when bad things happen or when the future was uncertain, but good things and successful battles were mostly credited to God. Ultimately, God’s plan was more evident in Beowulf because the Anglo-Saxon people looked to him for guidance and praised him when they succeeded. Fate was only a scapegoat when things went wrong. The Anglo-Saxon culture was shown in the different appearances of fate and God’s plan during the journey of Beowulf. As transitioning Christians, the Anglo-Saxon people
Although Beowulf is a work of fiction, it is also an epic poem. Therefore, its story represented the culture and history of its characters, the Anglo-Saxons. Epic poems were stories of heroes and legends that were written during or near the time period in which their characters lived. They were meant to share the culture and history of the people with future generations and others around the world. Because of this, Beowulf is an accurate account of the culture, including the religion, of the Anglo-Saxons in the sixth century, the time period in which Beowulf takes place. Historically, Beowulf takes place sometime after the Anglo-Saxon people traveled from Germany to England and settled there. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle states that in A.D. 449, “then came the men from three powers of Germany; the Old Saxons, the Angles and the Jutes” (48). Once the Anglo-Saxons arrived in England, they began to be influenced by the
Fate is described as the “shadow of despair” (Mayr-Harting 237) and “the powers of darkness” (Mayr-Harting 239). In Anglo-Saxon culture, fate often meant one’s death or some other negative event. Although good things were also part of one’s fate, a person’s fate rested in their death. Contrarily, Christians rely on God’s divine providence to have a plan for their life. As Jeremiah 29:11 says, “’For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future’” (New International Version). Christians trust in God’s plan for their life and his divine outcomes. A person’s birth, death, and achievements are all part of God’s plan for their life. As the Anglo-Saxons slowly converted to Christianity, they began to rely on God’s plan as well. However, as a transitioning people whose past culture was transforming into a new culture based on new principles, aspects of paganism, specifically fate, were present in Anglo-Saxon culture after their conversion. As Mayr-Harting says, “It would be the crudest mistake, then, to imagine that pagan religion was… to be cast off at the first moment that the Anglo-Saxons were presented with a real religion… The old religious instincts died hard” (29). A group of people cannot abandon part of their culture in an instant, and even over time, pieces of that former culture remain. Bede, a historian and an