How Does Beowulf Show Loyalty

This sets the foundation for the story and creates a basis for the characters to thrive upon.Beowulf is a story that can only teach us the pure meaning of things and how they reflect on one another.

Beowulf has a strong anglo-saxon values sprinkled through it including a strong sense of loyalty. This sense of loyalty shows up time and time again within beowulf. One of the most notable times loyalty is brought up in beowulf is in The Last Battle. Wiglaf is the character used to show loyalty. Beowulf is in a battle and his soldiers leave out of fear, Wiglaf decides that the most loyal and honorable thing to do is go help his king fight. Even though his chances of survival are low, Wiglaf goes back to help his king. This sense of loyalty that would mean loyalty even until death shows how strongly the anglo-saxons valued loyalty.

Loyalty and bravery are themes that are often found in literature, and Beowulf is no exception. It is one of the reasons I find this poem so interesting. Beowulf is the hero of the poem who decides to sail to Denmark with hope of protecting the Danish people from a creature known as Grendel, who has attacked and devoured many of King Hrothgar’s warriors while they were asleep. Like all heroes, Beowulf exhibits true bravery, courage, and puts the people before himself, which makes him a very likely candidate for king. Even before he faces the terrifying monster, Grendel, Beowulf renounces the uses of weapons when he says “Soon I shall sink him into death-sleep, not with my sword but solely by strength. He is unschooled in skills to strike against

Because “Beowulf” provides our historical past, therefore everyone should read the poem since it provides historical knowledge and has survived Henry VIII fires account of being an ancient poem that no one knows the author to the epic. According to the epic, Beowulf helps with seeking literary pieces when seeking the truth of history. For example, the likely popularity of surviving medieval works is another reason to study them.

But within one heart sorrow welled up: and a man of worth the claims of kinship cannot be denied. His name was wiglaf, a son of weohstan’s, a well-regarded Shylfing warrior related to Aelfhere.(744-754).” This quote shows that Beowulf's strength and loyalty to himself, the Geats, and the Danes brings companionship and loyalty from others to himself, and because of that he has one person that is willing to help out of a whole army. This proves that a little loyalty can go a long way especially when others or yourself need it.

First, loyalty is very important to the Anglo-Saxon people. Loyalty is swearing allegiance to a person, place, or thing. There are many examples of loyalty in Beowulf. Beowulf is exceedingly loyal throughout the entire Anglo-Saxon epic. Beowulf shows loyalty to the Geats and his king. To elaborate, Beowulf shows loyalty to the Geats and his king, Hygelac, by notifying them of his plans to travel to the land of the Danes and help the Danish King, Hrothgar, defeat Cain’s descendant, Grendel, who has been terrorizing Hrothgar’s mead-hall. Beowulf is loyal and seeks the approval of the Geats and Hygelac before anything else(first and foremost), and Beowulf most likely would not have left the land of the Geats to help the Danes if his people and king did not approve. Also, Beowulf demonstrates loyalty to Hrothgar because of an allegiance between Beowulf’s father and Hrothgar. Beowulf helped the Danes for glory and because of a sense of devotion to Hrothgar who once helped Beowulf’s father, Ecgtheow, after he killed a man. Hrothgar paid the death price for

In the epic Beowulf, Christian elements are not hard to come by. The biggest Christian element that we see is “self-sacrifice”. By definition, sacrifice is “an act of giving up something valued for the sake of something else regarded as more important or worthy”. Beowulf shows self- sacrifice in many ways more than one throughout the epic. We usually see this important theme being practiced the most in the different battles that Beowulf engaged in. In this essay, we will explore how Beowulf shows self-sacrifice and the Christian elements are represented throughout the epic.

Loyalty and courage are two themes that emerge throughout the poem ‘Beowulf by Seamus Heaney’. With a focus on an extract in Beowulf, this essay will explore how Seamus Heaney shows the themes loyalty and courage through the use of diction and imagery.

When Beowulf first hears of the horrendous creature Grendel who slaughtered many of Hrothgar’s men He sails with his men to Herot he gets stopped at the entrance by a soldier. The soldier of course does not trust Beowulf so he asks who his father is. Whoever was your father really mattered, it said what kind of person you were because of your fathers actions. The soldier says to Beowulf “Tell me your name/ and your fathers; no spies go further into Danish/ soil than you’ve already come” (lines 165-168). Beowulf explains who his father was and his intentions in Herot. Beowulf says that he has heard of the monster and all he wants is to help them because they have suffered for too long. The soldier guarding the entrance into Herot let Beowulf and his men enter, the soldier seems to trust Beowulf and he says to him. “’ A soldier should know the difference between words/ and deeds and keep that knowledge clear in his brain. I believe your words, I trust in/ your friendship”’ (lines 200-203). Beowulf sails to Herot to kill a monster that has murdered many men. He does this for many reasons he to help, he wants everyone to see his ability, and he just wants some glory.

