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Beowulf
Beowulf: An Epic Hero In the story Beowulf translated by Burton Raffel, Beowulf was an epic hero. He crossed the open sea, fought the monster Grendel with his bare hands, and he killed Grendel’s mother. Beowulf is an epic hero because he crossed a parlous sea to save a village from a man-eating monster named Grendel. Beowulf had to sail on a small ship through massive storms and sea monsters infested waters to travel to a place he knew nothing about. Beowulf had traveled to a village where a man-eating monster named Grendel terrorized the civilians every night. Beowulf stayed the night in the meat hall so that he could set a trap for Grendel and slay him for good. Before Grendel came the king had a big fest for Beowulf and his men and the king said “Nor have I seen a mightier man-at-arms on this earth than the one standing here, unless I am mistaken, he is truly noble. This no mere hanger or in s hero’s armor.” P. 92 (244-251) Beowulf believed that if Grendel did not use weapons than himself would not either so before they fought Beowulf took his armor off and put down his sword. When Grendel finally came Beowulf’s men fault Grendel at first while he came around Grendel and jumped on his back. Beowulf killed Grendel by smashing his ears in and ripping his arm off. After Beowulf killed Grendel, Grendel’s mother came looking for Beowulf and so Beowulf went to her envierment and killed her as well. So a village that Beowulf had nothing to do with was safe and could live normal lives because of what he had done. The three reasons I believe Beowulf is an epic hero is because he crossed a parlous sea, killed a man-eating monster named Grendel, and killed Grendel’s mother for a village he had nothing to do with.

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