Monks preserved culture and literature.

Provide reasons

There are different reasons that support such statement. Firstly, one of the
most important characteristics of Anglo Saxon literature is that it was transmitted
orally; in this aspect, monks played a major role to preserve it since it was them
who started to transcript those poems into a physical support through manuscripts.
By doing so, they enabled Anglo Saxon poetry as well as other genres such as
elegies, to transcend in time. Otherwise, it is very likely that those poems would
have vanished in time as well as those ancient cultures did. Regarding culture,
through the manuscripts the monks not only have shown us how literature was but
also it told as a lot about Angle Saxon´s cultural aspects such as theirs beliefs,
customs, and lifestyles; for example, by analyzing the content of epic or heroic
poetry aspects such as the code of committatus (loyalty and love between the king
and his warriors). To sum up, if it hadn’t been by the monks manuscripts, it is very
likely that most or even any knowledge about Anglo Saxon literature or culture
would have disappeared.

The role of fate was mentioned in AS literature

Anglo Saxon literature existed before the times of Christianity, so men

needed to believe in something and that abstract something was fate. Anglo Saxon
literature mainly tells stories about warriors fighting against nature elements (
Seafarer) of creatures ( Beowulf) or the Wanderer. In such masterpieces fate is
mentioned as if the only direction life flows towards is death. Nothing can change
the fate of humans or mainly of them as warriors. In addition, perhaps the most
illustrative example of fate in Anglo Saxon literature can be found in Beowulf,
when he says that “ Fate always goes as it must” before his fight against Grendel,
giving us the idea that he was aware that he could be beaten by Grendel as well,
that everything was decided by fate and that a warrior could fight battle and yet , if
fate was not by his side that day then the result of the battle might have been
decided before the first blow of the sword. In conclusion, fate ruled the destiny of
most characters in Anglo Saxon literature, and it was considered as something that
could not be changed but accepted. Probably that is why they lived their lives as if
it was the last one.