One of the things that stuck out most to me reading Beowulf again was the tension between the sense of God controlling men's lives and that of fate doing the controlling. It was more conspicuous in the first part of Beowulf, particularly during the fights with Grendel and Grendel's mother, but both concepts get screentime throughout.
It's one of the things that most sticks out for me as evidence of a clash of culture at the time of its writing. Did the contemporary readers accept both God and fate as the controller of their lives? Or were they more closely connected - God as a sort of agent of fate or vice versa? It's really fascinating to me.
PS: I commented on Sydni's post.
I've read Beowulf before and this is something that stuck out to me as well. It's almost as if in the beginning they don't want to admit that God is in control, but as time plays on, they see that as being more logical than 'fate'. However, I don't get the same feel of God from this as I would if someone in modern times talked about him. Here God is still seen as like this untouchable, unreachable, figure.
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