How To Write An Essay About Beowulf's Journey

At last, Grendel is confronted with Beowulf, who fights with great courage and strength, and Beowulf rises as a victor against the pure evilness and threat to society that Grendel represents.

Joseph Campbell’s term monomyth can be described as a hero’s journey. Many heroic characters follow the monomyth, no matter the time period or culture the literature was created in. The poem Beowulf is known to follow the adventure of the hero described in Campbell’s monomyth . The hero’s journey consists of three rites of passages: separation, initiation, and return. Beowulf endures each of these stages throughout the epic poem, so his journey does follow Campbell’s monomyth.

Beowulf sees Grendel's mother in a cave. He tries to hit her with his sword, Unferth's Hrunting, but it fails to pierce her skin. So he throws the sword away and attacks the mother with his bare hands. He trusts "in his strength, his mighty hand-grip." Beowulf manages to throw Grendel's mother down; however, she quickly retaliates and is soon sitting on top of him. She tries to kill him with a dagger, but Beowulf's armor protects him this time. Beowulf managed to throw her off of himself and sees a sword of enormous size, which he immediately grabs.

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.

Beowulf is an old Anglo-Saxon story of a terrifying monster Grendel, Grendel travels to the Danes mead hall Heorot and while the danes expect it least he attacks killing countless men purely for the joys of doing so. Hrothgar king of the Danes calls for a warrior to fight this unruly beast. After 12 long years of grendel attacking Hrothgar's calls are answered and the great warrior Beowulf comes to kill Grendel. Beowulf travels to the land of the Danes from across the seas and in the first night he kills Grendel. Sadly for Beowulf Grendel has a mother that now seeks revenge for her son's death and Beowulf is asked to kill Grendel’s mother as well. Beowulf goes to where Grendel’s mother is staying and battled her to the death , Beowulf wins

He is willing to cross a boundary alone in order to protect the stability of his kingdom even if he must die in order to do so. However, instead of using his bare hands this time like when he killed Grendel because he “does not know the warrior 's arts" (681), Beowulf uses better judgment and uses weapons to defeat the mother. At this point it appears that Beowulf is maturing by making better decisions.

However, their sleep did not last long. During the night, Grendel’s mother came to avenge her son’s death. She enters the hall and grabs Aeschere and her son’s arm. Beowulf goes to follow her and swims for an entire day in her pool before he sees the bottom of the mere. When Beowulf descends into Grendel’s mere, he loses ground as the fight progresses. It is then assumed that Beowulf is fighting desperately for his life. Then, the water closed over him. It was “the space of a day,” before he could see the bottom of the mere (Burlin 121). The hero’s physical powers grow far beyond human dimensions. Beowulf is about to attempt to use a weapon although they were useless against her; “then he saw, hanging on the wall, a heavy sword...but so massive that no ordinary man could life its carved and decorated length” (72). Once he is in Grendel’s mother’s mere, Beowulf remains underwater for more than a day (Burlin 120). Finally, Beowulf kills Grendel’s mother, and her blood melts his sword (Bloom 16).

In his three major battles, Beowulf fights for many different reasons. His motivation varies, and as he grows older and wiser his attitude toward these battles also changes. Throughout the epic, Beowulf bradoshously beats Grendel, then more methodically murders Grendel’s mother, and with his last breathes humbly hollers for help to slay the dragon. This shows that Beowulf’s early focuses of glory and riches changes as he becomes a weathered warrior acknowledges that he cannot defeat his enemies alone and must utilize the resources provided to him such as armor, magical items, and companions.

While he is already considered a hero among his people, he desires to prove himself and gain more glory and respect. Beowulf is a already respected among his own people, but to Hrothgar and the Danes he is unknown. Before he enters the hall where he seeks audience with the king he demonstrates respect by leaving all his weapons behind. He talks highly of himself and his abilities. This is to give Hrothgar a sense of who Beowulf is and what he can do. The reason Beowulf does this is because he wants more glory. While he is considered a hero, he wants to be an even greater hero. He desires the respect of his people and those of surrounding cultures. By defeating Grendel, who is a descendent of Cain, he would gain a lot of glory, but he decides to risk his life for a greater amount of glory by deciding to not use any weapons. If he is to win the battle, he will win the ultimate respect among the Danes. Beowulf defeats Grendel and is highly honored. However, the next day it is discovered that the best warrior of the Danes had been killed in the night by Grendel's mother. Beowulf decides to go after her as well and has to search the swamp lands for her underwater lair where he fights her and then finds Grendel's dead body. He takes the head as a trophy and the Danes reward him with riches and celebrate with a feast in his honor. Through his acts of bravery he has gained glory and

