Medieval literature dealt with the topic of death in three
(not entirely consistent) ways. First, Death was seen as the inevitable consequence of
Adam's fall: a curse passed to all men through the taint of original sin. As consequent
to this idea, life was seen as a temporary travail through which humans passed on the
way to the eternal home of heaven. Hrothgar reminds Beowulf that life is a gift from God
and that the body is simply loaned.
On the other hand,
death was sometimes seen as the inscrutable working of fate, especially in older works
like Beowulf, in which the hero recognizes that fate (wyrd) binds all men and that it is
useless to attempt to avoid it.
Often, we see medieval
writers treat death as a paradox: a grievous punishment for sin, and yet a glorious hope
for eternal life. This is the image of death in such poems as the Middle English "Pearl"
and in Sir Gawain's acceptance of death as the consequence of his adherence to the
chivalric code.
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