Heroism In Beowulf

The Epic, Beowulf, depicts a typical Anglo-Saxon hero; strong intelligent and courageous, who defeats terrific monsters. While some heroic principles remain the same, over the last few thousand years, the definition of a hero has changed. Now, a hero is selfless, respectful, and helps others regardless of if they’ll get something out of it. In today’s eyes, Beowulf seems to be more self-righteous and self-oriented than a typical hero. He seeks only for fame, and to be remembered, through the defeat of great beasts and mutants, as well as immense riches..
In the beginning of the poem, Beowulf presents himself as very heroic and valiant. Brief mentioning of his smug mannerisms display only as a headstrong imperfection on his behalf, something you could easily brush aside. As the poem gets more in depth, his quirks become a more apparent problem. His bumptious attitudes
He defeats the monsters, and saves others, but not for them, for himself. For his own improvements. In some of the last lines of the poem, Beowulf states, “So fame comes to men to win it and care about nothing else!” (508). He’s stating very directly that he only cares about reaching massive quantities of fame. He doesn’t care if he’s saving people, he only cares that he’s going to be remembered for saving those people. Furthermore, even as he lay dying, he cared only for the gold from the defeat of the dragon terrorizing him and his entire village. Beowulf told the man who slayed the dragon, Wiglaf, this, “As a last request, Beowulf asks Wiglaf to bring him the treasure that the dragon was guarding.” (753). So, even as he lay dying, Beowulf cared only for himself and the fame and riches he would receive. He offered none of the gold to Wiglaf as a reward for assisting him to slay the dragon. He was, in fact, insistent on him being buried with the dragon’s treasure. A rather discourteous feat for today’s