How Did Beowulf Change In Anglo Saxon Culture

Throughout the story, Beowulf’s boasts resemble nothing less than a symbol of his arrogance. “…sailors have brought us stories of Herot, the best of all mead-halls, deserted and useless when the moon hangs in skies the sun had lit, light and life fleeing together. My people have said, the wisest, most knowing and best of them, that my duty was to go to the Danes’ Great king. They have seen my strength for themselves, have watched me rise from the darkness of war, dripping with my enemies’ blood. I drove five great giants into chains, chased all of that race from the earth. I swam in the blackness of night, hunting monsters out of the ocean, and killing them one by one; death was my errand and the fate they had earned. Now Grendel and I are called together, and I’ve come…I, alone and with the help of my men, may purge all evil from this hall. I have heard, too, that the monster’s scorn of men is so great that he needs no weapons and fears none. Nor will I. My lord

Beowulf carries himself as very prideful. But, it is not a bad kind of pride. He has a strong positive self-esteem that drives his quest towards fame. Beowulf very

The Anglo-Saxon culture came from the ethos which arose from years of progress and understanding. This culture a unification of independent principalities brought together by one king known as Alfred the Great. The true sense of the culture came with the values of loyalty, kinship, and bravery, which present themselves in the epic tale of Beowulf whose violent victory propelled him from mercenary to rightful warrior and respected hero. where the birth of a hero came from the actions of a rightful warrior.

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.

Not only is Beowulf honorable and well respected, he is brave as well. His courage is shown by not hesitating to risk his own life to pursue the Dane’s enemies. By being self-assured, Beowulf is able to successfully defeat the fiends, Grendel and his infamous mother. At the time Beowulf is planning to pursue the vindictive dragon, the epic poem states, “I’ve never known fear, as a youth I fought in endless battles. I am old now, but I will fight again, seek fame still, If the dragon hiding in his tower dares to face me.”(ll. 2511-2515). He feels no fear, is confident in fighting the dragon alone, and has no qualms in risking his life to save others. He declares his bravery by saying, “When he comes to me I mean to stand, not run from his shooting flames, stand till fate decides which of us wins... No one else could do what I mean to, here, no man but me could hope to defeat this monster.”(ll. 2525-2534). In his actions, Beowulf’s bravery is clearly shown throughout the poem.

The storyline of Beowulf illustrates the epic battle between good and evil, and demonstrates to the readers that external war is not the only conflict hero’s face. Beowulf struggles a lot with his pride. Beowulf’s biggest internal battle was experienced when he was preparing to fight the dragon. He decided to go into battle, ignoring the fact that he had aged, but his pride, and warrior code wouldn’t let him run. What makes matters worse, he decided to go into the battle alone. His hero pride overcame the actions a normal king would’ve taken. The hero ideology at the time was strictly against a warrior running from a battle, and if Beowulf had done so, he would’ve been persecuted by society, as well as his own conscience.

Beowulf is an Anglo-Saxon hero because of many reasons, the first being because he had bravery and courage. “Have watched me rise from the darkness of war. Dripping with my enemy’s blood. I drove five great giants into chains, chased all that raced from the earth, I swam in the blackness of night, hunting monsters out of the ocean and killing them one by one.” (247-254). This quote shows that Beowulf had bravery and courage because he went up against all of these monsters that could have killed him very easily. Which is what heroes do, they fight monsters and creatures that can easily kill average people. Another quote that shows how Beowulf had the characteristics of bravery and courage is, “If weapons were useless he'd use his hands. The strength in his fingers." (506-507). This quote shows how he had the courage to depend on his superhuman strength to kill any monster that could not be defeated by weapons. One more quote that shows Beowulf’s courage is, “He leaped into the lake, would not wait for anyone's answer...For hours he sank through the waves.” (467-469). This quote shows that Beowulf had courage because he leapt into a lake not knowing what was waiting below the surface.

