Gilgamesh Vs Beowulf Essay

The story of “Gilgamesh” depicts all of the heroic triumphs and heart-breaking pitfalls a heroic narrative should depict to be able to relate to today’s audience. However, “Gilgamesh” was once considered a lost and forgotten piece of literature for thousands of years, so there is a tremendous gap between the time it was created and the time it was translated into language that today’s audience can understand. That gap in history makes several aspects of the story of “Gilgamesh” strange and unfamiliar because what we now know about ancient Middle Eastern cultures and languages is a lot less than what we know about the cultures that prospered after ancient Middle Eastern cultures. Much of the content in the story of

The Epic of Gilgamesh and Beowulf contain everything we can expect from a great epic literature. It portrays fantastic geographies, exotic characters, exhausting quests, heroic battles with monsters, supernatural beings and natural forces. Most important of all, they are two outstanding stories of a great epic hero who is compelled to meet his destiny and who rises to every challenge with courage and determination.

Further analysis of the poem The Epic of Gilgamesh, described the characteristic of king Gilgamesh from the beginning, middle, and end. Throughout the poem, there are immature and petrified moments of Gilgamesh, but more importantly he learned to grow as he explore his journey. Friendship, love, and fear appears to be essential in this poem. Why are those terms relevant ? and how does it connect with the trait of Gilgamesh ?, let’s continue to find out the truth about Gilgamesh.

Beowulf has numerous battles. He fights with Grendel, Grendel’s mother, and a dragon. Going into these fights, Beowulf already had God’s favor, because Grendel and his mother were descendants of Cain, and they were from hell. “Hail to those who will rise to God, drop off their dead bodies, and seek our Father’s peace.” (from Beowulf part one, translated by Burton Raffel pg 23 lines 101-103). Although Gilgamesh is favored by many gods and Beowulf is favored by one god, it is this favor that makes them both heroes.

Beowulf mentions God multiple times throughout the story and giving the glory to God. This can been seen when Beowulf battles Grendel. “…And may the divine Lord/ in His wisdom grant the glory of victory to whichever side He sees fit.” Therefore, with the inclination to do right in the eyes of the Lord, Beowulf’s actions are influenced by his belief and his desire to please God. However with the Greek heroes, they had many gods. The heroes’ desires were to achieve the god’s level of greatness. However, their gods were different than Beowulf’s God. Their gods

In Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight there are two heroes that help the present day reader gain insight into what the hero of the Middle Ages would have held as ideals and necessary triumphs. Beowulf and Sir Gawain each fill a different role within their unique societies. Beowulf is a leader and a savior in times of need, willing to go to any length to help another group of people as well as his own kingdom. Sir Gawain is also willing to rise during moments of trouble within his court but lacks the altruism that is inherent in Beowulf's leadership. Although there are many pursuable comparisons within the two tales, the most apparent between the two heroes are that of faith, the men who encouraged them, bravery and the

The epic of Gilgamesh is a tale that displays multiple didactic messages throughout the course of the story. These morally oriented instructions that shape the epic’s characters are very much applicable to our current lives. Messages like: the importance of perseverance, that drive that pushes you to excel, the down side of sexual passion when not tempered, and how we need to keep our pride under control, not letting it cloud our judgement. These principled themes, among others, are clearly visible to the eyes of the audience.

A hero is someone who is idealized for his courage and noble qualities. Beowulf and Sir Gawain can certainly be called heroes. They both have many qualities that are expected of heroic knights and warriors. They are both brave, gallant, and skilled men, but are they the perfect heroes their people believe them to be? While they are portrayed as perfect heroes and they possess many heroic qualities, Beowulf and Sir Gawain are far from perfect.

In the text, we see that Beowulf is not yet a king, but, a king to come. He is not quick to react without thinking. Beowulf ordered his boat, picked out his men. A Saviour hero, thanking God after sailing. In the film, the heathen of gods was good, but Christ Jesus was bad.

These two characters made incredible actions that influenced that their names were remember for a long time; Beowulf looks like any other warrior, he followed the code of a great warrior and also the code of the heroes, things that just a few people used to do but Beowulf had and special kind to be he was arrogant because he know the strong that he had and he did crazy things that always at the final those actions looks very intelligent for example when he fought with grandal, he decided to fight without armor because he wanted a right fight without to have advantage everybody thought that he was crazy but at the final they saw that it was very intelligent because grendel was immune to weapons so he only could be affected by normal hits like punch or kicks that was what Beowulf did. Achilles had a unique kind to be it was similar to the kind to be of Beowulf but it was not equal; Achilles was arrogant too but the difference between Beowulf and Achilles was that Achilles was more arrogant and he never did things that will not benefit to him in something.

Fame and glory have been the most admirable characteristics in the middle Ages and even before Christ in the ancient civilizations. The epics of Gilgamesh and Beowulf are stories of heroism and immortality gained through fame. The aim of the main characters, Beowulf and Gilgamesh, is to be a good warrior by being courageous, respectful and prudent, a protector and servant to their king (only in the beginning of Beowulf, as he later becomes king and Gilgamesh already is) and their country. In both poems the fights of the main

Although Gawain and Beowulf share many similarities, their characters are almost complete opposites. Both aim for some sort of fame, one more than the other; differing in the way they attempt to achieve this success. Gawain remains true and looks to humility to guide him, whereas Beowulf is very prideful and selfish, loving nothing more than boasting about his virtues. Regardless, both go through tremendous changes throughout their quests, dealing with repercussions, and many challenging obstacles along the way.

Gilgamesh, Oedipus, Odysseus, and Beowulf display several characteristics classifying themselves as heroes. In the story of Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh is “two-thirds divine and one-third human” (Gilgamesh, par 2). He displays heroism, perseverance, and loyalty by building a monumental wall to protect his kingdom, Urek. Gilgamesh goes on an epic in hopes of finding immortality and on his journey he faces adversity several times. He ends up not finding immortality but becomes “a profoundly changed man” (Gilgamesh, par 8). In Oedipus the King, Oedipus shows courage when he solves the Sphinx’s riddle. The city of Thebes crowns him king over the city and he marries the queen. King Oedipus shows honor when he takes the responsibility of solving the reason of the city’s plague and sends his brother-in-law, Creon, to Apollo’s Oracle in hopes of finding an answer. In the

British literature like Beowulf and Gilgamesh hold several characteristics that make this type of literature unique. Each of theses stories hold similarities and difference that alter the course of the main character. Both Beowulf and Gilgamesh took vast journeys in their ruling as leaders, but they each took the journeys for different reasons. These two epic heroes of british literature both used the up in coming benefits of christianity in their journeys expressed in the novels, yet the two characters used the beliefs in different ways. Both of these men are viewed as having great amounts of power and through analyzing it can be determined that the men use their powers to different extents. Gilgamesh and Beowulf are two heros that have a number of similarities and differences in their epics.

Immortality, monstrosity, infamy, catastrophe, might, and courage are all aspects of the epic legends of Beowulf and Gilgamesh. Though they subsisted in two utterly different historical eras, these epic heroes have numerous similarities and differences. For example, while they were booth deemed epic heroes, their mortalities were not equal. Beowulf had superhuman qualities such as having the strength of thirty men, but was born a mortal man. On the contrary, Gilgamesh was a demigod as he was born two-thirds god and one-third human by Ninsun, the goddess of dreams and cows. This is only one of the various instances of similarities and differences of these two epic idols.