Epics are the world's longest forms of poetry, and like all poetry often encompasses both the traditions and religions of the culture they are created in. As an example, the Odyssey uses the Greek pantheon and the tradition of hospitality in most of the epic to create conflict and solutions. This combination of characteristics help create a great and flowing story that is filled with interesting and creative plot that the audience can relate with. However, these characteristics can also be analyzed, as they sometimes cause conflict with one another and therefore, can cause interesting patterns and themes to emerge in the epic. This happens to be the case with another great epic, one which is the oldest surviving epic in old English, has tons …show more content…
In all stories there has to be some sort of conflict, and because of the strong influence of Scandinavia culture, battles were almost a necessity in Beowulf. Because there had to be battles, only two options were available when Christians decided to take on the epic: Beowulf kills, or he himself dies. If Beowulf dies, then there is no story and he cannot kill another human being, for it expresses extensively in the bible that it is a sin to murder, and that we as humans, should never kill other humans. So this causes a dilemma due to the necessity for both battles and the main character to not sin against the leading religion of the time. The solution is what may be plausible evidence for the theory that the Christian narrators changed the characters from the original Beowulf into monsters. In reality this solution is incredibly genius, as it provides the audience with the action and fighting that they demand, while Beowulf technically never commits a serious sin. In fact, the transition to monsters as the antagonist provide a wider variety to the story, as they are now more unknown and cause extra excitement and anxiety to the