Justice Is Justice In Beowulf

Honor, something powerful enough to sculpt the world’s oldest and most powerful empires. Throughout history great empires such as China, Japan, and the Anglo-Saxons have fought and died in the hunt for honor and fame; bringing life to many great and powerful heroes. Beowulf, one such hero, who fought many great battle in the name of honor and fame; putting his all into each battle he encountered. In the epic Beowulf, Beowulf decides to help Hrothgar with the dreaded monster Grendel and then battling him bare handed. Throughout the epic of Beowulf, Beowulf is mainly concerned about honor and fame, in his hunt for honor he agrees to help Hrothgar and fight the monster, Grendel, bare handed; but why?

Go through all of the book. There are so many things happening on the topic of

Beowulf proclaims “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” (liens 156-160). Beowulf claims that he must go to defeat Grendel, as it was his errand, or his duty, and his fate. This speech he makes to King Hrothgar reinforces his true reason to come to the King, not for any pride. Another vow Beowulf makes is when he says “That this is one favor you should not refuse me—That I, alone and with the help of my men, many purge all evil form this hall” (lines 163-166). In this line, Beowulf is pleading for the King to do one thing, which is to give him the permission for him and his men to go and fight Grendel, what Beowulf had arrived for. The fact that Beowulf asks the king for only one thing, which is to fight Grendel, shows Beowulf’s selflessness and concern for the safety of others. At no part does he ask for a reward, but even says that if fate is in favor of Grendel to give his armor back to his family. These words help paint the image of Beowulf being concerned for others, not for his

Until Beowulf died, his internal battles and external battles were never ending. Once he won an external battle, his external battle, pride, would only get bigger. This would go on and on until his last battle where he finally fails due to the betrayal of his people. The one time Beowulf needed the Geats, they ran like cowards resulting in their almighty kings death. Without Beowulf’s internal and external battles he would have never lived in

Finally, after many years, Beowulf goes on to face his final opponent; the Dragon. After the Dragon has been set on a rampage against the Geats, Beowulf declares in his last boast that, selfishly, he will defeat the Dragon alone, “Beowulf spoke, made a formal boast for the last time: I risked my life often when I was young. Now I am old, but as king of the people I shall pursue this fight for the glory of winning” (2510-14). Beowulf’s emphasis in his formal boast is about “the glory of winning” instead of expressing concern for his people. Beowulf, this entire time, has not been fighting monsters for the Geats or to help others. In this formal boast he directly reveals his true intentions of gaining glory. He even states right afterwards that if he were stronger he would fight the dragon without a weapon, just as he did Grendel, “I would rather not use a weapon if I knew any other way” (2518-19), but alas he has grown old and realizes he needs the help of a blade to slay the Dragon. Then he speaks to his comrades about the battle, stating that he alone will fight the Dragon and must either win the fight with courage or

When Beowulf fights the dragon, he doesn’t think of it as being a dragon. All Beowulf can think of is gaining a bigger ego to match his heroics. But, one must praise Beowulf for doing what Hrothgar could not; protect his kingdom. Beowulf tried to defeat the dragon to be able to have the dragons hoard. What Beowulf leaves when he dies is his identity, his monstrous identity of not following the heroic code. In all rights, Beowulf is an old king and he doesn’t need the dragon’s hoard, but because he is a selfish individual and prides himself on heroics, he goes and tries to defeat the dragon. This leaves the Geats kingless and now he has ultimately ruined his and everyone’s life that he worked to build up over his 50 years of being king. Instead of defeating the dragon he should have focused on other problems. He was a good king, but he was selfish ultimately, and selfishness was not part of the heroic code that he prided himself on. He defeated one monster only to become even more of one.

