How Does Beowulf Show Courage

The hero is an age-old concept that describes someone that will defend their honor to the end. In Beowulf, the author portrays the warrior Beowulf and his three battles in such a way as to clearly define what it means to be a hero. Fred Robinson and J. R. R. Tolkien addressed heroism in Beowulf regarding the warrior’s traits, as well as his battles and burial. The author of Beowulf defines the hero through Beowulf’s three battles with Grendel, Grendel’s mother, and the dragon. In this poem, each monster possesses a specific quality undesired by heroes. Beowulf battles anger/jealousy, vengeance, and greed/selfishness for the good of his Geat nation. As Beowulf fends off these anti-hero traits, he becomes capable of being a great leader of

An epic hero displays bravery, courage, and strength. An epic hero also wants to achieve immortality through heroic actions. Beowulf can be categorized as a legendary epic hero. There are many things that prove Beowulf is an epic hero in the poem. He proves that he is an epic hero through his heroic actions that occur throughout the poem.

Being a hero can be defined many different ways. Several qualities like courage, respect, and strength can define heroism. A hero is noted for his or her actions for being brave, powerful, and acting with honor. In the epic poem, Beowulf, the main character Beowulf shows all of these characteristics by defending the Danish king, Hrothgar, and his people. He is a true hero by honoring his country and exerting his power and strength to protect others. Beowulf embodies the qualities of bravery, being powerful, and demonstrating his honor; therefore, he can be considered a true hero.

First Beowulf went on to fight Grendel, without any help from the Danes because, he wanted all the glory to himself. Foster, Edward states, “When he hears the

A hero is one who is not only strong, but one who uses his strength to uphold others. A hero is humble, philanthropic, magnanimous and selfless, a humanitarian at best. In the unprecedented epic Beowulf, the tale’s namesake exemplifies every characteristic befitting an Anglo-Saxon hero. He is honest, loyal, and courageous. He portrays these characteristics in the battle against Grendel, the affray with Grendel’s mother, and the fight against the dragon that inevitably ended his life.

No one, not even Beowulf himself, expected triumphing over the demon. In fact, his sullen acceptance of death in battle has allowed him to let go of fear and give in to the ending God had for him. Even after 50 years, Beowulf’s attitude towards death remains the same because he still believes that “wyrd” or fate will determine his time of death. He has lost his trust in his abilities, however, and as he gets ready to face the dragon, he knows that he no longer has the strength he used to have and will die in battle. Even so, he holds on to his position as a warrior and charges into battle before the dragon’s poisonous bite takes his life away.

In Seamus Heaney’s translation of Beowulf, courage is undoubtedly the most important trait a man could have. The Geats thrived for 50 years under the powerful and courageous reign of King Beowulf. However, the Danes suffered through twelve winters under Grendel because of King Hrothgar’s fear. The strength and bravery of a strong leader and warrior can lead many countries to peace and power. Throughout Beowulf, many characters exhibit courage, which increases their morale on the battlefield and leads to victory.

Beowulf has killed a lot of the king’s men he stands alone and alarmed ready to fight. “So the Spear-Danes in days by and the kings who ruled them had courage and greatness we have heard of the heroic campaign”. The Spear-Danes bravery/heroism was celebrated. Beowulf’s fight with Grendel shows off his true strength.

Valor is defined as displaying great courage in the face of danger, especially in battle. Characters in literature often display intense courage when they face a difficult or dangerous situation. In the epic poem Beowulf, the protagonist, and hero, Beowulf displays extreme courage in the situations thrown his way. Beowulf had to fight many horrible creatures, such as Grendel, a prideful demon who wanted everyone to be as miserable as he was, Grendel's mother, a spiteful she-wolf, and the dragon, who is greedy and hateful. In each of the battles, Beowulf showed intense courage where others did not.

Beowulf’s first act of courage is when he battles the sea currents and its monsters in a swimming competition against Breca. After Beowulf travels across the ocean to rid the Danes of their problems, Unferth jealous of Beowulf points out that he lost the challenge to Breca. Beowulf explained that he was shoulder to shoulder with Breca for five nights but soon cold winds brought sea beasts. Beowulf tells Hrothgar prince of the Danes he did not lose his courage during this episode when saying, “ ‘Time and again, foul things attacked me, lurking and stalking, but I lashed out” (559-560). Beowulf held courage by refusing to let his “flesh [be]…fest[ed] on, [for] there would be no monsters gnawing and gloating over their banquet at the bottom of

There Beowulf enters the cave to meet Grendels mother. Beowufl understood that the fight with Grendel was a tough one even though he was unarmed, he imagined that this fight would be more difficult. Beowulfs progress as a hero shows he understands his limits and doesn’t show off to be seen as mighty. He fights with Grendels mother, but sadly he is losing. His sword is broken by her and he would have died if it wasn’t for one thing. On the wall there was a huge sword, knowing Beowulf I can imagine he probably didn’t want to use it but in the situation he was in he didn’t care. He reached for the sword and slashed Grendels mother right on her throat and cut her head off. This still shows Beowulf as a mighty, ruthless warrior, showing no mercy to the beasts that come before him. Although that’s not all, he searched the caves to look for the run away Grendel to finish him off. He finds his dead body lying on the floor, where he goes and cuts his head off. In this fight he obtains 2 more “trophies” the heads of Grendel and his

Valor is often seen as an upside to someone’s character, but when very brave, it mistakenly leads to being brave in situations where the dispute is unfavorable. Excessive bravery leads to careless or unneeded acts, times when doing something is insane. Having too much courage results in recklessness. Courage takes over rationality, the outcome being unwise choices, which leads to consequences. In both passages the qualities of bravery leads to unnecessary risks.

According to the definition, a hero is one who embodies the values of their society. In the epic Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf, written by an anonymous author, the character Beowulf is used to convey the value that Anglo-Saxons placed on courage, strength, and loyalty.

After spending over a week reading the story "Beowulf", we can all come to the conclusion that he is a hero. Sure, he saves countries from monsters, has incredible strength and wisdom, and is fearless- the typical fictional hero. However, when I hear the word hero, I think in terms of an everyday hero. In my mind, a hero is someone who performs courageous acts even if the consequences can be fatal. A hero doesn't have to be some big muscled guy who beats up bad guys. My example of a hero is a fireman. He/she knows that they might be killed rescuing someone from a burning building, yet they still go in. Why? Probably for the honor and glory that people will give them.

To start, Beowulf was written somewhere between 700-1000 AD by an anonymous author to demonstrate that good prevails over evil; if someone has the will and strength there is nothing they cannot overcome. Beowulf was born in Geatland the son of Ecgtheow and rumored to be the strongest man to live during the time. This was at a time in which England was beginning to convert to Christianity. Beowulf is a hero to many in this epic poem when he shows his strength and his determination to free the people from the ferocious spawn of Cain. He faces three monsters who are Grendel, Grendel’s mom, and the dragon. He goes to Denmark to defeat Grendel, and to put an end to his terror. Does he accomplish that? He certainly does when he rips the arm off of that gruesome, death inducing monster. He hears about the mother of the fiend, so he decides to go after her to help protect the people from further retribution from the vile being. He makes it to the bottom of the lake where she finds him, then she takes him back to her lair to enact her revenge on him for slaying her only son. They fight and he is confident he’s on the path of destruction, but she is not able to pierce his armor with her bloodstained, rusty knife. He believes that God is protecting him and that gives him the time to see the giant magic sword chained to the wall. He breaks free from her and gets to the sword and he releases it from what was binding it to the stone. He summons