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Early British Survey
Beowulf as a Hero
By: Norman Hilker
One of the basic qualities a hero can possess is going out of their way to help those in need. It’s physical in nature, and will almost always result in more respect for the character within their community. Beowulf was one of the first prime examples of this in early British literature, as it follows a warrior not with a general beginning, middle and end, but rather a series of events that challenge the character and whose decisions eventually lead to his demise. In the epic poem, Beowulf is challenged by three major antagonists – the monster Grendel, Grendel’s mother, and the evil dragon that would eventually kill him. Each of these figures would mess with Beowulf to some extent and on different psychological levels.
We are introduced to Heorot, the kingdom the characters inhabit, as they’re about to feast before a beast starts terrorizing the night. Beowulf, a popular tough guy at this point in the story, takes on the monster boastfully and easily kills it. Afterwards, “The man who had lately handed among them, proud and sure, had purged the hall, kept it from harm; he was happy with his nightwork and the courage he had shown” (824-7). It is easy to root for a character like this because he is what we can most relate to out of all the characters we know so far – before the fight, we see him in real danger for the first time. Despite his extraordinary strength, as well as the forthcoming circumstances, Beowulf quickly becomes a likeable protagonist and someone readers can rely on.
However, consequences ensue. While the issue doesn’t seem as damning as a monster eating people in a local town, it gets personal when it involves Grendel’s mother. Before jumping into the lake where the next villain waits, Beowulf tells his companions, “…if I should fall and suffer death while serving your [Unferth’s] cause, would act like a father to me afterward. If this combat kills me, take care of my young company, my comrades in arms” (1477-81). He sees this next challenger as one in a coincidental series of recurring foes rather than a vengeful ally of his enemy that he has to take care of. Perhaps he is not one to fight those that could be stronger than him, but he has a mantle to carry that includes everything he loves. By this point in the story, Beowulf now has a reason to defeat these enemies, and it’s due to this process of decision-making that starts to define him as a true hero in the Anglo-Saxon tradition, through honor, strength, and courage most of all ( Anglo-Saxon ).
Towards the end of Beowulf , a major time jump has turned the title character from a youthful warrior to an aged king, one who would rather lead by wisdom than by power, fists, and even risk. When a hellish dragon threatens the future of his people, he has no choice but to carry sword and shield again. Beowulf doesn’t take any military-based strategies in attacking this dragon – time has evolved the man into someone who may disregard the strengths that made him what he is now. As he’s preparing for what will be his final fight, he says, “I risked my life often when I was young. Now I am old, but as king of the people I shall pursue this fight for the glory of winning, if the evil one will only abandon this earth-fort and face me in the open” (2511-5). His cocky attitude doesn’t get the better of him when the dragon does kill him, but it helps him relish in the bravery he once glorified. One may say it’s this trait that helps him in defeating the dragon anyway, but we leave Beowulf with not just a hero of epic proportions, but a fully developed character that closes the circle of boastfulness to courage to tenacity.
In further reading, I will examine Satan’s character from Paradise Lost and how he takes a different route to heroism compared to Beowulf.
Works Cited
The Anglo-Saxon Hero , csis.pace.edu/grendel/Proj2004A1/hero.html.
Greenblatt, Stephen, and M. H. Abrams. The Norton Anthology of English Literature . W.W. Norton, 2012.