Revenge is presented both as an honest motive and a rhetorical tactic in Beowulf. For Beowulf himself, reprisal of

Grendel’s mother is saddened and angered when she finds out her son is dead and proceeds to Herot: “But a monster still lived, and meant revenge.”(Beowulf, page 56). Vengeance is the cause of destruction and that is what Grendel’s mother wants to do to the men of

To begin, Beowulf has a complex motivation for fighting the monster Grendel. His first motivation is duty which is part of the Anglo-Saxon code he’s obligated to go and kill Grendel. His people told him so go and do it so he does duty comes first and personal choice comes second. On page 47 lines 244-246 Beowulf says, “My people have said, the wisest, most knowing And best of them, that my duty was to go to the Danes’ Great king.”

Grendel of course only knew revenge for what God did to him so it’s ironic and coincidental that his mother seeked revenge for him also. Whether she won or not she stood up and battled like any mother would do. She didn't care how popular Beowulf was she did what it it took to feel some sense of happiness for her son.

Anglo-Saxon culture consisted of receiving fame, glory, and wealth through acts of vengeance and courage. “Beowulf” portrays these parts in great detail and shows how destabilizing it can be. Through acts of vengeance, a never ending war occurs.

In fact, vengeance plays such a pinnacle role in Beowulf that Beowulf himself states, “It is always better / to avenge dear ones than to indulge in mourning” (Beowulf, 1384-1385, 37). In an act of retaliation for the terrorization of Herot, Bowulf seeks out, and eventually murders, Grendel. Grendel’s mother then attacks Herot, in retaliation for the murder of her son. Beowulf then kills Grendel’s mother to avenge those she killed during her conquest of Herot. Hrothgar encourages Beowulf to seek out vengeance by saying, “My household guards / are on wane, fate sweeps them away / into Grendel’s clutches- but God can easily / halt these raids and harrowing attacks” (Beowulf,476-469, 14). In this verse Hrothgar suggest that, with God’s aide, Beowulf can easily overtake Grendel. After slaying Grendel, Beowulf’s victorious act of vengeance was celebrated with a massive feast at Herot and rewarded with an invaluable amount of

In the early century of the Anglo-Saxon period, Beowulf is a precious ancient Poem that vividly illustrates scenes that the Christian God's religion influences the Germanic Society, and the Christian religion converts the Pagan's belief people into Christian belief. In the Poem, justice versus evil refers to light versus dark; the justice mind hero Beowulf always win battles with evil mind monsters because the Almighty God judges the justice stands with victor, and judges the hell is the destination of evil doings; the Almighty God blesses Beowulf with the holy power of the light; the Almighty God uses the holy powerful light to rule over the heaven, the earth, the hell, evil doings, and human being; the

Throughout “Beowulf”, Beowulf decides to go on an adventure to the Danish islands and help out the Danes in a battle of good versus evil. The reason of Beowulf’s journey was to end the reign of terror of Grendel, a monster who lives under Herot and massacres individuals. In the poem Beowulf states to King Hrothgar, “‘…Now Grendel and are called/ Together, and I have come…That I, alone and with the help of my men,/ May purge all evil from this hall,” (Beowulf 254-261). This quotation explains that Beowulf wants to rid the world of evil and help the Danes defeat what has been preying on their men and inflicting terror upon a civilization. Also, Beowulf

Though Beowulf was god-like and he was able to be successful when faced with decisions and adversity, he eventually succumbed to the destructive forces of nature and threw his nation into conflict. As aforementioned, Beowulf’s battle with the dragon depicts unpreventable death and destruction that afflicts everybody, his last battle also symbolizes that even the most seemingly perfect people are chained to hostile acts of nature and fate. Beowulf’s death is not a product of pride, it was a result of his altruistic nature to do good, however, his death forecasts war in his country as described by Wiglaf when ordering a messenger to tell the Geats of Beowulf’s death, “And this people can expect fighting, once/ The Franks, and the Frisians, have heard that our king/ Lies dead.” (Beowulf 2910-2913). Beowulf’s main purpose was to do good, and though killing the dragon was an act of goodness, he traded in his life for an act of good, however his death brought the large possibility of war to his