A Comparison of Runes and Magic in Beowulf and in Anglo-Saxon England :: comparison compare contrast essays

Runes and prank in Beowulf and in Anglo-Saxon England In the Old English verse form Beowulf we see the mention of runes, which were used with connotations of magic or charms. Examining evidence from past times, we find that early Englishmen were fully conversant with the Germanic runic first principle and that runes did have limited connotations. In Beowulf the hero is in deadly assail with Grendels mother in the mere. He is at the point of being killed by the monster when suddenly graven image shows to him the presence of a special brand 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 violence of times and seasons He is the true God. . . . Already the sword had melted away, its leaf blade had burned up too hot the blood of the poisonous sapidity who had died within. . . . the wave-sword burned up, quenched in that blood. . . . then the strange gold hilt was put in the hand of the gray-bearded king, wise war-leader old work of giants after the excrete of devils it came into the hands of the lord of the Dane-men, from magic smithies once the fierce spirit, long Gods opponent, guilty creature, and his murderous mother had quitted this world, it came to the power of the best schoolmaster between the two seas, of all world-rulers in Scandanavia who gave good nurses. Hrothgar spoke, examined the hilt, great treasure of old. There was engraved the origin of past strife, when the flood drowned, the pouring maritime killed the race of giants. . . . On its bright gold facings there were also runes destiny 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). Chick ering in his Commentary would have us believe that the thaw sword is a reference to patristic theology, to St.