Beowulf

== == Sometimes believers get a little carried away in their well-intentioned desire to convince others of their point of view. Many do not believe in God, and many who do believe in God do not believe that the bible is literally true. Those who do not believe in God say that there is no convincing evidence. There is room on earth for people holding a wide variety of beliefs. We have all the abilities God has, since he is our father. We just don't know much about how to use them, yet. I was able to prove this to myself during my indepth studies, by learning how to do some things that I had previously thought and had been told that were impossible.

To understand the bible requires the use of the universal language of mind. The attempt to understand it without this language in which it was written, is what causes so much confusion. Of course this language was only discovered during this past century so one cannot expect that everyone would know about it yet. This was God's plan. Have you ever asked why or where you fit in His plan? Why were you born, and for what purpose? Our minds will understand as we get to know Him. There are many gods on earth today. Those that can't hear, can't see, can't talk, or do anything, yet, we know from God's Holy Word, that He is God. The true and living God that can hear,see and speak to us through the Bible. One of the greatest truths

in the Bible is that He loves us.

What pleases God more than anything? Above all things, He wants our love and affection. Mark 12: 30 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God,

with all thy heart, and with all thy soul,

and with all thy mind,

and with all thy strength:

This is the first commandment.

As far as I know that is the Jewish greatest commandment part of the Torah but I could be wrong. There may be a number of different reasons for this. If people feel that the Christian faith is just a whole lot of superstition they may be upset if anyone tries to suggest it is fundamentally grounded in historical events. So they will do all in their power to demonstrate it is false, despite the reliable eyewitness testimony.

Also, over the years many false and superstitious practices have been incorporated into churches that are called Christian. This creates confusion since these practices which in some cases amount to idolatry are actually not Christian at all, and so they ought to be rejected. But what happens is that people wish to 'throw out the baby with the bathwater' and regard it all as false.

What is possibly even worse is that persons who call themselves Christians also attack the Christian faith and its foundations, some from a pseodo-scholarly perspective. Many of the false theories of the skeptical period during the nineteenth century have been disproved, yet people still love to restate them, perhaps to give themselves assurance that this superstition is not actually true.

To some extent, simple human pride may be involved (which we are all guilty of at some time -even Christians) as people do not want to admit possible the most offensive of Christian teachings, that we are all rotten sinners and need saving. They would prefer to either do it themselves by their own works, set up their own religion, or reject the concept of personal sin and accountability altogether and think they are really pretty good people.

So, in a nutshell, the answers will vary, but the most important thing is that the Bible is shown to be not true, or else someone may have to repent.

The reason why some people get so disturbed about religious dogma, is mainly because of all the inconsistencies and falsehoods of religious scriptures. Religious leaders have used their dogma to oppress, victimize and terrorize those who refuse to subscribe to their particular brand of bigotry. Jesus and John the Baptist were classic victims of tyrannical bigotry from greedy selfish religious charlatans. Religion has had more to do with human selfishness and greed than with righteousness, piety, compassion and spirituality. The evil, vicious, and greedy individuals enjoy success and prosperity from the exploitation of the weak. But the weak and less affluent individuals are fooled with false promises of a paradise called Heaven, which can only be accessed after death. People's presuppositions do not allow them to accept either miracles or the supernatural, despite evidence for both.

Also, as some choose to reject God, they also reject the morality of the Bible and replace it with their own. The Bible and especially the God of the Bible would call much of what they do into question and hold them to account. This they find both disturbing and offensive, that there is a being who created all things and will one day hold people to account for their deeds.

In order to escape the disturbing consequences of the reality of God, they grab onto whatever will, in their own eyes, qualify as a satisfactory excuse. Some of these excuses include imagined and non-rational conclusions which find non-existent errors in the Bible, non-existent contradictions and non-existent evidence against the Bible. Such persons set up straw men such as 'people who believe the Bible are also believers in a flat earth,' in order to ridicule the Bible and those who believe in it. They also frequently quote the Bible out of context in order to prove it wrong.

