Beowulf: Pagan Tale With Christian Additives

By Lee A Zito
Beowulf, a poem that dates back to approximately 1000 A.D., demonstrates heroic ideals of the Anglo-Saxon people. The poem is of pagan origin and was orally passed through generations until written down in Old English as a manuscript. Both the author and transcriber are unknown, although it is logically believed that the transcriber was most likely a monk or holy man because clergy were the only people who were educated during those times. This is where the reader is presented with a difficult conflict within the literary flow of Beowulf.
Being a poem that is rooted in pag…