The Anglo-Saxons wrote tributes to the deceased, lamenting their losses, and designing the final resting places of the dead in honor, cremation or burial. The Anglo-Saxons disposed of their dead through cremation, depositing the ashes of the departed in highly decorated pots. In the traditional Christian belief, what happens to the body after death is a matter of science, “ashes to ashes, dust to dust. God created man from dirt and so the body will return to the earth” as the Bible states. The body is viewed as a vessel that holds the soul and the fate of the body does not matter as long as the soul is intact. One of the most common steps used to assure the spirit's safe passage to the after world was cremation. In the Anglo-Saxon period, almost all burials involved some form of cremation. The pagan culture from which the Beowulf story originates continues in the poem's funerals. Cremation reaffirms the idea that characters in Beowulf do not hold the same sentiments about Christianity that the poet holds. “If Beowulf truly possessed the Christian ideals that the poet often suggests, he would not find it necessary to be cremated, nor have his tomb adorned with riches.” These elements reveal to us the difficulty of combining a Christian religion into a heathen society.
Religion is a controversial issue in Beowulf,
because the story is told in Anglo-Saxon Britain, but it's about early
Scandinavia, which is pagan. The narrator of the poem confers by making
constant references to God's will in general terms, but never discussing Jesus
or the specific system of belief in Christianity. Beowulf would have been a
pagan, but the book suggests that Beowulf's trust in God translates into a
Christian perspective. The only specific reference to Christian stories is the
story of Cain and Abel.
You did a very good job including quotes from the Bible into your synthesis to back up the the aspect of cremation. It is not based on how you are buried or what you are buried with, what matter is your soul and going to heaven or hell. You guys didn't mention the Greek and Roman practices and how they worshiped many gods in their everyday lives. This is important because in some aspects of both cultures they have similarities but they too have their many differences.
ReplyDeleteYou say Beowulf would have been a pagan, but throughout the book there are still references to pagan beliefs and the worship of many gods. Could he not have been considered a combination of both pagan and Christianity? Though they both sort of contradict each other with the belief in one god and then the belief in many gods but in the Anglo -Saxon culture, they were going through the transition from paganism to christianity. Also in the book there are often general Christian references like you said but right after them are usually a pagan belief. Both these two religions had a high impact on the A-S culture and it is like you said a quite controversial subject.