Who Is Beowulf A Hero

Beowulf For centuries there have been characters classified as heroes with their name going down in history. Christians, Jews, English men, Romans, females, males, no matter what religion, culture, or gender there still was a story about a person doing something great to be remembered by. Some heroes are known for their knowledge some for their strength or courage and some are remembered for having multiple characteristics Beowulf was one of the great heroes with more than one appealing trait. Beowulf didn’t get the title of being “the wisest, most knowing, and the best”(Beowulf.24.149-150) just by sitting around telling stories. Beowulf tells the king of his journeys and when he “drove five great giants into chains, chased all of that race
from earth”(24.153-155). Fighting against five giants takes a lot of courage especially when Beowulf knows fate will unwind as it must, so if it is his fate then he knows it is his time to go and he is not afraid of dying.
During the battle with Grendel, Beowulf really proves his strength by twisting the beasts arm when “the bleeding sinews deep in his shoulder snapped, muscle and bone split and broke” (34.421-423). Not only did Beowulf show physical strength he is also mentally strong when one of his men dies as “Grendel snatched at the first Geat/ he came to, ripped him apart, cut his/ body to bits with powerful jaws”(32.421-423). Watching someone close to you being brutally murdered by being tore apart and eaten must be a hard tragedy but Beowulf stayed strong and continued on with his task. Beowulf displays his generosity just by coming to Denmark and risking his own life just to save the lives of others. Not only did the courageous hero fight the monster he “had killed Grendel/ ended the grief, the sorrow, the suffering/ forced on Hrothgars helpless people/ by a blood thirsty fiend” (34.511-514). Coming to the kingdom Beowulf was not even worried with what he might get in return in the defeat of the beast he knew that all his “purpose was this: to win the good will of your people/ or die in battle”
(30.366-367). We can relate to heroes in real life by having faith in our self and not being afraid to tackle tasks that are bigger than us. Beowulf shows us that even though all these monsters he comes across have special powers and are forty times bigger than him he has the courage of a lion and accomplishes what he sets out to do. The warrior also shows us that we shouldn’t be all about ourselves by risking his life and his soldier’s lives to protect king Hrothgar’s kingdom and we can do that in a less difficult way every day at work or at school. All references are from Beowulf, translated by Burton Raffel, Elements of Literature. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 2007