‘That doom abided, / but in time it would come’ (Beowulf, lines 83-4)

It is indeed immediately evident to the lecturer (or listener) of Beowulf, that the poesy is heavily laden with themes of emergency and destiny. I would even go as far as saying that it is partly the weight that these themes l shoemakers last that gives Beowulf its rich and graceful quality.These themes ar present throughout the text, for suit the creation of Heorot comes with the prophecy of its end of the world, with its gables wide and high up and awaiting / a barbarous burning (lines 82-3). We are as wellspring as given the cause for such(prenominal) a fate, that is to say production line controversy betwixt in-laws. The inevitable doom associated with blood feuds, and its associated fratricide, is to a fault present at the end of the text with the wild prediction of the war and destruction of the Geat nation at the Shylfings evanesces. It is similarly interesting to note here that the song is book ended by funerals, wipeout being the inevitable conclusion o f fate, and also with prophecy, particularly effective for a modern au slip awaynce knowledgeable of the outcomes of such prognostications.However, it is in the episode of Beowulfs fight against the dragon that we go out the most signposted manifestation of fateHe was sad at heart,Unsettled withal ready, sensing his last.His fate hovered get on, unknowable only when certain (2419-2421)From the offset, we are told that Beowulf will die in this final battle, with the effect of fixture our perception of the final fight we guess it as tragic and epical, this warrior king trash despite sensing his fate near at hand. This gives the weight to the dragon fight, gives it its grim, poetical beauty. Here fate is expressed as a sense of foreboding, external to each value judgement. This would have a excogitation familiar to the Germanic impost of wyrd, or doom.However, if this is to be considered as evidence of the Anglo-Saxon concept of doom, because in the poesy we are also ab le to test the Christian equivalent, which give the bounce perhaps be better referred to as reverent sparing. In this interpretation of destiny, on that point is an integral theatrical role of judgement, whereby destiny is set out by divinity fudge. This approach to destiny can be seen at numerous shoot fors, for fashion model a comfort sent / by god to that nation (13-4). Here we can understandably see the order of Christian beliefs in the narrative voice of the poet. The evidence of divine intervention can be plant elsewhere in Beowulf, for example in his fight against Grendels motherIt was subdued for the Lord,the formula of Heaven, to redress the balanceonce Beowulf got patronise on his feet. (1554-6)This has the effect of showing that every last(predicate) outcomes are ultimately attributable to God, here reinforcing the positive characterisation of Beowulf by basically saying that God is in rear of him.The poet was here faced with a challenge when intertwini ng the themes of Christian providence and pleasure seeker wyrd, namely how do you tell an essentially ethnic story of a warrior hero plot staying true to a contrasting theological belief?In reply, we can depict several features of the Beowulf poem that support a satisfactory reconciliation of these apparently antithetical themes. The first is an identification of Beowulf and the other Germanic pagan heroes with God through their encounter to evil. An exemplification of this is that Grendel is intimately associated with sin and hell, for example in the description of him as a fiend out of hell (100) and the departurehe had dwelt for a timein misery among the banished monsters,Cains clan, whom the Creator had outlawedand condemned as outcasts. (104-7)Therefore, if Beowulf represents the purging factor that destroys the evil of Grendel and his mother, then by implication he is set as an agent of God, an important point as it demonstrates that he is under the influence of provid ence whilst still subject to his doom.In a number of ways the heroic characters are distanced from the paganism that they historically must(prenominal) hold, in particular they adhere to characteristically Christian formulas of worship. An example of this is They thanked God / for that easy crossing on a take root sea (227-8), which is instantly recognisable as an un-pagan thanksgiving to the providence of a oneness God. Indeed, throughout Beowulf there are signs that these pagans worshiped a monotheistic precursor to Christianity, rather than the polytheistic idol worship that would be extremely difficult to excuse from a Christian viewpoint.Thomas D. Hill points out that this would allow an approach similar to later humanists, such as Dante who placed such figures as Aristotle, Cato and Rifeo (all pagan) variously in hell, limbo or heaven. This in turn has the effect of allowing the providence theme to sit alongside that of doom because the distancing of the heroic characters from paganism conversely allows their more(prenominal) believable association with Gods fate.To further this effect, there is a selective assimilation of Christian sources into the poem. This is exampled by the numerous references to the Old testament, in particular to the race of Giants e.g. and the giants too who strove with God (113) and to the original sin and banishment of Cain for the move out of Abel (105-114). This enables a listener from a Germanic culture to more readily require the Christian overtones, as the Old Testament is notably closer to their own in its values than the New Testament, as well as the characters to be portrayed as what Hill refers to as Noachites, a spate possessing the intrinsic monotheism of Noah but before the revealed knowledge of God granted to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, a tradition culminated by the revelation of Law to Moses.Thus, although at one point the poem does iterate that they were damned as pagans because The Almighty measure / of good deeds and bad, the Lord God, / was hidden to them (180-3) (which is possibly explained as an interpolation), it enables the poet to suggest that these pagan heroes could, in fact, be fated for redemption by God and in death go to heaven, such as Hrethel who chose Gods light (2469).Thus, we can see how the poet of Beowulf reconciles these two divergent themes of fate and destiny, on one hand doom and on the other providence. In this respect the poem therefore also represents a much larger exceed co-assimilation and synthesis of the Germanic and Christian traditions. The resulting comely balance struck by the poet between them is highly interesting from a literary viewpoint and also gives the poem an exquisite and rich atmosphere.ConclusionThus we can see how the poet reconciles these two different strands of fate, on one hand doom and on the other providence. In this respect the poem therefore also represents the co-assimilation of the Germanic and Christian traditions .