The Importance Of Taking Risks In Beowulf

Is Beowulf a coward and failure? The epic, Beowulf was written and translated in many different ways, but this particular one is translated by Burton Raffel. The main characters in Beowulf are Beowulf, Grendel, Hrothgar, Grendel’s mother, the dragon, and Wiglaf. In the epic a hero named Beowulf had gotten word from Hrothgar’s kingdom that his land was cursed with Grendel and monsters across the seas. So he had went there and had to wait in the mead-hall with the Geats to fight him without armor and weapons. He defeated Grendel but stayed to kill the rest of the monsters growing old and dying on the last battle when defeating the dragon. Beowulf embodies the ideals of conduct in the Anglo-Saxon culture by displaying leadership, bravery, loyalty, and faithfulness.

This helps reassure Beowulf as an mighty, valiant hero rather than portraying him as a mediocre, ordinary mortal. The kingdom of Hrothgar is agitated and frightened by the attacks of the vile Grendel, who is unable to be defeated nonetheless harmed by a warrior's sword. “I have heard, too, that the monster’s scorn of men is so great that he needs no weapons and fears none”(Beowulf Poet 38). Grendel shrieks at the sound of jubilant music as well as the sounds of joy coming from Hrothgar’s mead hall. To compensate for this agonizing pain, Grendel decides he is going to kill some of Hrothgar’s men. Grendal murdering Hrothgar’s men reassures Grendel’s evil nature and his constant intent to carry out malice. Hrothgar looks far and wide for a brave, noble warrior who will help rid them of this behemoth. Beowulf accepts the strenuous task of obliterating the malevolent Grendel in order to retain the kingdom of Hrothgar and his people. Beowulf accepts Hrothgar’s task not for the wages he will receive, but for the bravery and honor that come with killing such a magnificent beast. The acceptance of this challenge bolsters the fact that Beowulf is willing to sacrifice himself for the greater good of the people rather than a person of greed who is in it for their

Not everyone believes in fate in the modern world, but back in Beowulf's time fate was a very common belief. The anglo saxon belief was that fate controlled every aspect of people's lives and no one could escape it. They believed fate to be the reason for everything. The hero of the Geats was a firm believer in fate hence why fate is the most prevalent theme in Beowulf. Fate helps Beowulf many times and the story shows fate to be a force for good.

Beowulf’s heroism does not change over time; he develops from a youthful energetic warrior into a wise old man that still protects people no matter what. In literature, heroism can be best described as showing great acts of bravery and someone that displays courage mainly in battles. Beowulf is a prime example of a hero, seeing that his traits as a hero consists of bravery, loyalty, honor, physical strength and the willingness to risk his own life for others. He displays these qualities best because he conquers a lot to get the title “hero” and by the end of the book all of those assets pay off. The Geats is his tribe and it settled in the southern part of Sweden. Hrothgar and the mead hall of Heorot were from the Danish island, Sjaelland. Beowulf has experience with battling monsters; it will not be difficult for him. He feels as if he has a reputation to uphold and that he must show his bravery.

Beowulf is a very interesting person with many traits that define him such as, being honorable, brave and very courageous.

Life is occasionally a struggle, but who said that it would be a walk in the park? A key part in life, which is an embarrassment to me, is my lack of skills for reading publicly. Another vital necessity I need to overcome is the memory I have is not what it used to be. I continue to fight these dragons from the moment I open my eyes up until the moment I fall asleep at night. For Beowulf his dragons were overcoming his weaknesses by strengthening them, mine are similar because my downfalls are not being able to read aloud fluently and in addition too not being able to retain as much information as I could before, so I plan on defeating my weaknesses.

Beowulf unfailingly arose at the first peak of day fire, dawn, everyday since he had taken his position as the principal protector of PCs at the prime bank, The Bank of America. He would then take a cup of coffee, and set out to walk in the concrete jungle of New York City to his workplace. While entering the facility, he would wear his badge with mind’s worth.

Ships were invented to explore and discover the unknown and what kind of new resources and people are there in other places. But there more to it than just boats, the quote could resemble life itself; if people never did anything out of hand or extreme, people would never develop and evolve into what society is today. Taking risk is essential to get anywhere in life and there are many reasons why people take risk. The theme of Risk include taking risk for evolvement and new discoveries, taking risk when under pressured and taking risk for your loved ones. The event of Felix Baumgartner’s jump, the story “Lamb to the Slaughter,” and the film “Edward Scissorhands” all express taking risk.

