MovieChat Forums > Beowulf (2007) Discussion > Mention of 'hell'?

Mention of 'hell'?

posted 13 years ago by jh66
6 replies | jump to latest

Presumably the majority of people (Swedes and Danes) in this 5th century legend, set in pre-Christian Denmark, are not Christians? The modern English word 'Hell' is derived from Old English helle (about 725 AD to refer to a nether world of the dead), Old Norse hel.

After Beowulf killed Grendel, King Hrothgar, Beowulf and his surviving men give the honoured dead a warrior's fire funeral. It is then that Beowulf mentions the 'foul beast from hell'?

Hell, the Christian antithesis, is surely a word that would not have been uttered by pagans?

Even the 'older' Beowulf mentions Jesus/God as the "Christ God" in a distant way?

I could be wrong but it seemed as odd as Maximus's Roman saying it in Gladiator?

[–] MJohnathen 13 years ago

Most religions no matter the time or the place, from germanic and slavic to greeco and egyptians all had their own versions of gods, heavens and hells with that said, the norse version of hell is name helheim, which is where the romanic languages(english french and german) got hell from.

[–] student_points 13 years ago

english and german are not romanic languages but germanic, french on the other hand is a romanic language

[–] wulfthar 13 years ago

Yes but the guy is right, in norse mythology the concept of "hell" existed.

Juliet Parrish: You can't win a war if you're extinct!

[–] one_through_nine 13 years ago

Or Han Solo mentioning it in The Empire Strikes Back..

[–] mpavao13 12 years ago

Beowulf was originally told orally. It was written down by Christians who added in their own Christian references that wouldn't have existed at the time.

[–] snorfinn 12 years ago

Hell, the Christian antithesis, is surely a word that would not have been uttered by pagans?

It's probably the exact opposite: Germanic speaking Christians adapted a pre-existing pagan Germanic term for the underworld rather than importing the word inferno from the Latins. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hel_%28location%29.

'Hell' is derived from Old English helle (about 725 AD

That's most likely just the earliest recorded date of it being used in the modern sense. The word itself has deep Indo-European roots, being related to very basic words like hole, hollow (Swedish: hål, håla). Difficult to trace the place and time origin of the religious concept of the goddess and realm of Hel, these cultures did not have a literary culture until much later and there was always interaction going on between neighbouring cultures.