Anglo Saxon Poetry

Categories: Anglo Saxon

The Anglo Saxon is a period that started around fourth century, by people in Germany migrating to Britain. As time passed Anglo Saxon started to write literature that was full of high moral tone and wisdom. One of the most famous poetry written around that time was “Beowulf” and “The dream of the Rood”, these poems brought a lot of hope in times of war for the Anglo Saxons. The poems “The dream of the Rood” is basically about how god being so modest die on the cross for our sins.

While the poem of “Beowulf” is about how this arrogant guy has god on his side and how he changes his ways toward the end of the poem. Both poems have a lot of similarities and one of the biggest similarity is Christianity.

In the poem of Beowulf, we can see that they are a lot of references to the bible. One of them is that the monster Grendel is a descendant of Cain.

Get quality help now
Doctor Jennifer
Doctor Jennifer
checked Verified writer

Proficient in: Anglo Saxon

star star star star 5 (893)

“ Thank you so much for accepting my assignment the night before it was due. I look forward to working with you moving forward ”

avatar avatar avatar
+84 relevant experts are online
Hire writer

As it is said in Christianity in Beowulf: Themes & Examples, “Cain was jealous of his brother Abel, so Cain killed him. When God discovered this, Cain was then cursed. The belief is that the descendants of Cain are monsters and ill-favored creatures''. Beowulf being so great because he has god on his side starts to battle this creature to help the people get rid of these monsters, this is basically [good vs evil] in the poem and it’s the same thing that happen in the poem the dream of the rood.

Get to Know The Price Estimate For Your Paper
Topic
Number of pages
Email Invalid email

By clicking “Check Writers’ Offers”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy. We’ll occasionally send you promo and account related email

"You must agree to out terms of services and privacy policy"
Write my paper

You won’t be charged yet!

The evil in the poem is the sins that humanity has done on earth and the good is god being crucified and as it is said in the poem “God suffered upon/ for mankind’s so many sins”. (Lines 98-99) If it wasn’t for god being crucified our sins would have never been forgiven.

Another thing that both poems have in common are the deaths and what they died for. For example, in the poem the Dream of the Rood we can see that god got crucified on the cross and we can feel god’s suffering through the tone of the poem. As the poem states “They drove dark nails into me, the dints of does wounds can still be seen/open marks of malice” (Line 45-46). The poem’s tones and the pathos in the wording makes us imagine the suffering that god had to suffer until he died so that our sins could have been forgiven. In the poem Beowulf, we can see that the main character had to go through something similar. Toward the end of the poem we see that Beowulf turns into a king and in one of his conquest he ends up fighting this monster to save his people and he end up being killed. As it is said in The Dream of The Rood vs. Beowulf, “Both the dragon and sin are dangerous to mankind and each “hero” had to die in order for the wickedness to die”.

Something else that both poems have in common are that both of the main characters got betrayed. In the poem the dream of the rood, we see that while god was being crucified none of his disciples where present during his death, “They took their Almighty God, /Lifted him from that grim torment. Those warriors abandoned me/Standing all blood-drenched, al wounded with arrows. /They laid the limb-weary one, stood at his body’s head;/Beheld they their heaven’s Lord, and he himself rested there” (Lines 60-68). And in the poem of Beowulf we see that all of his soldiers abandon him while he was fighting the monster. If all of his soldiers would have stayed, Beowulf would probably had survived. “The battle-dodgers abandoned the wood, /the ones who had let down their lord earlier, /The tail-turners, ten of them together. /When he needed them most, they had made odd. /Now they were ashamed and came behind shields/In their battle-outfits, to where the old man lay” (Lines 2892-2897).

As it is said in The Dream of the Rood vs Beowulf, “After the crucifixion of Christ, his admirers were once afraid and belittled him came to mourn uselessly over his body. The same happen to Beowulf. Those would be to cowardly to help mourned over his body.” Even if both heroes got betrayed in the stories, the people that betrayed them at the end in both poems regretted what they did, and they lamented the heroes.

As you can see in both poems there are a lot of similarities but there are also differences, for example in the poem the dream of the rude we can see by the tone of the poem that god is such a humble man, “he climbed up on the high gallows/brave in the sights of many, as he sets out to redeem mankind” (Lines 41-42). While in the poem in Beowulf we can see by the tone of the poem that he is such an arrogant guy “Instead the inspected omens and spurred / his ambition to go” (Lines 204-205).

In conclusion the poem “The Dream of the Rood” and “Beowulf” are very important and famous poems, written during the Anglo-Saxon period. As we can see both poems have a lot of similarities and difference, but the subject that mostly takes place in both poem is Christianity. We can see that both heroes died with a purpose to stop wackiness from happening.

Updated: Nov 01, 2022
Cite this page

Anglo Saxon Poetry. (2021, Dec 13). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/anglo-saxon-poetry-essay

Anglo Saxon Poetry essay
Live chat  with support 24/7

👋 Hi! I’m your smart assistant Amy!

Don’t know where to start? Type your requirements and I’ll connect you to an academic expert within 3 minutes.

get help with your assignment