The Seamus Heaney’s translation of the popular epic poem Beowulf, releases many powerful symbols that are easily concealed in between the text of the unknown author. Believing that the reader will uncover the many meanings and statements. The characters explore the idea of good vs. evil with various contrasts. Light and darkness are closely connected throughout the poem of Beowulf. It is a symbol of good and evil, similar to yin and yang, because without one there can't be another.

As the reader continues further into the story, it becomes increasingly obvious that Beowulf has the reputation of a courageous, outstanding warrior. This reputation is displayed immediately following the introduction of Beowulf when he decides to venture to Denmark in an attempt to save Hrothgar’s mead hall from the destruction of Grendel, a monstrous demon. Yet another hint towards this stature appears shortly after Beowulf’s arrives at Heorot. As the herald of Hrothgar begins

Beowulf: Contrasting Elements of Good and Evil In the epic poem “Beowulf”, a hero quests to obtain glory through the slaying of various monsters, each demonic and evil. To begin, Beowulf travels to the country of King Hrothgar, where stories of the monsters that haunt his people have surfaced. Upon arrival, he is given specifics of two of the monsters. Grendel, a giant like creature who is afraid of nothing, was one who had accounted for the deaths of countless men of Heorot.

Beowulf has come to Denmark, the kingdom of Hrothgar, the news that the monster Grendel is terrorizing the land. Seeking for adventure in which he can get honor, Beowulf leads a company of fourteen fellow Geats to fulfill the quest. Hrothgar, beset by the monster that had overtaken his royal hall of Heorot and killed his warriors, is grateful that so strong a champion came, a man he met in the Geat childhood, and his fame spread across the sea. In gratitude, Hrothgar yields his place as champion of his homeland Beowulf, giving him the hall of Heorot to defend and protect. Heorot is a symbol of his power, and so he cautiously giving it to Beowulf's control. Never before had he yielded any part of his power and authority to any person, nevertheless,

Beowulf reveals that his duty to go to Danes was to fight the great beast Grendel. He believes that he is strong enough to defeat the monster. From lines 150-153 he describes his quests of victory in the past he says he rose “from the darkness of war” and that he was “Dripping with enemies blood”. He declares the not only will Grendel be defeated but all “evil” will be removed from the hall. He attributes the outcome of the fight to the Lord in line 174.

After the battle with Grendel, King Hrothgar elaborates on the mightiness of the Lord, and the salvation that He gives to the Danes in the form of Beowulf. Upon the defeat of Grendel and his mother, Hrothgar presents Beowulf with several splendid gifts, but reminds him “keep yourself against the wickedness, beloved Beowulf, best of men, and choose better-eternal gains. Have no care for pride…” (31). Foreshadowing the necessary qualities that Beowulf uses in his reign, Hrothgar reminds Beowulf to take precautions on the spoils of warfare, and avoid the deadly sin of pride. After the death of Hygleac, Beowulf rises to the throne due to his respectful and altruistic nature, not because of some divine right. Despite the religious allegories of Hrothgar’s speeches and Beowulf’s gratitude to the Lord, most of the poem retains the underlying pagan ideal of fate.

It is a fascinating story with complicated backgrounds because it started as a story that was only told verbally, it wasn’t written down to begin with, but eventually was compiled and written and translated into a more modern english to be read. Although this story was an early one in both when it was studied this semester as well as in general terms of stories and even history it drew my attention and will stick with me more than many other stories covered this semester. Beowulf was a character in an epic that was essentially the embodiment of all of the anglo-saxon ideals and beliefs that was inspiring and inevitably became a person which all others aspired to be. The main story of Beowulf follows him as he is driven by a sense of duty to defeat a monster in a land that is not his country’s and victoriously returns to deal with the monster’s mother, a witch with a vengeance, who is slain leaving Beowulf to be seen as a respectable hero who eventually dies fighting a dragon. One part of the story describes Beowulf and what he does by saying “So Beowulf chose the mightiest men he could find, the bravest and best of the Geats, fourteen in all, and led them…straight to that distant Danish shore” shows how he was able to decide to go help the Danish land although the creature attacking them did not have any direct attempt to attack their land or