Beowulf – Lessons we can use

Beowulf – that epic Anglo-Saxon saga no one likes to read – just won’t go away. Woody Allen famously said no one should ever sign up for anything if it includes reading Beowulf.

He was wrong about that.

I’ve taught the text a few times, now – and so I’ll share a brief insight from it. Beowulf lives in a chaotic world of dragons, monsters, and feuding tribes. Nothing is certain about his future, or anyone’s.

Yet he never fails to do his best, right up until that harrowing final fight that he wins, but which costs him his life.

And that is at least one of important aspects of the story. None of us knows the future, and the world is chaotic. But we must always strive to do our best in whatever way we see is possible. A disorderly world is no excuse for not doing the best we can. Don’t ever give up.