Christian and Pagan Themes in Beowulf

Medieval Literature

In Beowulf the warriors are a mix of pagan and Christian traditions. They prove themselves through violence and battle rather than through prayer and piety. Yet they also have a good vs. evil concept that reflects the God vs. Satan paradigm in Christianity. Grendel and his mother are an inversion of the Blessed Mother and Her Son Christ. Beowulf himself fights Grendel without a weapon since Grendel himself uses none. This attitude of fairness and demonstration of valor is associated with Christian virtues. Yet the pagan concepts of warrior practices, ransoming of kin, and elements of revenge can be found; but still the idea of paying another’s debt, as Beowulf does for his father, is a Christian concept—but the practice of it could be seen as a pagan one as well.

The pentangle on Sir Gawain’s shield represents the virtues that the knight seeks to embody in his life. One point represents his desire to be without sin in the use of any of his five senses (i.e., to not be a sensual person); another point represents his desire to use his five fingers faithfully and without fail; another point represents his desire to be faithful to the five wounds of Christ (the hands, the feet, and the side); another point represents his desire to be succored by the five joys of Mary; and another point represents his desire to live by the virtues of chastity, piety, love, and courtesy.

The meaning of the pentangle functions in the whole of the narrative because Sir Gawain is tested on his senses, his faithfulness to God, his courage, and on his virtue. The challenge of the Green Knight is an overwhelming one that basically demands that he submit himself to his sure death—but he is rewarded for his honesty at the end (even though he is weak and does not adhere to the rules of the game as put forward by the Green Knight in disguise at his castle). The shield thus also represents the fact that Gawain by himself is vulnerable and in need of protection, and the pentangle is a sign that shows he knows where to go for real spiritual protection—to God and His Holy Mother. This is the root of his faith and ultimately the point of the story, for it ends with Gawain wearing the reminder of his weakness—the girdle.

Williams’ claims may apply to Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, where a magical plot allows the author to explore themes of morality and temptation; but they do not really apply to Chaucer’s Wife of Bath’s Tale, wherein magic is used for a self-serving aim. In Green Knight, magic sets up a situation wherein Sir Gawain is obliged to test his valor. He learns lessons about himself and his own weaknesses; he is humbled, and he accepts his judgment and literally wears it on his sleeve at the end as a reminder of who he is. In the Wife of Bath’s Tale, however, magic is used to satisfy everyone’s lust, which is not exactly a virtue in the Christian tradition when the tale was written. It may serve a modern reader to think that it is used to question social values regarding marriage and the woman’s role, but Chaucer most likely used it to show how the Wife of Bath is different from the Nun and some of the other characters: she is more sensual, willful, and insistent upon having her way. Her use of magic in her story is far different from that used by the author of the Green Knight. She uses magic to turn the Old Woman into a young woman so as to satisfy the lust of the knight. It is a far cry from Sir Gawain undergoing a magical test to prove his virtue and particularly his chastity. The two uses of magic are completely polar opposite.

Tension between spiritual and earthly concerns is evident in Chaucer’s stories, and in Wife of Bath, the dominant tension appears to be earthly: the Wife of Bath has had many husbands and has usually been dissatisfied with them all; but instead of trying to have humility about it, she has a much more “my way or the highway” attitude about her life.

The Pardoner is equally worldly: he freely admits to the group that he preaches sermons to sell fake relics to gullible believers. He then tells a story in which three friends kill each other out of greed. His moral is that greed is bad, but he himself seems to have no problem with being greedy. He even mocks the Host and offers to sell him a fake relic, which causes the Host to fly at him, and the knight has to keep a fight from breaking out. Clearly the Pardoner’s primary concern is having a good laugh and it doesn’t matter at whose expense it comes. Yet there is a spiritual component in the Pardoner that Chaucer seems to ironically convey by leaving it unsaid.