Fate in Beowulf, Grendel and Macbeth Fate plays a significant role in the Old English epic Beowulf and William Shakespeare's play Macbeth. The main events of the poem, as Beowulf's three murders and his own death are said to be predestined. In Macbeth, fate is so significant that it is personified by the Weird Sisters, who drive the action of the play. But if predestination exists, then there must be an agent who determines destiny. In Beowulf, God plays this role and fate is generally accepted as God's will. In John Gardner's Grendel, a novel that serves as a commentary on the poem, fate is totally predetermined and is the will of no being. In contrast, Macbeth's agents of fate are witches, who generally go against God's will. In all three plays, fate plays a powerful role, as in many prescientific cultures. Destiny is a necessary element in the lives of these people so that they can have the means to justify some aspects of their existence. However, the deadly agents in the jobs differ; looking at this, one must keep in mind that the three works were written in very different time periods, for different audiences and for different purposes. Beowulf was intended to convert people to Christianity. It cannot be a true story, as it is set in the 6th century (Raffel, 150), four centuries before Christianity arrived in Scandinavia. (Creed, 141) Most scholars agree that it was written by a Christian, to show how faith in God can overcome evil. Shakespeare wrote Macbeth in 1606 for a Christian audience, perhaps in an attempt to impress the new king, James I. Because King James was an expert in witchcraft, Shakespeare assigned witches a significant role in... middle of paper. .....t P. and Stanley B. Greenfield, Old English Poetry: Fifteen Essays, Providence, RI: Brown University Press, 1967 Epstein, Norrie. The Friendly Shakespeare, New York, Viking Publishing, 1993.Demmick, Donald. "Alienation and the process of individuation". http://[email protected] (16 February 1997).Gardner, John. Grendel. 1971; rpt. New York: Vintage Books, 1989. Raphael, Burton. and Alexandra H. Olsen Poems and Prose from Old English, (Yale University Press) Robert Bjork and John Niles, A Beowulf Handbook (University of Nebraska Press) Schucking, Levin L. “The Ideal of Kingship in Beowulf.” In An Anthology of Beowulf Criticism, edited by Lewis E. Nicholson. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1963.Shakespeare, William. Tragedy of Macbeth. Ed. Barbara Mowat and Paul Warstine. New York: Washington Press, 1992.