For years, the literary employment of fatalism has been a personal favorite of mine when reading. Ever since discovering the overly fatalistic attitudes of Billy Pilgrim in Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five, I have taken a keen interest in the role fatalism plays in the very psyche of a story's characters. As such, few literary works interest as much as the timeless epic Beowulf.
Beowulf tells us a story predicated on heroism, following the exploits of a rugged Geat named Beowulf. At its core, Beowulf contains three main story arcs: Beowulf's confrontation with Grendel, Beowulf's skirmish with Grendel's mother, and Beowulf's battle with the dragon. In each of these three story arcs, the Beowulf poet uses theology and culture from his time as tools to express fatalism through their narration and through Beowulf. Given that fatalism represents the idea that, as put by author Steven Cahn, "no man ever has it within his power to both to bring about the occurrence of an event and also to prevent the occurrence of that event" the narrator's attitude towards -as well as Beowulf's impressions on- the story's events closely reflects this definition. Most notably, the narrator and Beowulf repeatedly refer to God and his will as determining factors in the outcome of the story's events. Though theological fatalism is the most common form of fatalism seen in the epic poem, the Beowulf poet also employs Germanic cultural norms as motivators for Beowulf's fatalistic attitudes. Between the two of them, both Beowulf and the narrator express fatalistic attitudes at multiple points throughout each of the three arcs. Of the two forms of fatalism, theological fatalism emerges first.
Theological fatalism as seen in Beowulf is not purely Christian. Instead, fatalism in the story comes from a combination of Christian and Germanic pagan traditions that were popular from around 700-1000 A.D. Germanists such as Bernhard Kummer have noted that "the cult of Oden with its fatalism (so typical of Eddic poems) triumphantly unite[d] with the incipient Christian influence long before the actual penetration by the missionaries of the Roman Church." Put another way, Germanic religions and Christianity around the time of Beowulf's writing were ingredients in a metaphorical melting pot of ideas and values. In this melting pot, religious doctrine and cultural values could mingle. From this, folklore author Ronald Grambo extrapolates that "[f]atalism may well enter the domain of religion, even Christian religion. God may be identified with the forces of fate." In the case of Beowulf, that is precisely what happened. In the epic poem, the Christian God is worshiped by the characters, while pagan fatalism famous in northern Germanic culture serves as a tool of God's will. Each of the poem's three central narratives shows this unique relationship. In Beowulf's fight with Grendel, he calls on God to allow the Geats to purge the Dane mead hall, Heorot, of Grendel. In Beowulf's battle with Grendel's mother, the narrator claims God wills Beowulf's armor to withstand the onslaught from the beastly woman, allowing Beowulf to clutch victory. In the final narrative, Beowulf praises God for his allowance of the dragon's spoils for the Geats. In all of these scenes, Beowulf asserts that forces of fate beyond his control dictate the outcome of his tribulations.
In one way or another, fatalism manifests itself in many stories where peril and death-defying heroism take center stage. In the case of this Old English epic, fatalism comprises the very strings of fate Beowulf clings to throughout his eternal story.
