The True Hero In Beowulf By Burton Raffel

First of all, in the epic poem “Beowulf”, Beowulf substantiates that he is courageous, has strength, and is honorable. Beowulf demonstrates his courage through the battles he is fighting and his men. None of his men are willing to go out or join Beowulf during the battles. This can be seen when Beowulf is fighting his last battle and none of his men give him a helping hand, “None of his comrades Came to him, helped him, his brave and noble Followers; they ran for their lives, fled deep in a wood”. This went in account for Beowulf’s courageousness. Moreover, Beowulf has astronomical amount of strength, and Beowulf’s Battle against Grendel said it all. This goes to accommodation when Beowulf has to use his bare hands, “And was instantly seized himself, claws bent back as Beowulf leaned up on one arm…nowhere on earth had he met a man whose hands were harder… his shoulder snapped, muscle and bone split and broke”. So to be able to give Grendel fear and break his

Courage, bravery, and strength are three heroic Anglo-Saxon characteristics that tie together perfectly. Without courage, you will not have strength and bravery. Without strength and bravery, you will not have the courage to face your challenges. Anglo-Saxons believed three of these characteristics were perfectly interwoven in the ideal Anglo-Saxon hero (Garcia). Beowulf identifies to three of these Anglo-Saxon characteristics flawlessly as he fights the monstrous Grendel. Courage means fighting even if it means death; it means challenging your fate and being brave no matter the circumstance (Cascio). Beowulf shows special strength and bravery when he has the courage to renounce his use of weapons and protection when battling Grendel. “No weapons, therefore, for either this night: unarmed he [Grendel] shall face me if face

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 first task on his path to gain glory is to defeat the merciless monster Grendel, who haunts Heorot for twelve long winters. If he wins this battle, he does not only gain glory and respect for himself, but also for his king and clan. He exhibits all the great qualities of a person and has a lot of esteem and admiration for his king Hygelac. One of the ways we can show Beowulf’s loyalty to Hygelac is when Beowulf explains to Hrothgar how he was going to fight Grendel “I have heard moreover that

unless the burning embrace of a fire engulf it in flame” (777-781). This shows his strength was outstanding when he fought with Grendel. Another example is when Beowulf’s duty is to fight in battles against people or creatures, he does not deny a challenge. In the poem, it states “Inspired again by the thought of glory, the war-king threw his whole strength behind a sword-stroke and connected with the skull” (2677-2680). This shows his strength and his values because Beowulf is keeping in mind that he has fame and glory to gain, so he fights every battle he is ordered.

To begin, a cultural truth admired by the Anglo-Saxon is courage in battle because it is a trait of a good warrior in the eyes of Anglo-Saxon people. Courage in battle is the ability to not be afraid of the enemy, be strong, and brave. Beowulf shows his above average strength and courage in battle when he is going to battle Grendel: “When it comes to battle, I count myself/ as dangerous any day as Grendel,/ … No weapons, therefore,/ for either this night: unarmed he shall face me/ if face me he dares” (Beowulf 677-685). In this quote Beowulf states and declares his abandonment of weapons, as well as his belief that he is as strong as Grendel, so he will fight him without a weapon. This shows Beowulf’s courage in battle because it displays his tremendous strength and boldness by going to fight a monster with no weapons, which demonstrates that he is not

Beowulf’s responsibility differs from a warrior to a king. As a young fighter he has responsibility to his Geatish king as well as to Hrothgar. His king, Hyglac, relies on Beowulf to represent him and

Beowulf in Beowulf and King Arthur in The Once and Future King both exhibit their courageousness. Arthur shows his courage when he fights the army of King Lot. “In the morning, almost before they were formed, Arthur was on them. In conformity with his own tactics, he sent only a small troop of forty spears to start the work.” The excerpt shows Arthur decides to still go to battle despite Lot’s army being vaster than his own. Beowulf shows his courageousness when he fights Grendel, Grendel’s mother, and the dragon. “‘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,” This extract shows Beowulf’s courage before he goes into battle. Beowulf tells

