Beowulf Traits

Beowulf sees Grendel's mother in a cave. He tries to hit her with his sword, Unferth's Hrunting, but it fails to pierce her skin. So he throws the sword away and attacks the mother with his bare hands. He trusts "in his strength, his mighty hand-grip." Beowulf manages to throw Grendel's mother down; however, she quickly retaliates and is soon sitting on top of him. She tries to kill him with a dagger, but Beowulf's armor protects him this time. Beowulf managed to throw her off of himself and sees a sword of enormous size, which he immediately grabs.

Beowulf is an epic hero from the Anglo-Saxon period, who takes on a great deal of challenges and adventures. The character Beowulf embodies the virtues of the Anglo-Saxon culture and beliefs. He incorporate the traits of Anglo-Saxon society with strength, bravery, honor, and the desire to help the helpless.

They praise sir Beowulf, thanking him greatly. Yet little did this town or Beowulf know the agony yet to come. Grendel was indeed a monster, but a monster who was the spawn of a cruel creature. The slain monster’s mother, a she-wolf would be the hero’s next challenge. He would travel to the home of the monster’s mother, to yet again engage in the act of battle. They shall meet in the deep depths of the marshy hell. Beowulf would try to defeat the she-wolf with his sword but would not be enough. As he begins to become beaten, and weak, he sees a sword that may be to his advantage. “A heavy sword, hammered by giants, strong and blessed by their magic, the best of all weapons but so massive that no ordinary man could lift its carved and decorated length” (page 54 line 530-535) He raised thy mighty sword and struck the devil in the neck, cutting the entire head off. Hrothgar’s men watch the monster’s lake filled with blood. Thinking all hope and gone and mighty Beowulf had been killed. Yet as the old men begin to whisper the mighty hero rises from the lake, only holding the she-wolfs head and the giant’s sword. The Beowulf would return with the head and place the monsters head in front of the

in a fierce struggle he rips his arm off, and Grendel flees, mortally wounded. Beowulf proudly displayed the hand "high up near the roof: the whole of Grendel's shoulder and arm, his awesome grasp" (Beowulf 334-335). The claw is a symbol of Beowulf's victory, and the fact that it is hung high means that he wants everyone to see it. Beowulf made a boast that he would destroy the monster, and the claw shows that his boast is fulfilled. Grendel's mother sees this as an offense, and retrieves her son's arm. Beowulf and his men follow here to a mere where she lives. While underwater Beowulf is captured by her and the two fight in a battle in her underwater cave, which is filled with various treasures. Beowulf defeats Grendel's mother and then finds the corpse of her son, Grendel. Beowulf proceeds to decapitate the corpse as the ultimate act of vengeance. Beowulf decides against taking the vast amounts treasure and instead takes the best prize: Glory.

Beowulf continued to listen about how this monster was described, he was interested and wanted to challenge this big bad monster to kill him. The king gave a room for Beowulf and his man to rest because tomorrow they would begin to plan their trap to kill Grendel. As everyone slept Beowulf stayed awake as he kept plotting for his trap to kill Grendel. The next morning Beowulf and this man were with the king they were given weapons to use against Grendel but Beowulf didn't know that no weapon could kill Grendel unless it was the big sword that was hammered by

Beowulf found himself in an enemy hall, free of rushing water. Ready to complete his mission, Beowulf struck Grendel’s mother with Hrunting, the sword. Unfortunately, it did no harm to the monster because she possessed magic that protected her from man made weapons. Beowulf threw the sword to the side, trusting that he would be able to fight the monster with his own two hands. He grabbed her and threw her to the ground, but she fought

He then storms inside and finds sleeping soldiers, Grendel is excited at the sight because it means food. He grabs 30 men killing them and dragging their bodies back to his home where he eats them. The battle between Beowulf and Grendel goes on and on which not any normal person can fight for so long. they punch and kick each other multiple times, smashing into walls and wooden beams. Eventually Beowulf pins Grendel down and starts pulling on Grendel's arm, skin tears and muscle rips. Beowulf rips Grendel's arm off at the shoulder. Grendel, now wounded badly escapes to his home, and Beowulf keeps Grendel's arm as a trophy. Grendel's defeat angers his mother and she looks for revenge. So as the men were celebrating Beowulf's victory and as soon as the men were asleep she breaks into Herot and Takes only one man and Grendel's arm. That morning King Hrothgar was shocked to find it was his best friend that she took and killed. Beowulf set out to find her and kill her. The men went to the lake, the home of Grendel and his mother. Without thinking Beowulf jumps in and dives down, he keeps diving and diving. It takes him hours to get to the bottom, but when he does he's grabbed by Grendel's mother. She tries to hurt him but she can't so she drags him to her cave. Beowulf gets free and starts hitting her with his sword but it's useless so he uses his hands. Beowulf sees a giant sword on the wall bigger and heavier than normal, he reaches up and rips it off the wall, breaking the chains holding it up. With one swing he cuts off Grendel's mother head killing her.

