Just Say It

One part of Beowulf that I found interesting but also confused me, was the references to religion. Because the story is set in Denmark, in an age that seems like the Viking age, one would believe that the characters in Beowulf believed in Norse mythology, but while reading the poem, I couldn’t find any actual references to Norse mythology. The only religious references that I found, where Christian ones.

To me it felt like the author of the poem didn’t want to talk about paganism. We all get the feeling that it’s there, but the author doesn’t actually talk about it. There are no references to Thor or Odin, and neither to Valhalla, which is where Beowulf himself would go since he died in battle. The poem makes no reference to this, and instead says that the people in Denmark at that time believed there was nothing coming after death. I, as a Norwegian who grew up with the Norse myths, find this quite strange.

What I have seen, though, is similar tendencies in today’s society. We like to say we have included a specific theme in stories, but is it always there? Take J. K. Rowling, she’s one of the people who’s been doing this the most lately. She has been adding things to the Harry Potter universe after the last book was published. But does that count?

Does it count as LGBTQA+ representation to say, after the series is finished, that she meant to make Seamus Finnigan and Dean Thomas a couple, when she didn’t? Or does it count to say that there are Jewish students at Hogwarts, when none are mentioned in the actual books? She has also stated, outside of the source material, that Dumbledore is in fact gay and had a crush on Grindelwald, but that it’s not important to address it in the new movie that is going to be about Dumbledore and Grindelwald when they were young.

When Beowulf was written, people didn’t talk about other religions because of accusations of heresy. Today, main stream media don’t want to talk about LGBTQA+ issues because they’re afraid of homophobes. Stop beating around the bush, and just say it.