Beowulf and Achilles were both good warriors and won many battles. They were also both leaders of their kingdoms or tribes. They were both half man and half god so they were very strong. Achilles liked to show off and get more praise for what he did but Beowulf was more humble than Achilles. Achilles was driven by his emotions and did what his mind told him to do before thinking about it first. Both of them would take their enemy's body or a body part and hang it up or display it as a trophy for winning the battle.

Beowulf’s fame and glory is essential to him much like it is to the rest of the Norse culture. When Beowulf first appears to Hrothgar he makes an effort to brag regarding his achievements as a warrior and claims “‘They had seen me bolstered in the blood of enemies / when I battled and bound five beasts, / raided a troll-nest and in the

As a matter of fact, Beowulf is a strong man who takes it upon himself to protect others and commit many acts of courage, bravery, and pride. At the same time,

Anglo-Saxons valued religion very highly. There is much controversy over Beowulf in dealing with pagan and Christian beliefs because historians believe both were integrated although Christianity seems to be more prevalent. Religion was the center of people’s life at this time and is demonstrated in Beowulf when Beowulf calling for God exclaims … “the almighty the maker of the earth”. Up until the 6th century it is back and forth between Christianity and Paganism. The greatest sources of information on the pagan period of religion are from the 7th to 8th century testimonies, such as Beowulf (Orchard 25). Paganism dealt with the worshiping of many gods. The celebration of glory has such emphasis in Beowulf because human praise is the highest goal of the pagan characters. . Anglo Saxon warriors wore helmets for battle with a pagan god on them named Freyr. Those who grew

Beowulf’s most seen quality in this epic is his confidence. The scene that most directly shows his confidence is his famous boast. “So, every elder and experienced councilman/ among my people supported my resolve/ to come here to you, King Hrothgar, / because all knew of my awesome strength. / They had seen me boltered in the blood of enemies/ when I battled and bound five beasts, / raided a troll-nest and in the night-sea/ slaughtered sea-brutes…” (Heaney lines 415-422). Beowulf’s boast is said publically, which shows an inspirational sense of confidence to defeat Grendel. The boast also demonstrates Beowulf’s courage and brave characteristics that makes him appear very heroic. Furthermore, Beowulf’s promise to kill Grendel to the Danes is a confident and risky thing to do, but Beowulf is able to pull it off. In Forbes article, it states that good leaders need to “deliver on [their] promises. Which our hero does that very night, killing the beast by ripping him apart ‘The monster’s whole/ body was in pain, a tremendous wound/ appeared on his shoulder’” (Forbes).

Although viewed as ruthless savages, the Anglo-Saxon culture was not founded on the sole idea of barbaric brutality. The Anglo-Saxon beliefs were established by loyalty, generosity, and valor. As a result, the people of the Anglo-Saxon culture lived life by these ideals which created a great thirst for fame in being the best version of themselves. If one was decent at fighting, they would train to be the best fighter they could be, or if someone was intelligent they would devise complex riddles to boast of their intelligence. In order to fulfill their beliefs, there were many aspects of the Anglo-Saxon culture that were not only prevalent in their day to day life, they were expressed through their literature as well. In Beowulf, the

Warriors are considered among the bravest of men. In the Anglo-Saxon community, the warriors were of the most respected class, and made up the foundation for their way of living. Anglo-Saxon warriors would not stop fighting until either they were victorious or they were dead. Written during this Anglo-Saxon period, the epic Beowulf contains many pagan ideals, in addition to several references to Christian philosophy. Beowulf is a tale of dual ordeals; an external fight against treacherous enemies, and an internal struggle with human tendencies of pride, greed, cowardice, and betrayal. The story intertwines them with both pagan and Christian beliefs.

Courage is certainly a trait which every hero must possess, particularly because no one wants a hero who is a coward. Thankfully, Beowulf is no coward. When Beowulf hears of Grendel’s exploits in Denmark, he travels to the “distant” land, without hesitation, to rid the Danes of that “demon…conceived by a pair of those monsters born of Cain, murderous creatures banished by God”. Beowulf’s courage is displayed even more when he chooses not to fight with weapons, despite knowing