Academic Writing; Beowulf in Heaven; A Christian Monk Suggests Salvation for a Pagan

Beowulf in Heaven: A Christian Monk Suggests Salvation for a Pagan

In reading and studying Beowulf, the influence of the Christian author is evident in the language of the poem. Repeated references to the Almighty God and Grendel’s important biblical ancestor, Cain, leads to questions concerning the author’s intentions with the heavy handed Christian message juxtaposed with the pagan tale. Are readers supposed to see Beowulf as a Christian character? Essentially, “all” critics believe Beowulf to be a heathen poem that once existed in the pre-Christian world of Anglo-Saxons, without the Christian resemblances (Blackburn, 205), so it is wise to assign Beowulf his rightful pagan identity while simply acknowledging the author as interpreting a heathen tale through Christian eyes. However, the fact still remains that the only version of the tale available fuses a pagan legend with overwhelming Christian language, and such a synthesis must have been done for a reason. Beowulf’s exceptionally virtuous character together with the Beowulf-poet’s language used surrounding Beowulf’s funeral suggests that the Christian poet thought salvation was possible for Beowulf.

The Beowulf-poet, who is believed to have been a monk or a priest (Robinson, 181), establishes within the first 200 lines that the Geat people are pagans and heathens with no knowledge of the Christian God:

Sometimes at pagan shrines they vowed

                        offerings to idols, swore oaths

that the killer of souls might come to their aid

and save the people. That was their way,

their heathenish hope; deep in their hearts

they remembered hell. The Almighty Judge

of good deeds and bad, the Lord God,

Head of the Heavens and High King of the World,

was unknown to them. Oh, cursed is he

who in time of trouble has to thrust his soul

in the fire’s embrace, forfeiting help;

he has nowhere to turn. But blessed is he

who after death can approach the Lord

and find friendship in the Father’s embrace. (175-88)

These lines would understandably lead readers and interpreters to the conclusion that “they [the pagan characters] were deprived of the Christian revelation enjoyed in his [the poet’s] own era” (Robinson, 181), and therefore could not possibly be saved. However, in the remainder of the poem the poet makes incredible use of foreshadowing. With this in mind, the lines “blessed is he / who after death can approach the Lord / and find friendship in the Father’s embrace” (186-88) could be read as a suggestion of Beowulf’s fate, rather than a simple allusion to the language used within the New Testament of the Bible.

To jump from the beginning to the middle of the poem’s plot, Beowulf’s virtuous actions as a warrior and later a king may very well have earned him a place in heaven. In his defeating Grendel and Grendel’s mother, he not only rids Hrothgar of a great burden—a virtuous action—but he successfully defeats the descendent of Cain, who is an enemy of God. Because Grendel and Grendel’s mother are “identified with the foes of God…Beowulf, for all that he moves in the world of the primitive Heroic Age of the Germans, nevertheless is almost a Christian knight” (qtd. in Tolkien, 116). Before the Christian Beowulf-poet’s influence upon the poem, it is safe to say that the monsters Beowulf faced were not described as “descendants of Cain.” The poet’s choosing to associate the monsters with the enemy of God could not have been done casually, without knowledge of what such a defeat could imply for Beowulf. Christian-knights would rarely, if ever, have been thought to go anywhere except heaven after they die.

After Beowulf’s defeat of Grendel and Grendel’s mother, Hrothgar gives him an eloquent speech full of praise, followed by advice and warnings. After praising Beowulf as a man “born to distinction” (1703) and “even-tempered, / prudent and resolute” (1704-05), he implores Beowulf to resist the sins of coveting, resentment, dishonoring customs, and becoming stingy with his gold (1749-50). He states,  “O flower of warriors, beware of that trap. / Choose, dear Beowulf, the better part, eternal rewards. Do not give way to pride” (1758-60). Within these lines a very Christian message can be interpreted, with emphasis on the term “eternal rewards”. In the traditional pagan society Beowulf would have lived in, eternal rewards simply implied the desire to be remembered after death as a great warrior or as a legend. In this case the poet’s word choice suggests a duplicate meaning: the eternal rewards of life after death in heaven. Being remembered eternally as a legend and achieving Christian salvation can both be achieved by being a fierce warrior, a just, generous, and sacrificial king, and by avoiding the vice of pride.   This duplicate interpretation of a phrase that fits both pagan and Christian ideologies is an example of “how close the good pagans of old came in their monotheism to Christian truth” (Frank, 993); however, some have argued that the poet “never suggests that such simulation, such groping toward true piety, is sufficient for salvation” (qtd in Frank, 993). Despite this assertion, the converse can be argued by the same logic: the poet never states that such closeness to Christian truth “is insufficient” for salvation (Frank, 993).

