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Beowulf As A Hero Essay

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Beowulf is the story of a brave warrior and the battles he fought to destroy evil. It starts off in Herot, where Grendel, son of Cain, has been attacking for twelve years for what seems like no reason. Beowulf hears of this and heads off to Herot to slay the beast, and he seems pretty confident that he will. He easily defeats Grendel and then he has to also defeat Grendel’s Mom who is now attacking based on revenge. After defeating Grendel’s mom, Beowulf is put up to the ultimate test and has to fight a dragon. Throughout the story, Beowulf displays many attributes of a hero. One of the hero like qualities that he possesses is superhuman strength. This is displayed in the part of the story when Grendel first meets Beowulf, “Grendel’s one thought …show more content…

Beowulf displays his altruism when he first meets Hrothgar and says, “This one favor you should not refuse me- that I, alone and with the help of my men, may purge all evil from this hall”(line 165). Beowulf wants to fight Grendel solely because he wants to rid Herot of evil and save its people. Beowulf is abandoned by his people when he goes to fight the dragon, and still doesn’t blame them for his death. He displays this altruism all throughout the story and even dies for the good of the people. One more characteristic of a hero that Beowulf displays is his fearlessness and bravery. When he hears of Grendel attacking, he comes to help Herot with no fear. He also shows this fearlessness when he drops his weapon in the fight with Grendel’s mom, “He tossed his sword aside, angry; the steel-edged blade lay where he’d dropped it”(line 487). Only a truly brave warrior would realize his weapon was useless, drop it, and then continue to fight. Beowulf is the definition of brave. Beowulf’s many heroic qualities are the reason he is such a fierce warrior in battle. He shows no fear for anyone. Even though he dies in the end, Beowulf shows all the characteristics of a true

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