The Anglo- Saxons and Greeks had distinct characteristics of their religious beliefs that were conflicting. Both the Greek and Anglo-Saxon Societies were polytheistic. The Anglo-Saxon gods however, differed from the Greek gods; the king of the Anglo-Saxon gods was Woden, in which our day of the week Wednesday was named after. Thunor, was the god of thunder, Frige, was the goddess of love, and Tiw, was the god of war. Unlike the Greeks who believed that the Gods were controlled by fate and would watch over them, the Anglo-Saxons were superstitious and thought rhymes, potions, and magic jewels would protect them from harm such as spirits and illnesses. The “seven worlds” described in the Nine Herbs Charm exhibited that humans lived on the Middangeard realm and their heaven-like realm was called Neorxnawang. In contrast, the Greeks believed in the underworld and afterlife after their burial but did not have seven realms like the Anglo-Saxon beliefs. Furthermore, in the Anglo-Saxon poem Widswith, the singing and spells attribute to the Anglo-Saxon belief that superstition would control the people’s lives. The poem translated by S. A. G. Bradley states that “Always, whether south or north, they will meet someone discerning of songs and unniggardly of gifts who desires to exalt his repute and sustain his heroic standing until everything passes away, light and life together” displaying the firm belief that although gods had power, the gods were not keeping the Anglo-Saxon people safe. This illustrates that the Anglo-Saxon people relied less on the gods in their every day lives than the Greeks. In addition, the Christianization of the Anglo- Saxon people in 597 AD prompted the change of polytheism to monotheism. The poem Cædmon describes how the Anglo-Saxon’s “served God with pure spirit and with mild and serene devoutness” as they changed from the belief of many gods to only one. During the time of the Greeks, the Greeks’ religion did not change to the dramatic extent of the Anglo-Saxons.
by: Trent Kajikawa, Wilson Muller, Daphne Liu, Naomi Krieger
Wylie.Period5.Team5.Reply.
ReplyDeleteLorena Huang Liu, Diana Huang, Rachel Yeo, and Isabel Kim
The connections are very well defined and clear! It is definitely true that the Anglo-Saxons depended a lot less in their Gods during everyday life than did the Greeks. This is probably partly because Anglo-Saxons were what some Europeans would consider "heathens." Originally Beowulf did not have as many Christian references, if any at all. However, just like Team 8 described, Christianization made many works of literature transform form heathen to Christian. Although the Christian references were not present before, they were later added on, which leads many individuals to believe that the Anglo-Saxons were originally Christian; this is a common misconception. Another good connection that was made by Team 8 was the contrast between Greek and Anglo-Saxon beliefs. It seems that Greeks were guided more by logic; many of the most recognized and most outstanding philosophers of all time were Greek. On the other hand, Anglo-Saxons seemed to be more superstitious. One example of this could be seen in Beowulf, as Grendel's mother needs Grendel's arm for his soul to be set free. There are several superstitions that the Anglo-Saxons believed in; however, this does not mean that they were any less intelligent. Greek and Anglo-Saxon cultures differed in various aspects, but the developments of their societies were both outstanding. In our opinion, Team 8 did a great synthesis because it was able to contrast several aspects of the Greek culture and the Anglo-Saxon culture, while bringing this knowledge back to answer the main synthesis question. Another excellent aspect was that there were other works such as S.A.G. Bradley's poem which were employed to support the main point of the paragraph.