Beowulf's Heroic Code

The Anglo-Saxons’ cultures and traditions are rooted in their beliefs of the perfect hero. Their ideal hero has many key characteristics influenced by their culture including courage, strength, bravery, thick skin, loyalty, humbleness, and the ability to create strong trustworthy friendships. Beowulf is an epic poem that exhibits the ideal Anglo-Saxon hero. The Anglo-Saxon traditions illustrated in Beowulf accurately represent the Anglo-Saxon traditions of the time period. This is accomplished through the distinct correlation of heroic characteristics between Beowulf and the culture’s traditional depiction of an Anglo-Saxon hero.

Beowulf does not undergo much character development considering what he goes through. His personality and leadership traits remain static throughout the story unlike most other stories that involve a similar plotline. This both shows great strength as well as the inability to change which is often considered a weakness if this stillness is viewed without context. In the case of Beowulf this primarily brings out his strengths as a hero and allows the story to move at a quicker rate and not focus on character development, but on other aspects of the poem, this being the alliteration and beauty in the writing far beyond the plot itself. Beowulf is a consistently strong warrior that stays honorable through the poem, but just increases his levels of glory through each enemy defeated as well as each year of peace after he attains a full level of sovereignty.

Beowulf transitions from warrior to king in the second part of the poem. Instead of relying on his own beliefs and practices, he emulates the heroic king Hrothgar. Beowulf becomes more concerned with the lives of his subjects and takes a more conservative ruling stance. Hrothgar prepares Beowulf well to take over the thrown and teaches him to honor his warriors, protecting his people and maintain a stable Kingdom. Hrothgar reminds Beowulf of the Greek tragedians and teaches that pride without humility will result in a tragic fall (Chickering 1383). He also teaches Beowulf about Christian beliefs like wealth is accumulated through the grace of God and should be shared unselfishly (Chickering 1384).

In the book Beowulf, Beowulf, the main character, is a man of great strength and ability. He is depicted as a man of wisdom, and that he is a prince that comes from a kingdom that is well respected. He fights many battles, and is seen as a hero with glory to his name, but this does not mean that he is as flawless as he seems to be. Beowulf is a man who desires to help those in need, however, he is greedy for the glory and treasure that he will receive in thanks of his success. He is truly confident, but because of this he is impulsive, never questioning his ability to take on a task. He is also brave, he has almost no fear, but this tends to make him reckless. He is a hero to many, but he believes in himself in such a way that he acts foolishly, and it will eventually be the death of him.

He was also brave as he was willing to fight Grendel’s mother in an unknown and dangerous place. Beowulf was also displaying a change in his personality as he stopped caring about all the fame and more into his people when he became

The Germanic warrior society had an unspoken code – a list of rules that warriors and kings alike must uphold. The main aspects of this code for warriors were strength, courage, loyalty and honour; and for kings were loyalty to his warriors, generosity and a sense of responsibility. The character of Beowulf represents both sides of this Code very well. Hrothgar, King of Denmark, represents the nobility’s side of the code:

Being brave and courageous aren’t Beowulf’s only qualities. He is selfless. When Hrothgar dies, he leaves all his good to Beowulf. When he has these goods in his possession, he holds on to them until he dies. When Beowulf eventually passes, he shows his selflessness by giving all the money and treasure to his people. He did this because he wanted to die knowing he helped his people.

Even at the end of his life he is still a warrior bent on killing something. These acts would easily drive the assumption that he is and has always been like this but as you dive deeper into his character you realize he does have a mental change that sets him apart from a static character. As Beowulf grows older he begins to become attached to the people he helps evidence of this can be seen right before Beowulf is about to fight the dragon as he says “ farewell to his followers... Wait for me close by, my friends. We shall see, soon, who will survive”.

Beowulf: The Hero How do Beowulf’s heroic qualities affect the story? Does he undergo a change? Beowulf has many heroic qualities such as strength, courage, bravery, and he’s honorable. While Beowulf does have these qualities he also adapts some bad qualities.

Then, the killing of the Grendel family made him to be a hero and savior for everyone, even his men. Beowulf does undergo change through the book because he is not really left with a choice of action. He was sent out for a reason, so he had to fulfill his duties. He became more powerful and confident with his fighting skills. This quest sent Beowulf on a rollercoaster of emotions, from mighty and happy to fierce and dangerous.

Over the course of the poem, Beowulf matures from a gallant warrior into a wise leader. This transition illustrates that a sometimes conflicting code of values goes along with each of his roles. In Germanic societies, such as the one in which Beowulf takes place, there were heroic codes which defined how a noble person should act. In

A lot of Beowulf’s determination comes from the role he holds among his people, "Nor have i seen a mighter man-at-arms on this Earth than the one standing here: unless I am mistaken, he is truly noble. This is no mere hanger-on in a hero's armour[sic]"(224-251). He is aware of the place he holds and does not want to lose his followers trust or honor. And, in addition to Beowulf being honored, he honors his people. He even went to the lengths of getting possession of treasure as he is dying,so they would be taken care of, "Still came to my lips, i sold my life For this treasure, and I sold it well.

Beowulf is not only an ideal or a hanger-on person, he is definitely existed in the society, on the other hand, he has a statute of realness. Moreover, he is famous as his identity of hero, which demonstrates the great personality of his. In Beowulf, both the leader and the follower are closely reply on each other. If a leader has to deal with success, his followers must be successful and they must be supportive to their master. Beowulf has a double character in the work, which is a leader of the warriors and the follower of the king Hrothgar.

In the epic poem Beowulf written by an unknown author we can see a lot of heroic code as we can see in The Art of War. First, lest have a short summary of each book, as we all know Beowulf is one of the most famous poems in the old English. In this poem, Beowulf who is a warrior from Geats comes to the rescue of Hrothgar, the king of the Danes whose land is being attacked by a monster, Grendel. Beowulf fight Grendel and kills him to show his prowess he bare Grendel’s hand. This is not the end because now Grendel’s mother is coming back looking for revenge.

“[Beowulf is] is recognized … as an embodiment of the contradictory nature of heroic ideals” (Wanner. Page 2). Beowulf’s religiously following of the Comitatus leads him to his doom. Beowulf’s lust for fame and hubris lead him to break the code of Comitatus. Beowulf as a king was supposed to let new heroes at the time take care of the dragon. Instead, he gets severely injured by the dragon because of his huge ego and pride to slay the dragon alone. Ironically, at the end Beowulf would not have even killed the dragon without help from the emerging hero Wiglaf. At the end Beowulf breaks the code he followed by heart only to be shown at his death, that one must remember their rank in the feudal