Interpreting Medieval Christianity through Literature: Beowulf, Gunnar’s Daughter, and The Name of the Rose

Abstract

This study is an attempt to draw a picture of medieval Christianity reflected in three different literary works: Beowulf, Gunnar’s Daughter, and The Name of the Rose. Though unrelated in any way in terms of their origins, periods, genres, or sentiments, these works combined together show a multifaceted world of medieval Christianity from its transitional period to the time of the established religion in the western world. The medieval world is sometimes colored by paganism with its deep root in Germanic culture or sometimes engrossed in endless debate over theological and dogmatic orthodoxy. This study finds these characteristics of medieval Christianity well reflected in these fictional works, giving us a glimpse of how people are influenced by the Christian faith as warriors, women, or monks. So Beowulf, an Old English epic poem, and Gunnar’s Daughter, a modern historical novel set in around the tenth century Norway and Iceland, are compared and contrasted in order to demonstrate the mixture of pagan and Christian elements in literature. And The Name of the Rose, a historical murder mystery set in the fourteenth century Italian monastery, is analyzed with a view to finding an answer to the question of what is truth in the medieval world. The author’s pursuit of truth, however, comes to nothing as indicated at the end of the novel. These medieval characteristics put together tell us how Christianity is represented in the original literature from the period or in the imitated world of literature created by modern writers.