The interwoven traditions of Beowulf: interweaving the pagan past, Christian present, and local aesthetic in Beowulf

The purpose of this thesis is to understand the differing traditions that influenced the version of the only extant copy of the Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf and how their interweaving is at its most coherent in the character of Grendel. In order to do so the history of biblical exegesis, the scribal milieu of Anglo-Saxon England, the other manuscripts in the Nowell Codex, the inherited pagan heroic tradition, and the culture of the Anglo-Saxon community will be taken into consideration. An examination of the interweaving of the traditions in the monster Grendel will be undertaken in order to show the effectiveness of the interweaving and how this affects the way the poem should be read as a whole.