The reason why Beowulf was more successful than Bede is: that Beowulf has been a Christian all his life which made him successful, but Bede was not he had been a pagan most of his life and wanted to convert to Christianity after marrying a Christian wife. Beowulf quotes " Lord and protector of this noble place, A single request! I have come so far, oh shelter of warriors and your people's loved friend this is one favor you should not refuse me- that I alone and with the help of my men, may purge all evil from this hall." Basically Beowulf means that he wishes god to help him in the battle against evil and Grendel like he has so many times before to destroy evil. Beowulf also quotes " god must decide who will be given to death's cold grip." What Beowulf is saying here is god decides his fate and he accepts whatever god chooses for him. Bede on the other had wanted to convert to Christianity because his high priest says in the story, "your majesty, let us give careful consideration to this new teaching, for I frankly admit that, in my experience, the religion that we have hither to professed seems valueless and powerless." The high priest is saying that we have worshiped our gods and they have gave us nothing in return to where their Christian god helps them in any way. Also when Bede asked the high priest who should have the task of destroying the altar and temples, the high priest said "I will do this myself, for now that the true God has granted me knowledge, who more suitably than I can set a public example, and destroy the idols that I worshiped in ignorance." What the high priest is essentially trying to say is that he has worshiped and prayed for his gods and they give him nothing in return, so he should destroy them because he is no ordinary person so that if he did it others will follow. So all in all Beowulf had a more successful life believing in god and using him to help him along the way to where Bede worshiped a false god and never really had any success in what he did.