Beowulf and the Song of Roland, the theme of Father/Son Relationship

        The representation of father-son type relationships in early Medieval literary works is a key theme early authors used to give their works more depth and meaning. Two works that use the theme of father-son relationships are Beowulf and The Song of Roland. In Beowulf, the relationship between Hrothgar and Beowulf is one in which there is no actual blood father-son tie, but the two characters take on all the characteristics of a real father son …

…written about, we can get a sense of their social, political, and economic customs. Clearly both authors use this great technique to give their stories more depth and meaning, and by doing so Beowulf and The Song of Roland are not only considered great literary works of their respective periods because of the stories they tell, but also because of the valuable information they give the reader on the society in which they take place.