The Anglo Saxons were an interesting people that were loyal to their lord. Each group had a leader that commanded and directed the warriors. Loyalty was an important part of the Anglo Saxons culture. In Beowulf, the Anglo Saxons were expected to remain loyal to their leader as he was responsible for protecting them in battle. The leaders of the Anglo Saxons were admired for their courage and determination as they guided the group of warriors in their endeavors. In “The Wife’s Lament”, the wife remains loyal to her lord even though she is treated harshly by him. She chased after him when he left, and continued to love him after he ostracized her. As evident in Beowulf and “The Wife’s Lament”, the Anglo Saxons greatly relied on a noble leader to protect them from danger and direct them towards success; as a result, the followers were loyal to their lord by showing reverence and admiration as well as honouring their legacy, even if the lord neglected to fulfill his duties.

The Epic Poem of Beowulf was written during the Anglo-Saxon period. It presented three main universal themes, in which it included loyalty and self-sacrifice as admirable traits. This theme is reflected in today’s society. An example, would be the film Fantastic Four. It shows loyalty and self-sacrifice by the four members, by how they sacrifice their normal lives to become stronger and faster in order to save those in need.

The novel Beowulf has many themes, one of the central themes of Beowulf, embodied by its title character is loyalty. At every step of his career, loyalty is Beowulf’s guiding virtue. Although many may disagree about this assumption, this is what I see in this novel. The loyalty that he gives for the town folks and for his king Hrothgar is put in every action he makes in the novel.

Beowulf is one of the most important pieces of English literature. The epic poem is said to be a great representation of the Anglo-Saxon era. Written by an anonymous monk between 800 and 1000 A.D., Beowulf displays Anglo-Saxon practices, beliefs, values, and religion. Beowulf is not only a fascinating story, but also a primary source for the time period. Serving as a primary source document, scholars can have a deep understanding of the Anglo-Saxon culture. They can learn about the Old English language, their customs and beliefs, and what they valued. This is why Beowulf is one of the most important pieces of English literature.

The scene in Beowulf when main character Beowulf proclaims the reasonings he felt to go protect the Geats suggests among the Spear-Danes classification as a warrior related with proving loyalty in the form of self-sacrifice. Additionally, I will argue in what follows that other scenes in the poem, such as, Wiglaf giving the speech on what amounts of cowardice behavior proves respect came from an urgency for loyalty proven through self-sacrificing methods. However, I will argue on top of loyalty being expressed as important it was not matter of want for Beowulf to sacrifice himself but his understood purpose. Influentially, a tension is formed between how reputation and loyalty is defined throughout the poem. The passage I will analyze is when Beowulf is speaking in the mead hall about urgency to be loyal towards the Geats right before Grendel attacks the hall. Here in Beowulf dictates that in order to be a good warrior he knew it was necessary to go to sea to defend the Geats which would entail him having to go extremes to prove his loyalty. Beowulf’s urgency suggests the believable notion that loyalty is necessary to survive in this society even when it means a warrior would sacrifice his own life for others. This in makes it difficult to withstand the belief that reputation was as important as loyalty.

The historical poem of Beowulf not only reveals to us the importance cultural values of the warrior society, but also the importance of literature. The warrior culture at this time reflects the values of the society of the 6th century. There are a couple of key features of Beowulf’s characterization that reflect what was important in Anglo-Saxon society. For example. Beowulf comes across as arrogant and bigheaded, but Anglo-Saxon society valued the daring and confident young man who was proud of his actions and could use his past experiences and journeys to motivate himself toward future success. Our modern world leans towards modesty rather than arrogance. Anglo-Saxon society also believed in a concept of revenge that resulted in a vicious cycle. If someone killed one of your men, you were obligated to avenge their death, but then that group could come back and avenge that death and so on. This is shown in Beowulf by the killing of Grendel and then Grendel’s mother seeking revenge. The only reason this cycle was broken is because there wasn’t anyone else to