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The epic Beowulf, is based upon pagan tradition that shows nature as being hostile and forces of death uncontrollable. Within the epic, victims are chosen randomly and the natural world is forever at odds with people. The character Beowulf dies a failure. This view is easily supported by a myriad of events throughout Beowulf.

Nature is constantly presented as hostile throughout the entire epic. The sea is thought of as cold and deadly and is shown to take many lives of the people who cross it. The most prominent natural forces in Beowulf are monsters. These monsters are part of nature, but they are at odds, in all ways, with people. Beowulf himself describes terrible sea monsters that devoured men that he had to defeat. The epic tells the story of Beowulf and how he had to slay Grendel and Grendel's mother. His final challenge, which he succumbed to, was the dragon. These creatures are things of nature, although Grendel is described as being born of man, they have nothing in common with man. These natural creatures show extreme hostility throughout the epic.

The forces of death are depicted as being entirely controlled by fate. It is told at the beginning of the epic that Grendel kills thirty men, and all for no reason. These men had no control of their own fates as they were sleeping at the time of the attack. Many of Beowulfs friends dies throughout the epic, making them all seem expendable. Lastly, even the protagonist of the epic, Beowulf succumbs to the dragon and dies. The main character cannot escape death at the end of the story.

Beowulf also has many more sublte ties to paganism. The fact that Beowulf does die at the conclusion of the epic makes that point quite prominent. Paganism focuses on man's own failing as compared to that of nature, essentially that nature will always prevail over man. More modern stories have a christian theme, in which good must defeat evil. In most stories, good does overcome evil. The analogy is good, the church, will face evil, those who oppose the church, and always prevail. Stories based on this general theme propogate the idea that the church is invincible. Pagan stories simply make prominent man's own inadequacies. Beowulf is distinctly pagan because the figure of good, Beowulf, is killed by a natural force which he cannot overcome.

The sad end of Beowulf adjourns the idea that people and nature could ever live in harmony, but the idea of people living in harmony with other people is created. Beowulf's self-sacrifice unites all people, although the rift between human and moster becomes perceptibly stronger. Pagan tradition composes the framework for the basis of Beowulf.

Learn more about this author, Kohl Linsberg.
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