In his introduction to Beowulf, the scholar Friedrich Klaeber explains the great Geatish warrior’s resemblances to Christ by concluding that “the narrative derived a superior dignity from suggesting the most exalted hero-life known to Christians” (li). Readers of another Beowulf scholar, J.R.R. Tolkien, have also noted echoes of that “most exalted hero-life” in his epic…
