What Does Wiglaf's Greed Mean In Beowulf

Being a common man of middle age, the protagonist fears for his life so refuses the position of greatness- only to have it thrust upon his as Beowulf did.

Seemingly minor character Wiglaf plays a central role in the conclusion of Beowulf. A young knight who has never before seen battle, Wiglaf steps forward to help his lord, hero, and cousin Beowulf in a time of peril. With his failure in battle and resulting death, the narrator shows that Beowulf is, after all, a prideful and mortal being; thus begins the transfer of heroic status from the old king to the young knight. The narrator argues that Wiglaf is worthy of his abruptly acquired status even though his intentions may seem questionable. The end of the poem devotes a significant amount of lines to dialogue spoken by Wiglaf, signifying his newly crucial role in his kingdom and in the story.

Loyalty is a vital characteristic. “ I remember how we sat in the mead hall, drinking and boasting of how we’d be brave when Beowulf needed us. He who gave us these swords and armor: all of us swore to repay him when the time came, kindness for kindness with our lives, if we needed them (pg 60 lines 745-750)”. In this quote, a follower of Beowulf named Wiglaf was expressing his thoughts and feelings as he was watching his great leader die. Wiglaf decided that kindness repays with kindness.Loyalty with loyalty. Beowulf was very loyal to the Geats. What Beowulf said, he meant. This was critical because it reminded Wiglaf how loyal Beowulf had been to him. It would only be right to repay it back to Beowulf, which is what he did. The Geats wouldnt have wanted an unloyal leader and neither would anyone else. By Beowulf actions, words and promises, it showed that he was true to his word and loyal to his

But within one heart sorrow welled up: and a man of worth the claims of kinship cannot be denied. His name was wiglaf, a son of weohstan’s, a well-regarded Shylfing warrior related to Aelfhere.(744-754).” This quote shows that Beowulf's strength and loyalty to himself, the Geats, and the Danes brings companionship and loyalty from others to himself, and because of that he has one person that is willing to help out of a whole army. This proves that a little loyalty can go a long way especially when others or yourself need it.

The storyline of Beowulf illustrates the epic battle between good and evil, and demonstrates to the readers that external war is not the only conflict hero’s face. Beowulf struggles a lot with his pride. Beowulf’s biggest internal battle was experienced when he was preparing to fight the dragon. He decided to go into battle, ignoring the fact that he had aged, but his pride, and warrior code wouldn’t let him run. What makes matters worse, he decided to go into the battle alone. His hero pride overcame the actions a normal king would’ve taken. The hero ideology at the time was strictly against a warrior running from a battle, and if Beowulf had done so, he would’ve been persecuted by society, as well as his own conscience.

Beowulf son of the famous soldier Edegtho, comes to the rescue of Hrothgar. Hrothgar king of the Danes, which his land is being attacked by a treacherous monster named Grendel. Beowulf is described as a vigorous, fearless man of the Anglo Saxon times. Beowulf comes from a past generation of tenacious warriors. Like Beowulf’s dad, a famous soldier known far, and leader of many men. The Danes now see why Beowulf is such a fearless warrior. In Beowulf, the hero decides to fight without a weapon for three reasons he wants to be glorious, he is fearless, wanted to help the people of noble place and he wants to honor his people. Beowulf faces many conflicts fighting these dangerous monsters, but manages to defeat Grendel and his mother.

For some, like Beowulf, they are willing to sacrifice their life. “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” (Beowulf lines 624-627). Beowulf knows he is old but still decides to fight for his people. The willingness to sacrifice his life, which will come to an end at the end of the battle. He had lived a good life and had made himself into a good role model for others to look up to. His last request was to have a lighthouse built in his honor so he could continue saving

Bravery is an important quality to have when leading a country or group of people. In Beowulf, when he decides to fight Grendel without any weapons, he makes a brave decision. (Burton Raffel, 37). He could have chosen the easy route but instead he decided to play more fairly with the beast and take the harder path. Sometimes when you are a king or a leader,