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Home — Essay Samples — Literature — Beowulf — Comparison Of Beowulf And Sir Gawain As Heroes
Comparison of Beowulf and Sir Gawain as Heroes
- Categories: Beowulf Sir Gawain and The Green Knight
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Published: Dec 16, 2021
Words: 1274 | Pages: 3 | 7 min read
- Jambeck, T. J. (1973). THE SYNTAX OF PETITION IN" BEOWULF" AND" SIR GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT". Style, 21-29. (https://www.jstor.org/stable/42945149)
- Burrow, J. A. (2019). A reading of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Routledge. (https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9780429060557/reading-sir-gawain-green-knight-burrow)
- van Meeuwen, R. S. (2018). Monstrosity in Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Bachelor's thesis). (https://studenttheses.uu.nl/handle/20.500.12932/30271)
- Thomas, A., & Thomas, A. (2018). Writing, Memory, and Revenge in Beowulf, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and Hamlet. Shakespeare, Catholicism, and the Middle Ages: Maimed Rights, 113-147. (https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-90218-0_4)
- Hunter, S. M. (1984). TALES, TELLERS, AND AUDIENCES: NARRATIVE STRUCTURE AND AESTHETIC RESPONSE IN" BEOWULF"," PEARL"," CLEANNESS"," PATIENCE", AND" SIR GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT". University of California, Riverside. (https://www.proquest.com/openview/d6dcc469b38fea5f718bc195f8ec9e14/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y)
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After each piece of evidence is provided, the author should explain HOW and WHY the evidence supports the claim.
Should follow a right side up triangle format, meaning, specifics should be mentioned first such as restating the thesis, and then get more broad about the topic at hand. Lastly, leave the reader with something to think about and ponder once they are done reading.
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The Epic Poem “Beowulf”: Arms and Armor Essay (Critical Writing)
The authors of epic poems and heroic ballads have always drawn attention to arms and armor, using them for pictorial and symbolic means. Beowulf is not an exception, depicting a warring and savage heroic world. Beowulf uses all manner of tools to slay and protect himself from being slain, and the poet constantly compares the hero to the monsters he fights. Beowulf’s three great battles are the most prominent: the fight against Grendel, Grendel’s mother, and the dragon. The author vividly describes these battles, not leaving out a detail. Every battle is more challenging than the previous one, and Beowulf’s arms and armor point that out. I believe that what Beowulf wears and carries is used to show his progression as a hero and inevitable aging as a human.
In the poem’s first part, Beowulf comes to King Hrothgar’s aid and fearlessly brawls Grendel, a coarse and violent giant, naked. The hero is young and powerful and sees Grendel as equal in terms of strength, boasting of his ability to fight the giant ‘without edges.’ Grendel is not skillful in the art of war; thus, weapons and shields would give an apparent advantage against him. It seems, however, that the decision to fight barehanded is not made out of honor or chivalry. The battle is an ultimate show of Beowulf’s power and courage. While Beowulf and Grendel are grappling, Beowulf’s band tries to finish the giant off with their weapons but cannot do so because Grendel’s skin repels all steel. In the end, Beowulf rips Grendel’s arm, and the giant runs away mortally wounded. The remark that weapons do not harm Grendel makes the hero appear absurdly strong and hardy.
Preceding the second battle, Beowulf tracks Grendel’s mother to the moors, where he prepares for the one-on-one fight. Interestingly, he wears some armor this time and uses a weapon, which indicates that Grendel’s mother is more fearsome than her son. Her sheer will to kill Beowulf out of vengeance gives her strength, and the moors are filled with lesser monsters as well. The hero wears a hand-woven breastplate and a chain helmet and carries a sword gifted by King’s retainer. Such preparations suggest that Beowulf is not as confident that he will survive and show that he is not reckless and can strategically assess the upcoming battle. True enough, the breastplate saves his life, although the blade that supposedly has not failed anyone till this time proves to be useless against Grendel’s mother. Again, Beowulf shows his power and cleverness by using a giant sword from the layer’s walls to kill the monster.
The third battle occurs many years later when the dragon ravages Beowulf’s land. Beowulf prepares to slay the beast, ordering a wholly iron shield, dressing in a full chain-mail armor, and carrying a couple of swords and a dagger. Beowulf shows his tactical mind yet again as the dragon is the strongest foe he has ever fought. The shield will protect him from the beast’s fire, while several weapons will be necessary if any of them breaks. Surely enough, the swords fail him one after another, and ultimately Beowulf uses the dagger to kill the dragon. Beowulf knows that he is old, and the preparations make it clear, but the hero’s fatal mistake has been to think that he can slay the dragon alone. No matter of armor could replace Beowulf’s youth, and he dies because of his prideful nature, trying to prove that he is as strong as he has been.
