Beowulf and the Modern Epic

          Beowulf is not a poem; it is a photograph.  It is a freeze frame of the values of the society from which it came.  Clearly, Beowulf is a Christian poem.  The religiousness of the era is on full display here, with pagans portrayed as evil.  As the first English language epic, Beowulf is an important jumping off point for examining the evolution of the epic.  In today’s world, epics are very highly regarded.  They have branched out in all directions in regard to content, but almost all of them share the same goal: to entertain.  Or rather, to capitalize on entertainment.  The greatest variation between modern epics and Beowulf is not in structure but in characterization.  Perhaps the most well-known contemporary hero is Harry Potter.  In comparison to Beowulf, Harry Potter’s strength is intellectual and not physical.  His character has a myriad of traits that serve as stark contrasts to Beowulf’s, yet the concept of heroism is similar in both.

            Heroic traits are reflective of the era in which they are from.  The vast differences between Beowulf and Harry Potter are a perfect example of this.  Harry is a modest person.  Though he has special abilities, he is a regular person.  Where Harry’s gift is magic, Beowulf’s is strength.  He does not fit the role of the “average human” as well as Harry does, but this is intentional.  He may come off as arrogant to a modern audience, but Beowulf was written in an entirely different period.  These traits of Beowulf’s were not excessively prideful; they were earned.  Beowulf was a hero who was able to back up his boasts.  Much as Beowulf has negative aspects to a modern audience, Harry would be viewed negatively by the audience Beowulf was written for.  He is not strong and is timid in the beginning.  He cares more about love than he does about fighting.  Yet the worst of all is the religious aspect.  Magic was seen as inherently evil by Christians at the time of Beowulf.  Wizardry is central to Harry Potter and it is portrayed as a tool for good, contrary to this viewpoint.

            Not only magic, but every pagan concept that clashed with Christianity was seen as evil by the authors of Beowulf.  Grendel is a monster; a murderous and uncivilized creature.  Pagans were viewed as being just as uncivilized by Christians, and were treated as subhuman.  The people who depicted extreme acts of violence in Beowulf did so while criticizing pagans for violence.  The violence in Beowulf was more than heroic for these people, it was godly.  Beowulf was killing evildoers who opposed his god; this was more than simply being honorable, it was holy through and through.  It’s easy to tell through reading Beowulf that the society that birthed it strictly adhered to Christian scripture.  Christianity was once as small as the pagan religions that Christians worked to erase from existence.  Moving forward this religion became massive and unparalleled in scope.  It would have been impossible for Beowulf to have had no ties to Christianity, yet the Harry Potter series was able to gain huge popularity without a big incorporation of religion into it.  Because of this Harry Potter, along with every other modern epic, was open to a much more diverse audience than Beowulf, which had no audience beside Christians.

            Beyond character, technology, and even language, the greatest change from Beowulf to a modern epic of one’s choice is the values held by the societies that they came from.  While Christianity is now a monolithic entity present in everyday life, it is no longer the sole element.  Where strength and victory were once the staples of a hero, smarts and kindness have replaced them.  The larger part of society has not embraced fundamentalist religion, which is similar in intensity to religion in Beowulf.  Society has experienced a shift in general ideas of morality as a result.  Because of the diversity of modern society, there is a wider range of what people think is right and wrong.  Though this range exists, there is still a primary set of morals that society accepts and pushes on those who disagree.

            Beowulf is the embodiment of first century values.  Through studying the text, one instantly gets a sense of the massive shift in what was considered morally acceptable then and now.  Modern audiences are exposed to a different kind of hero than Beowulf, such as Harry Potter.  Just like Beowulf, Harry Potter is a reflection of the society from which it came from.  Compassion is valued more than faith; intellect is valued more than strength.  What was once created for simple entertainment can now be looked back on by contemporary society as a piece of a puzzle that gives one insight into what life was like two thousand years ago.  Two thousand years from today, though print will likely not exist, people will look back on the epics of our time and use them to learn about society in this day and age.  Like Beowulf, any epic that accomplishes this transcends text; it becomes a photograph.