This leads to the idea of comitatus, that everyone must protect their king at all costs. This is also what Wiglaf, one of Beowulf's followers, displays while Beowulf fights the dragon in the translated poem by Burton Raffel, while everyone else but Wiglaf has left the narrator says, “only one of them remain, stood there, miserable, remembering, as a good man must, what kinship should mean” (89). Wiglaf recognizes that his king is in danger and acts upon it fighting alongside Beowulf to defeat the dragon. Also, as Wiglaf watches his king start losing his battle he proclaims, “we must go to him” (119). Wiglaf Demonstrates the ways of comitatus by implying that his life is lesser compared to Beowulf's, thus he should be the one dying by the dragons flames. “I’d rather burn myself than see flames swirling around my lord” (121). Although, Beowulf may be a king to those lie Wiglaf, Beowulf himself recognizes God as his king as he lays dying he says, “I thank our father in heaven- ruler of the Earth- for all of this” (200). Beowulf has lived his life in honor of his king, God, and then thanks him for all the graces that God has given back to him for his

Beowulf strongly portrays ambition clearly. Beowulf is an epic soldier who is greater than any ordinary man. King Hrothgar has a monster that goes by the name Grendel that is torturing his kingdom and killing his people. Beowulf hears about the murders and terror Grendel is causing and instantly knows this is something he has to deal with because he knows no ordinary man can kill this fearful monster. Beowulf sets out on the journey to find Grendel and kill him. When Grendel arrives at the kingdom to dine on the sleeping guards Beowulf awakes and gets into an epic battle with him. After he kills Grendel, he hears of another monster roaming the swamp which makes his ambition kick back into play causing him to jump into the dark and rough waters after the beast which is Grendel’s mother who is later defeated in the battle. After the death of the two

Wiglaf is a good example of humility in the epic. This is shown when he is more worried about Beowulf than himself. This can be seen when he gives his speech to the other men. Wiglaf says “He picked us out/ from the army deliberately,...,although/ he wanted this challenge to be one he'd face/ by himself…[He] needs sound men,”(Heaney). This shows that Wiglaf respects and wants to help Beowulf. It says nothing of him wanting fame from it. He just wants to protect his King.

In "The Wanderer" and "Beowulf", Beowulf and the wanderer experience similarities within abandonment. To abandon someone is to leave them completely and to give up on them. In "Beowulf", he is abandoned and deserted by his men because they witnessed him losing against the dragon. The only loyal man who stayed with Beowulf was Wiglaf.

Warriors are considered among the bravest of men. In the Anglo-Saxon community, the warriors were of the most respected class, and made up the foundation for their way of living. Anglo-Saxon warriors would not stop fighting until either they were victorious or they were dead. Written during this Anglo-Saxon period, the epic Beowulf contains many pagan ideals, in addition to several references to Christian philosophy. Beowulf is a tale of dual ordeals; an external fight against treacherous enemies, and an internal struggle with human tendencies of pride, greed, cowardice, and betrayal. The story intertwines them with both pagan and Christian beliefs.

As I was reading about our valiant Beowulf this week, one aspect that I noticed is the accompaniment of men that he had with him on his journeys. When Beowulf had set out to defeat Grendel, his small band of soldiers were loyally there by his side, ready to lay down their own lives in honor of the heroic code each of them had sworn by. “None of them expected he would ever see/ his homeland again or get back/ to his native place and the people who reared him” (47). They knew going into the battle that it was very real that they might not come out and that idea was alright with them. They believed in that code and their leader so much that it super-ceded their fear of running away. “Through the strength of one they all prevailed” (47).

The scene in Beowulf when main character Beowulf proclaims the reasonings he felt to go protect the Geats suggests among the Spear-Danes classification as a warrior related with proving loyalty in the form of self-sacrifice. Additionally, I will argue in what follows that other scenes in the poem, such as, Wiglaf giving the speech on what amounts of cowardice behavior proves respect came from an urgency for loyalty proven through self-sacrificing methods. However, I will argue on top of loyalty being expressed as important it was not matter of want for Beowulf to sacrifice himself but his understood purpose. Influentially, a tension is formed between how reputation and loyalty is defined throughout the poem. The passage I will analyze is when Beowulf is speaking in the mead hall about urgency to be loyal towards the Geats right before Grendel attacks the hall. Here in Beowulf dictates that in order to be a good warrior he knew it was necessary to go to sea to defend the Geats which would entail him having to go extremes to prove his loyalty. Beowulf’s urgency suggests the believable notion that loyalty is necessary to survive in this society even when it means a warrior would sacrifice his own life for others. This in makes it difficult to withstand the belief that reputation was as important as loyalty.