Warriors battle their foes using weapons and armor, and the same goes for heroes, the best warriors known. Beowulf’s equipment in his major battles progressively improves with the increasing strength of his foes. It shows that Beowulf is a clever but boastful hero who loves to prove his power to others. He always wears and carries a bare minimum needed to slay the monster, leaving no advantages to himself. Beowulf believes the combatants must be equal; therefore, Beowulf always strives for this equality. In the end, it kills him because he overestimates himself.
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IvyPanda. (2022, December 14). The Epic Poem "Beowulf": Arms and Armor. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-epic-poem-beowulf-arms-and-armor/
"The Epic Poem "Beowulf": Arms and Armor." IvyPanda , 14 Dec. 2022, ivypanda.com/essays/the-epic-poem-beowulf-arms-and-armor/.
IvyPanda . (2022) 'The Epic Poem "Beowulf": Arms and Armor'. 14 December.
IvyPanda . 2022. "The Epic Poem "Beowulf": Arms and Armor." December 14, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-epic-poem-beowulf-arms-and-armor/.
1. IvyPanda . "The Epic Poem "Beowulf": Arms and Armor." December 14, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-epic-poem-beowulf-arms-and-armor/.
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IvyPanda . "The Epic Poem "Beowulf": Arms and Armor." December 14, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-epic-poem-beowulf-arms-and-armor/.
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A good thesis statement for how Beowulf was a hero could be the following: "Beowulf becomes a hero through showing his courage and strength in taking on monsters." According to the Anglo-Saxon ...
Compare the three battles. Outline. I. Thesis Statement: In his quest for glory, Beowulf fights three important battles—two with monsters and one with a dragon. These battles have both ...
Central Idea Essay: Honor Codes & Heroism. Beowulf is set in Scandinavia, sometime in the fifth or sixth century A.D. The ethical code of ancient Scandinavian society valued strong warrior-kings who could protect their people from outside threats (primarily, other warrior-kings and their armies). Under this code, warriors were expected to ...
105 Beowulf Essay Topics & Examples. See tips on writing the Beowulf thesis statements and critical analysis of the poem. Also, our experts have prepared a list of ideas and prompts that allow you to explore the archetypal epic hero and more! Beowulf is an Anglo-Saxon poem, named after the main character.
Beowulf is the hero of this epic because he is a quintessential representative of "a warrior venturing into battle against spiritual evil... even as the secular lord and his comitatus engaged the armed forces of predatory enemies" (Greenfield 102). Beowulf, with his strength, confidence, and skills, gained respect from the people he encountered ...
Beowulf enters the story as a hero who has chosen to risk death in order to achieve fame. As Beowulf fights Grendel's mother at the bottom of the mere, even his close friends believe he has died. Some readers have seen his journey to the bottom of the mere as a symbolic death, drawing on the Christian story of the "Harrowing of Hell," in ...
Beowulf's life is proof that he is truly an epic hero. The poem Beowulf was a reflection of the wisdom, selflessness, and strength that characterize such persons. He was wise in his leadership over the Geats and selfless when handling material wealth. The character's strength shone during battles with difficult adversaries.
Beowulf, heroic poem, the highest achievement of Old English literature and the earliest European vernacular epic.The work deals with events of the early 6th century, and, while the date of its composition is uncertain, some scholars believe that it was written in the 8th century. Although originally untitled, the poem was later named after the Scandinavian hero Beowulf, whose exploits and ...