These devices are indeed necessary it seems, since very few will honestly just say 'I don't believe it.' They wish to appear that they have the intellectual and moral high ground and so unceasingly ridicule something they don't understand. Christians believe in the Bible because they're told to believe. Christians like being told what to do and how to do it. Few Christians have a mind of their own. If they don't believe in the Bible and/or if they don't believe in God, the Bible says such nonbelievers will be sent to hell where they'll burn in agonizing pain forever. Many Christians fear the Christian God because of this. They also think everyone should believe in the Christian God because the Christian faith is still in the minority long after 2000 years have gone by, and that leaves many to doubt it's actually the religion they should follow. You hear many Christians say they're god-fearing. This is very true. It says in the bible that you should fear god, so Christians fear their god. He has a temper and will send you to hell in a second even on something so trivial as not thinking he would or could send you to hell. Christians love the story of Noah because it vividly demonstrates the power and anger of their god when he murdered all the people in the world by flood, except Noah and his immediate family of 39, including one homosexual who later on did an unspeakable act upon Noah. Apart from that, Christians love that story. It is so well written in their bible you can almost hear the anguished pleadings and heartfelt cries of the terrified mothers holding their tiny babies in their hands, pleading and sobbing for Noah and his family to please save their gasping, drowning, screaming babies from the swirling waters. All the animals saved but not the tiny babies of the world. This scares most Christians into fearing god, for if god will murder babies, why would he not murder them too. Best to fear god and not question anything regarding the bible or those who preach the bible. I hope this clarifies for you the importance of doing what you're told when you're told to do it, and to never question anything in the bible because it's probably true, and even if it isn't it could be later on in the future, or might have been true in the past but just isn't now for some reason. You have a mission never to question as a Christian the teaching of all the saints and important people in the bible. God sees all and knows all and can tell if you really believe in him or not, so believe in him or else.

"She was doomed to dwell in the dreary waters, / cold sea-courses, since Cain cut down"

"To his bower was Beowulf brought in haste, / dauntless victor. . . ."

"I will reward thee, for waging this fight, / with ancient treasure, as erst I did, / with winding gold, if thou winnest back"

"'Hrunting' they named the hilted sword, / of old-time heirlooms easily first"

• "The livelong time / after that grim fight, Grendel's mother, / monster of women, mourned her woe" (XIX, 8 - 9)
• "Too soon came back / old ills of the earls, when in she burst, / the mother of Grendel. . . ." (XIX, 30 - 32)
• "Hero famed / should be every earl as Aeschere was! / But here in Heorot a hand hath slain him" (XX, 8 - 10)
• "Then girt him Beowulf / in martial mail, nor mourned for his life" (XXI, 60 - 61)

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"It came in his mind / to bid his henchmen a hall uprear"

"How ceaselessly Grendel / harassed Hrothgar . . ."

"'Who are ye, then, ye arméd men, / mailéd folk . . .'"

"'To Hrothgar I / in greatness of soul would succor bring'"

"The livelong time / after that grim fight, Grendel's mother, / monster of women, mourned her woe"

"Too soon came back / old ills of the earls, when in she burst, / the mother of Grendel. . . ."

"Hero famed / should be every earl as Aeschere was! / But here in Heorot a hand hath slain him"

"Then girt him Beowulf / in martial mail, nor mourned for his life"

They will be very petty snd try to put you down in ways that they think they can get away with (passive aggressive tactics). They will say things that have a double edged sword meant to hurt you. They also chose to do this when you are out somewhere and no one can hear. I once had this friend who was fat. I was very slim and still am. When I was pregnant she wanted to see my stomach and she looked and goes, "oh you don't have very many stretch marks." The thing is I never got even one. She was always saying crap. She was a parasite. I dropped her like a hot spud and ignored her.

9 Characteristics of an epic hero

1. The hero is introduced in the midst of turmoil, at a point well into the story; antecedent action will be recounted in flashbacks.

2. The hero is not only a warrior and a leader, but also a polished speaker who can address councils of chieftains or elders with eloquence and confidence.

3. The hero, often a demi-god, possesses distinctive weapons of great size and power, often heirlooms or presents from the gods.

4. The hero must undertake a long, perilous journey, often involving a descent into the Underworld (Greek, "Neukeia"), which tests his endurance, courage, and cunning.

5. Although his fellows may be great warriors (like Achilles and Beowulf, he may have a commitatus, or group of noble followers with whom he grew up), he undertakes a task that no one else dare attempt.

6. Whatever virtues his race most prizes, these the epic hero as a cultural exemplar possesses in abundance. His key quality is often emphasized by his stock epithet: "ResourcefulOdysseus," "swift-footed Achilles," "piousAEneas."

7. The concept of arete (Greek for "bringing virtue to perfection") is crucial to understanding the epic protagonist.

8. The hero establishes his aristeia (nobility) through single combat in superari a superiore, honour coming from being vanquished by a superior foe. That is, a hero gains little honour by slaying a lesser mortal, but only by challenging heroes like himself or adversaries of superhuman power.

9. The two great epic adversaries, the hero and his antagonist, meet at the climax, which must be delayed as long as possible to sustain maximum interest. One such device for delaying this confrontation is the nephelistic rescue (utilized by Homer to rescue Paris from almost certain death and defeat at the hands of Menelaus in the Iliad).

10. The hero's epic adversary is often a "god-despiser," one who has more respect for his own mental and physical abilities than for the power of the gods. The adversary might also be a good man sponsored by lesser deities, or one whom the gods desert at a crucial moment.

11. The hero may encounter a numinous phenomenon (a place or person having a divine or supernatural force) such as a haunted wood or enchanting sorceress that he most use strength, cunning, and divine assistance to overcome.