Asher Period 3 Team 7

The story of Beowulf very much exemplifies the cultural conflicts and differences between heathen beliefs and traditional approaches. Beowulf was burned on a funeral pyre, and the story itself has many heathen elements to it, such as the use of totemic devices for luck or as charms, and the belief that vengeance is among the top priorities for man’s pursuit. The numerous Pagan elements of Beowulf is also intersected with many traditional beliefs and customs of monastic life, which also influenced the Greeks. Monasticism began when Saint Anthony the Great went to the desert in his search for solitude and evangelical life, then later spread throughout the globe as monasteries and monastic lifestyles began. Perhaps the most conflict Beowulf portrays is the selfless altruisism of Beowulf and the solitary, individual life of a monk. Beowulf battled against Grendel and Grendel’s mother, and serves as king the rest of his life until he is fatally wounded by the dragon in his last fight to defend his kingdom, whereas monastic life encourages isolation, and removing all obstacles to loving God. While Beowulf has Christian elements such as Cain’s slaying of Abel, allusions to the Last Judgement, and the reference of deities in Christian terms, the broad view of Beowulf is very conflicted between Pagan acts and Christian, monastic references. A possible explanation of this discrepancy is if two separate people contributed to the book, or if indeed it was one author, the author might be originally an Anglo-Saxon being heavily influence by the Christian churches and monastaries of Christian monks during 500 A.D. (as noted in research question1 ). With so many Christian influences during the later times of the Anglo-Saxons, the author may have been influenced by the spread of Christianity while still incorporating the old Pagan beliefs of the old Anglo-Saxons.

Anglo Saxon Synthesis

Synthesis Question

Amber Austin

Robbie Meza

Rin Sone

When progressing from Greek to Anglo Saxon eras, there is a very distinct separation of the cultures. Each society idolized the heroes (veterans), however each would honor the deceased for their life in a different way. The spiritual rituals between the two cultures where vastly different, and clearly conflicted with each other. As seen in Beowulf, one of the first Anglo Saxon works of literature, the Anglo Saxons practiced burning a body at a pyre in order to help the spirit of the individual to ascend to the afterlife. This shows that they believed the body was merely a vessel to the spirit. In Beowulf, however it also shows Norse traditions as seen in the sailing of the ship of King of Shielding.

The Greeks on the other hand would have a traditional burial of said body and would leave the body intact. In Beowulf we see the conflicting traditions that influenced the Anglo Saxons being combined in a way that differs greatly from any other. The Greeks believed in an afterlife however weren’t so definite as the body being any part of the after life which was simply to honor the deceased while the Anglo Saxon burning was to assist said spirit due to other influences. This is because while the Anglo Saxon had Greek influences, during this era Christianity started to become more and more evident which greatly influenced the belief in a definitive “Heaven”.

The monastic life became more and more prominent during the Anglo Saxon eras which lead to religion becoming a staple in day to day life. While as in Greek they believed in gods and were a monastic culture, however weren’t in a monotheistic culture. This simple mesh of Greek , Christian, and Pagan practices is what was the separating factor of the two rituals and is why they conflicted with each other. Anglo Saxons would burn the body with valuable possessions in order to show the wealth and importance/social status; While the Greeks would simply honor the dead with a simple burial. It wasn’t a matter of different standards of honoring the dead just different means.

Wylie P5 Team 1

The cultural conflict between the Greek and Roman era and the Anglo-Saxon era was more than just their beliefs on how to bury the dead. These two cultures conflicted the most in the area of religion. The Greeks and Romans believed in a multitude of gods that supposedly had chosen the fates of people from the day they were born. The Greeks and Romans didn’t make their own choices and live their own lives; they believed they had a life controlled by the gods. The Anglo-Saxons on the other hand, believed in living moral and lawful lives after their conversion to Christianity. Once they started believing in only one true God, who they believed watched over them and judged them during their lives, they started cleaning up their act and changing from the unorganized warring culture into an intelligent culture that produced literature. The main piece of Anglo-Saxon literature that reflects this cultural conflict is the poem Beowulf. In this poem, Beowulf lives his own life and does what he thinks is right and what he wants to do. He doesn’t believe in any destiny or fate, like in the Greek literature especially in Oedipus the King. In that story, Oedipus and his family believed wholeheartedly in their fate and lived by it their entire lives. If Oedipus and his family didn’t believe in their fate so much and lived their own lives, like Beowulf, the death and sorrow they experienced might have never happened. These two stories are prime examples if the cultural conflict between these two eras.