Friday, October 25, 2019
A Comparison of Runes and Magic in Beowulf and in Anglo-Saxon England :: comparison compare contrast essays
Runes and Magic in Beowulf and in Anglo-Saxon England      In the Old English poem Beowulf we see the mention of runes, which were used with connotations of magic or charms. Examining evidence from historic times, we find that early Englishmen were fully conversant with the Germanic runic alphabet and that runes did have special connotations.  In Beowulf the hero is in deadly combat with Grendel’s mother in the mere. He is at the point of being killed by the monster when suddenly God shows to him the presence of a special sword nearby on the wall. Beowulf seizes the giant weapon and kills the monster. Then:                                                             that sword had begun to melt                    in battle-bloody icicles; that it melted away                   was as much a marvel as ice itself                               when the Father unwinds the bonds of frost,                    loosens the freezing chains of water,                       Who keeps the power of times and seasons;               He is the true God. . . . Already the sword                   had melted away, its blade had burned up;           too hot the blood of the poisonous spirit              who had died within. . . . the wave-sword burned up,     quenched in that blood. . . . then the strange gold hilt           was placed in the hand of the gray-bearded king,         wise war-leader old work of giants;                   after the fall of devils it came into the hands               of the lord of the Dane-men, from magic smithies;                 once the fierce spirit, long God’s opponent,              guilty creature, and his murderous mother        had quitted this world, it came to the power                of the best overlord between the two seas,              of all world-rulers in Scandanavia             who gave good treasures. Hrothgar spoke,                      examined the hilt, great treasure of old.                There was engraved the origin of past strife, when the flood drowned, the pouring ocean killed           the race of giants. . . . On its bright gold facings          there were also runes set down in order,                    engraved, inlaid, which told for whom                the sword was first worked, its hair-keen edges,                  twisted gold scrolled in the hilt,                    the woven snake-blade(1605ff).  Chickering in his â€Å"Commentary†would have us believe that the melting sword is a reference to patristic theology, to St.
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