This is the second act of violence that readers come across in the poem. She attacks the hall where her son was defeated and then flees to the swamp where Beowulf and other warriors follow. Much like his triumph over Grendel, Beowulf slays Grendel’s mother easily. In this case, she is finished with a sword as opposed to Beowulf’s bare hands, but the message is still the same: violence is acceptable when it helps to save the town. Beowulf takes the post-mortum head of Grendel’s mother as a token, showing a blatant disregard for her death. This trophy only furthers Beowulf into the spotlight, where he is welcomed with more gifts and parties in his

Imagine facing your biggest enemy without any weapons and stepping into a battle when nobody else would while facing a blood thirsty monster. This is exactly what Beowulf the Geatish warrior did whenever he was summoned by King Hrothgar to defeat the mighty, Grendel. Beowulf firmly states, “I will not shift a foot” (Beowulf 2524). Beowulf is determined to stand his ground and never give up. He believes in himself. Loyalty is what drove Beowulf to do the unthinkable. It was the emotion inside of him that provided the ability to defeat Grendel when they are called together to battle: “They have seen my strength for themselves,/ Have watched me rise from the

After defeating Grendel Beowulf enjoys the celebration and rewards that Hrothgar has treated him to. Beowulf earns the respect of the whole kingdom of Heorot. A few nights later Grendel’s mother learns that her son was killed by a human. She comes angrily back to the mead hall where she will take vengeance for her son. “But now his mother had sallied forth on a savage journey, grief-racked and ravenous, desperate for revenge” (pg. 89). Grendel’s mother is another stage in Beowulf’s step toward an older warrior. Before the great battle with Grendel’s mother, Beowulf was a little bit more mature and was not as confident. “Beowulf got ready, donned his war-gear, indifferent to death; his mighty, hand-forged, fine-webbed mail would soon meet with the menace underwater.” (pg. 101) He needed armor because he feels that it wasn’t the kind of battle he would face without his necessity to survive. After a long fight Beowulf finds the strength in him to grab the weapon that would kill Grendel’s mother. Once again good has defeated evil. Beowulf comes through as a hero one more time before his departure from Heorot.

Beowulf’s first confrontation is with the “mighty beast” Grendel. The creature is killing the men of King Hrothgar during the night. When the Prince of the Geats comes over to help Hrothgar he seems ready for a fight. Beowulf and his bravest men gather in Herot Hall that night to wait for the beast. A few of the men are asleep when Grendel arrives and he gets ahold of one of them before snatching at Beowulf, and that’s when he strikes. He easily battles against Grendel’s long claws and gnashing teeth. As they fight all around the mead hall, Beowulf finally gets ahold of the demon’s arm and tears it from his body, all done with his bare hands. When the battle is won, Beowulf along with everyone else is extremely pleased with him. This battle was a easy win for the man and he knew it.

When Beowulf heard of the mother’s revenge, he had to take action. “They wrestled, she ripped and tore and clawed at him, bit holes in his helmet” (Beowulf, p.60, ll.453-454). Beowulf battled with Grendel’s mother to show her that he was a great and mighty warrior; he couldn’t let her get away with what she had done. Battle between the two was nail bitter, Grendel’s mother wasn’t going down without a fight nor was Beowulf. “Caught her in the neck and cut it through, Broke bones all” (Beowulf, p.61, ll. 494-495).

In the first battle, Beowulf does not face any difficulty fighting Grendel. Beowulf goes to fight Grendel to help the people of Herot, but more importantly to gain glory for himself. Grendel is described as a devious monster “who haunted the moors, the wild/ Marshes, and made his home in hell...” (Beowulf 1. 102-103). Most warriors would not be brave enough to even go up against this beast, but Beowulf takes on the challenge. He is a young brave, ferocious warrior. For example, Beowulf boasts, “Grendel is no braver, no stronger/ Than I am! I could kill him with my sword; I shall not...” (10. 677-678). This proves that he has no fear and believes that Grendel is such an easy opponent that he does not even need to use any weapons to defeat him. Thus making this the easiest battle of the three. For other warriors they would say Grendel uses difficult strategies when fighting like he moves “quickly through the cloudy night,/ Up from his swampland, sliding