As a youth, Beowulf kills the heathen monster Grendel, descendent of Cain. Grendel hat been attacking the Danes’ great mead hall, Heorot. During the battle, Beowulf is exceptionally brave. Without any indication of fear, he killed the Grendel by ripping off his arm, because no weapon could hurt the monster. Again in his youth, Beowulf slayed the mother of Grendel, who wanted revenge for her son’s death.

Enraged by the death of her son, Grendel’s mother tries to retrieve the arm of her son. This leads off into another test of Beowulf's strength, and he will prevail this time with the help of a mighty sword. “So the Shieldings’ hero, hard-pressed and enraged, took a firm hold of the hilt and swung the blade in an arc, a resolute blow

He skillfully tracked the demon mother back to her underwater lair. However, this time Beowulf had to face another obstacle beside the demon he had gone after; the waters were filled with ferocious sea monsters. Once he began fighting Grendel’s mother, Beowulf had to adapted as his sword was no match for the demon. After a try with his hand-to-hand combat skills, Beowulf mustered up all the strength he could to lift a huge mystical sword, which had the ability to defeat the demon and Beowulf was able to decapitate her.

Beowulf takes human form, but his abilities and strengths surpass that of a human. When Hrothgar's kingdom fell to the vicious power of a monster named Grendel, Beowulf comes to the aid without hesitation. Everyone before Beowulf who attempted defeat against Grendel never succeeded. Due to Beowulf's superhuman strength during his fight with Grendel, "the horrible shrieks of pain and defeat, the tears torn out of Grendel's taut throat, hell's captive caught him in the arms of him who of all men on earth was the strongest"(361-365). After Beowulf defeats Grendel, he develops a new enemy, Grendel's mother. Grendel's mother embodies a sea creature larger than Beowulf. Amid the fight with Grendel's mother, Beowulf "raised his his arms and seized

Before Beowulf goes into the sea, Unferth offers him his sword, Hrunting. During the ensuing battle Grendel's mother carries Beowulf to her underwater home. After a terrible fight, Beowulf kills the monster with a magical sword, probably put there by the Al-Weilder, that he finds on the wall of her home. He also finds Grendel's dead body, cuts off the head, and returns to

In the passage that we had just read in class the last few days, we were introduced to a man that was named Beowulf. He was introduced by some unforgetting moments that had happened in another town across the sea. They portrayed him as a man that was capable of withstanding all most anything that was put in front of him. In the passage, he makes landfall and meets the king and they talk about Grendel, Beowulf said that “ he shall bear neither a sword nor a shield, that all he would have is his own grip to face the fiend of Grendel.” Throughout the night, that’s what he does, he takes on the beast of a monster, with only his own two hands. He ends up “defeating” the monster that night by ripping Grendel’s shoulder out.

The Anglo-Saxon age was a time period when Germanic tribes, also known as the Anglo Saxons, formed kingdoms in Britain following the fall of the Roman Empire around 400 A.D. The Anglo Saxons brought with them their own religions and plenty of characteristics of their culture. An essential aspect of the German culture was the tradition of oral poetry. There is not much evidence of the oral poems due to the lack of documentation. Despite the lack of published poetry from the Anglo-Saxon era, the few poems that do exist and have been continuously passed on orally, have played a large role in shaping the poetry that is live today. Beowulf was written in Old English, which was also the original language of the Anglo-Saxon people. Throughout the epic poem, Beowulf exemplifies characteristics that the Anglo Saxon people valued such as virtue and heroism. Not only did the Beowulf poet include common morals, but also introduced Christianity into the poem. Beowulf is the most well-known poem that was created from the Anglo-Saxon era, as well as The Iliad and the Odyssey. Throughout the epic, readers are introduced to a brave warrior named Beowulf. The audience is able to follow his journey through his battles and interactions with the other characters. The growth of the main character plays a large role regarding the values and the admired characteristics of the Anglo-Saxon people.

!n many ancient cultures, ancient peoples preserved their history by recording real events and tales. Most tales consisted of parables, legends, fables and epic poems. Many of these accounts come to mind easily, being widely known throughout the modern world. The Norse peoples had the popular epic poem Beowulf: a tale of a young hero who slays a monster that has plagued the Danes and becomes king in his homeland. This epic poem reveals many characteristics and skills of a good leader, whether it be directly, as stated in Hrothgar’s Sermon, or indirectly through the description of the young hero Beowulf.