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Leadership In Beowulf

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Kingship is someone held in higher regard or respect over others and one who possesses characteristics or personality traits of a king. “Kingship” or leadership is seen throughout the readings of “Everyman,” “Beowulf,” and “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.” Another way that people would describe kingship in the fourteenth century is by saying, “The emergence of more elaborate ways of addressing the king is, in fact, of great consequence in revealing important developments in the nature of the fourteenth-century parliament, a dramatic shift in the culture of the royal court and, ultimately, a reconfiguration of the expectations of kingship itself” (Dodd 2014). Finding out what makes a good leader can be determined based off of characters …show more content…

The first example of a character possessing kingship qualities in the poem “Beowulf” is Hrothgar. Hrothgar is incredibly powerful and possesses kingship and leadership qualities such as strength which enabled him to be the king. Hrothgar represents a strong leader which is what the people wanted as they felt fear. Beowulf is the second character in the poem “Beowulf” who possesses kingship qualities. One example of kingship qualities on display is when Beowulf defeats Grendel, we know Beowulf won the battles as the story states, “Beowulf was granted the glory of winning; Grendel was driven under the fen-banks, fatally hurt, to his desolate lair” (Beowulf 58). When Beowulf is involved in battles against Grendel and Grendel’s mother, and the dragon he is showing kingship qualities as others did not want to face these gruesome fights. We see how challenging battles are when the poem goes into detail informing readers that Beowulf rips off Grendel’s arm, causing Grendel to disappear and shortly after diapering dies. Grendel was supposedly the strongest so when Beowulf defeated him he became an honored hero. After being honored Beowulf returns home where he is now called the King of the Geats. Based off of this short, little summary readers see that Beowulf holds many of the kingship and good leader qualities. As the poem “Beowulf” continues …show more content…

For example, King Arthur has the characteristic of being brave and proving his boldness as he is the first person to go up against and try to fight the Green Knight readers can determine this as the poem says, “His men were also hurt – those words had pricked their pride. But born so brave at heart the king stepped up one stride” (Sir Gawain and the Green Knight 192). This quotes says that by nature, King Arthur is bold. We then go on to see how Sir Gawain has kingship and leadership qualities when the author describes his shield which happens to be in the shape of a pentagon. This is otherwise known as the pentangle, each side of the pentagon shaped shield or the pentangle represents something that Gawain is good at. One side represented his five senses, another side, which most proves his kingship, represents the five virtues he possesses. The five virtues consist of fellowship, chastity, generosity, charity, and courtesy. These five virtues are the reason why Sir Gawain has good leadership and kingship. Something also mentioned within this poem is the code of chivalry, a virtue a king should possess in order to hold kingship and good leadership. David Beauregard said, “In his analysis of the virtue of fortitude, St. Thomas begins with the proposition that fortitude has to do with the passions of

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