The end scenes of the poem provide more evidence to refute the denial of the possibility of Beowulf’s salvation with suggestion of a past Geat going to heaven, and language used concerning Beowulf’s death. When Beowulf is informed of the threat of the dragon and before he sets out to defeat it, he enters into a recap of his childhood. He recounts the story of King Hrethel’s grief after the accidental murder of one of his sons by his other son. Beowulf speaks of King Hrethel saying, “Heartsore, weary, he turned away / from life’s joys, chose God’s light / and departed” (2468-69). Significant in this account is King Hrethel’s choice in going to God and departing from the world. Because of the mention of a singular God, the poet’s Christian influence is evident in these lines, and he unmistakably gives King Hrethel the choice of salvation, strongly suggesting the poet’s belief that for virtuous pagans, or at least virtuous pagan kings, going to heaven was possible.

Because of the Beowulf-poet’s apparent Christian knowledge, it seems fitting that in his penning of the poem, Beowulf’s death would result in his soul going to one of two destinations: heaven or hell. With the continuous references to Christianity, it is doubtful that the poet would leave the afterlife untouched by Christian influence. Indeed, all words linked to Beowulf’s soul suggest salvation rather than damnation. In Beowulf’s death scene, the poet writes, “His [Beowulf’s] soul fled from his breast / to its destined place among the steadfast ones” (2819-20). Firstly, the word fled is directly associated with the word fly, implying that Beowulf’s soul did not drain or seep from his body into the ground towards the netherworld, but flew upward towards the Christian God. Further, Beowulf’s soul fled to be “among the steadfast ones”. Not only does steadfast have a positive connotation that would not be associated with the negative associations applied to the souls destined to hell, but within the New Testament, St. Paul calls the Corinthians to be steadfast in the work of the Lord, suggesting that steadfastness is a necessary attribute for salvation (The Catholic Teen Bible, 1 Corinthians 15:58). Finally, the Beowulf-poet writes that, “Heaven swallowed the smoke” (3155). Of course, smoke rises regardless of the destination of Beowulf’s soul. However, the poet again emphasizes the idea of going or flying upward as he describes Beowulf’s funeral proceedings. This upward emphasis paired with the direct mention of Heaven makes it hard to consider Beowulf’s soul going anywhere but up with the smoke to be swallowed by heaven.

            The Beowulf-poet presents a puzzling fusion of paganism and Christianity that becomes impossible to fully separate when reading and interpreting the poem. While it is accepted as genius that the Christian poet radically synthesized two conflicting cultures and belief systems into a profound story, it seems strange to think that a Christian monk would synthesize pagan and Christian elements so radically as to suggest salvation for the non-Christian hero of the poem. However, it seems that such a synthesis is entirely plausible. Thomas D. Hill said concerning Beowulf, “Great poets often see more deeply than their contemporaries; and if the Beowulf-poet seems to have anticipated by generations the humanism and tolerance of thinkers like Erasmus, we need not be surprised” (Hill, 211). In portraying Beowulf as a Christian knight and suggesting his soul’s ascension after his death, the Beowulf-poet very well could have been toying with the idea of Christian faith through actions. Beowulf’s sacrificial fight with the great dragon for his people is reminiscent of a verse from the Gospel of John: “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (The Catholic Teen Bible, John 15:13). Though Beowulf was a pagan, the poet of his character’s epic tale as warrior and king must have had sympathies for the virtuous and generous king’s sacrifices for mankind, for he wrote Beowulf’s soul into Heaven where he and the poet presumably dwell together for eternity.