The portrayal of bravery as a heroic quality in Beowulf differs from that of Dan Evans’ in numerous ways. Being the traditional, valiant hero, Beowulf’s bravery is unmatched among the thanes of Heorot and he leaps at the chance to slay the terrible monster Grendel. Described as a “brave thane of the Geats” (Beowulf 2), Beowulf’s strength and daring spirit is demonstrated with his admirable feats of bravery, including “[destroying] five a family of giants” and “[slaying] monsters on the waves” (372). Beowulf’s daring exploits leads him to challenge Grendel in single combat in order to slay the terrorizing beast. He expresses his courage and confidence through his boast, stating that he considered himself “[…] no less brave than Grendel himself/

The first example of when Beowulf shows courage is when he fights Grendel with his bare hands. Grendel is an evil dragon who is killing people in the mead-hall. A messenger travels to tell Beowulf about what is going on. Beowulf has the option to save the Danes and says, “that king, / the famous prince who needed defenders” (Heaney 200-201). Beowulf shows courage by owing allegiance to Lord Hygelac and believes he has a past reason to help Hrothgar. To be a hero a warrior must protect people who are in danger and this is what Beowulf is going to achieve. By applying the characteristic of courage, Beowulf develops leadership skills and will become a hero for his people. There is a lot on Beowulf’s shoulders to defeat Grendel who is wreaking havoc on the Danes, “There was panic after dark, people endured / raids in the night, riven by the terror” (192-193). Grendel has brought terror to the Danes and Beowulf is going to stand against him. When Beowulf battles Grendel, he elects not to use weapons and says, “When it comes to fighting, I count myself / as dangerous as Grendel. / …No weapons, therefore, / for either this night: unarmed he shall face me / if face me he dares” (677-685). Beowulf exhibits courage to fight with his bare hands and believes he is as mighty as Grendel. This is a battle

The movie The legend of Hercules was captivating. It depicts the archetype of a Greek hero. Betrayal, treachery, slavery and the odds of his life did not stop him to fight his way back to his rightful kingdom. He was bold and brave. We can find a very similar hero in the Anglo-Saxon literature of Beowulf. In the Anglo-Saxon culture a hero was a warrior. He/she was strong, clever, God-fearing and venturesome. Beowulf, a famous Anglo-Saxon poem, was about the adventure of a hero who had inhuman strength that fought a monster named Grendel, Grendel’s mother ,and a fire-breathing dragon that’s hung-over from sleep. Beowulf exemplifies the archetype of a perfect hero through his warrior like, admirable, and loyal characters.

In “Beowulf,” Beowulf shows his courage in several ways. “Dripping with my enemies' blood, I drove/ Five great gains into chains, chased/ All of that race from the earth.” (Beowulf 419-421). Beowulf shows that he is confident in his impressive accomplishments. “In the blackish of night, hunting monsters/ Out of the ocean, and killing them one/ By one; death was my errand and the fate/ They had earned” (Beowulf 422-425). Beowulf goes on bragging about his bravery of his adventures.

A hero could be defined in a wide variety of ways. To one person, it might be someone who has brought about a desirable change for society. To another person, it may simply be someone who went out of their way to help them when their car broke down. Within countless epic tales, a hero not only acts in selflessness, they have traits that could only be described as superhuman. In the spectacular story, Beowulf, an Anglo-Saxon work of literature with no known author, there are three accounts of battles that the hero of the narrative fought with tremendous effort. Throughout it is made clear that Beowulf is extraordinary in more ways than one. Firstly, he is one of the most courageous characters in the history of literature, which is no small

Heroism is a common element that is expressed through a character in many stories. A hero possesses many characteristics such as bravery, strength and selflessness. These tools and personality traits allow a hero to solve the problem at hand and save the day. With saving the day, comes a great amount of respect, admiration and recognition. By showing many heroic qualities, Beowulf is a more respected hero than Sir Gawain.

Beowulf exhibits his bravery and courage when he travels to Denmark in aid of King Hrothgar to slay a beast named Grendel, when he jumps in a lake to kill Grendel’s Mother, and when he goes to slay the dragon when basically everyone else deserted him. He shows honor by fighting Grendel with no weapon when Grendel was unarmed. He proves his strength throughout his encounters by overcoming his enemies in battle even when he was pinned