rendels mother, a divine light shone down from the heavens. The poet states that As though burning in that hall, and as bright as heavens own cradle, lit in the sky(647-648). Beowulf knew that he was a great fighter, but he also knew that God was still in control and could change his successes to failures and his very life to death. My hands alone shall fight for me, stuggle for life against the monster. God must decide who will be given to deaths grip(172-175). The Anglo-Saxons believed that life was a struggle against insuperable odds and that a mans wyrd or lot would be what it would be (Chickering 269). Basically, the Anglo-Saxons believed that whatever happened in a persons life was what God had already thought of and planned for. God knew that Beowulfs battle with the dragon would be his last, therefore, Gods will played a tremendous factor in Beowulfs victories. The three battles are significant because they were not against men. If they were against men, then his motives and actions might have been portrayed differently. As it turns out, his battles were against evil monsters that represented everything that points to evil. In the Bible, Ephesians 6:12 closely parallels this idea; For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but againstthe powers of this dark world and the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. The monsters were presented as a tangible evil, but their evil did not hinder Beowulfs courage and faith in God. According to Bloom, Beowulf was a hero mainly because of his deeds (Bloom 46). This principle of faith and deeds is showed in James; You have faith, I have deeds. Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do (New International Version Bible. James 18:18).The epic poem Beowulf depicts the monster, Grendel as being a spawn of the devil. The poet uses the biblical story of Cain and Abel to show Grendels origin and how he represents evil. Conceived by a pai...
