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“How Christian is the poem?” asks Howell Chickering in his analysis of Beowulf. While the author of the poem was most certainly a pagan, as were most Anglo-Saxons at the time the poem was written, the recorder of the poem, a monk who had most likely heard the poem while converting the pagans to Christianity, included many of his own religious beliefs. There are many pagan rituals and beliefs represented in Beowulf, but the overall tone of the poem is very Christian. Christian nature is shown in the battle between Beowulf and Grendel, the constant failure of the pagan people, and the poem’s fixation on fate. The battle between Beowulf and Grendel is overtly Christian. Grendel “bore the curse of the seed of Cain” (65), the first murderer according to the Bible. Cain’s sin of murder is all the more grievous in the setting of Beowulf, as the murder he committed was that of his brother. The Anglo-Saxons held lineage in the highest regard, and to kill one’s own family would be an evil like no other. The evil of Cain’s deed is reflected on to Grendel, as he is part of Cain’s line, and therefore would be given the same traits in the Anglo-Saxon tradition of family. Since Grendel is the descendant of sin and evil, he himself is seen to be a sinner. Christianity is based on the resistance of sin, so Beowulf’s fight against a sinner takes on a crusade-like value. If one looks at Beowulf as a Christian, it becomes apparent that the values given to him by the author of the poem takes on a very Christian overtone.
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