Beowulf is an epic poem laid down in the oral tradition of the Anglo-Saxons and rued with Christian and pagan influence. It follows the classic structure of the epic and has received much critical analysis from scholars and enthusiasts alike. Beowulf is one of many examples of a story that employs the rhetoric of the hero. The
Beowulf as a Hero. By: Norman Hilker. One of the basic qualities a hero can possess is going out of their way to help those in need. It's physical in nature, and will almost always result in more respect for the character within their community. Beowulf was one of the first prime examples of this in early British literature, as it follows a ...
After Beowulf dies, the poet announces the end of a glorious Geatish era by noting that "no follower" will wear the treasure Beowulf wins from the dragon in his memory, "nor lovely woman / link and attach [it] as a torque around her neck.". Treasure symbolizes prosperity and stability; without these attributes, the Geatish clan can no ...
Beowulf is a 6th-7th century work of epic poetry that features a righteous hero of the same name. Beowulf is an epic hero, a larger-than-life warrior capable of mighty deeds not attainable by the ...
Thesis statement: When Beowulf is explored from Grendel's point of view, ... Conclusion paragraph: Despite the story's clear bias to Beowulf as the hero (his name is the title of the story after all), upon closer inspection it becomes clear that in the Norse tradition, the true tragic hero is Grendel. Grendel fights to redeem his ancestry ...
Thesis statement: Through his selfless acts of heroism and extraordinary abilities, Beowulf emerges as an exemplary epic hero, embodying the values of courage, sacrifice, and leadership that resonate with audiences across time and cultures.
Beowulf: The Hero as Keeper of Human Polity Norma Kroll ... takes make her work as valuable for those who do not entirely accept her thesis as it is for those who do. For other well-argued Augustinian and Gregorian readings, see articles by Malcolm Andrew, "Grendel in Hell," English Studies 62 (1981): 401-10; Stephen C. Bandy, "Cain, Grendel ...
C. L. Wrenn ( Beowulf, pp. 41-42) applies a classical standard to a Germanic epic when he calls the "Germanic hero" a "tragic hero," and at the same time speaks of his "glorious death" without which "a Germanic hero would be incomplete.". Surely, the tragic hero is such because he fails in the heroic adventure and his death is ...
That night Grendel's mother avenges her son and HroiSgar summons Beowulf next day to ask his aid against the new threat, if he dares. Beowulf agrees at once, answering without reflection, the kind of beot warned against in The Wanderer (65-72). After the death of Grendel's mother, HroÖgar's debt to Beowulf is doubled.
However, Beowulf focuses its attention on his three greatest feats: the fights against Grendel, Grendel's mother, and the dragon. Each of the fights was unique. The demon Grendel was perhaps the most powerful foe, and he also possessed a magical hex which prevented swords from harming him. Thus, Beowulf had to fight Grendel in hand-to-hand combat.
As mentioned in the thesis statement, Beowulf served as the basis for Wonder Woman. The following paragraphs will provide details regarding the impact that the Anglo-Saxon epic had on the contemporary movie. ... "The Peripheral Against the Mainstream: The Antagonists and the Hero in Beowulf." Middle Flight, vol. 6, no. 1, 2017, pp. 14-25 ...
Thesis statement: Both poems start with a necessity to face an opponent who is very strong and powerful and with their virtues, they are able to defeat them in ways that are both extraordinary. Although "Beowulf" and "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" have different notions of a hero, both Beowulf and Sir Gawain possess multiple ...
In the epic poem Beowulf, the cultural significance of the mead hall in Nordic society was shown through Herot's use for shelter, council meetings, and storytelling. Behaviors, morals, and events portrayed in the epic Beowulf serve as a window into the past regarding the blending of the original paganistic spirituality of the Danish people ...
The authors of epic poems and heroic ballads have always drawn attention to arms and armor, using them for pictorial and symbolic means. Beowulf is not an exception, depicting a warring and savage heroic world. Beowulf uses all manner of tools to slay and protect himself from being slain, and the poet constantly compares the hero to the monsters he fights.
Beowulf Epic Hero Thesis Statement - Free download as PDF File (.pdf), Text File (.txt) or read online for free.