The Heroic Quest of Beowulf In Heaney’s Beowulf, Beowulf exhibits the traits of an epic hero through his three battles of good versus evil and his lifelong quest to rid the world of demons. A quest must begin with a quester, and in this poem, his name is Beowulf and he must perform heroic actions to complete his quest. The quester is often the hero of any book or poem. His goal is to do something meaningful and heroic that will sometimes bring the quester fame and fortune. In Beowulf, the quester is Beowulf and he partakes on a quest in Denmark. As Foster states, “The quest consists of five things: (a) a quester, (b) a place to go, (c) a stated reason to go there, (d) challenges and trials en route, and (e) a real reason to go there” (Foster 3). Therefore, Beowulf is the in the …show more content…
The epic hero Beowulf is a brave, strong, resilient, and courageous man. These attributes strengthen his own resolve and will make it possible for him to complete his quest until death. Ordinarily, Beowulf’s first steps in his quest begin with his brawls with Grendel and Grendel’s Mother. Grendel is the first challenge for the mighty hero to encounter; he is a giant beast with incredible brute strength, and cunning. The many assaults he waged on the mead hall caused atrocious pain to the Danes. Heaney writes, “So Grendel waged his lonely war, inflicting constant cruelties on the people, atrocious hurt. He took over Heorot, haunted the glittering hall after dark” (Heaney 164-67). These acts of evil are enough to get Beowulf to sail to Denmark. Nevertheless, the good in him needs to erase this inherit evil from the face of the earth. Grendel is a spawn of something stronger and more evil, he is a child of hell. This is Beowulf’s first encounter with such a sinister power. He fights the monster in the mead hall and prevails, Heaney concludes, “Before morning he [Grendel] would rip life from limb and devour them, feed on their flesh; but his
Many people say that Beowulf was a great example of the Hero’s Journey, but many people also disagree that Beowulf was a great example of it. The Hero’s Journey consist of different stages the hero should overcome. In Beowulf, Beowulf had to overcome many difficult stages similar to the Hero’s Journey, but not just quite like it. In this essay I am going to discuss Beowulf translated by Seamus Heaney and Excepts from Myth and the Movies, Stuart Voytillam Foreword by Christopher Vogler. Beowulf encounters many similar steps to the Hero’s Journey, but he never gets to fully complete the Hero’s Journey due to his failure to achieve peace. In “Beowulf” Beowulf was not able to complete the hero’s journey because of the time period, culture, and ignorant choices Beowulf took. The hero’s journey should help mold the hero who is on the journey by changing the inner character changes throughout the journey because of the surrounding events. Also in the hero’s journey once the hero completes the journey he is supposed to be recognized by the people he helped out and enjoy his life back at home. But in Beowulf this does not take place because once he completes the journey he does not learn from his mistakes, failures, and achievements that he faces while on the journey. The hero’s journey is supposed to teach and change the hero as they go through the adventures. In the hero’s journey the heroes purpose is to serve and sacrifice an answer or remedy that will help and could save one or many people’s lives. In “Beowulf,” Beowulf first receives a call to adventure from King Hrothgar and he agrees to the call of adventure to go to Denmark. When Beowulf accepts the call to adventure he skips a step of the hero’s journey as it is described as the ...
In the poem Beowulf, the protagonist is portrayed as a heroic figure who strives to spread his name and glory out across the land in order to be remembered. Although his acts may not entirely be for the right reasons, Beowulf does express his heroic qualities of bravery, arrogance, and brute force.
Beowulf fights till his last day living. That helps him achieve the cherry on top for his display of being an epic hero. He dies using all three characteristics of an epic hero: strength, bravery, and faithfulness. Till his dying day, he showed strength in his effort to kill the
"That night, Beowulf and his men stay inside Herot. While his men sleep, Beowulf lies awake, eager to meet with Grendel" (Raffel Burton- 48). In the epic, Beowulf establishes himself as a highly profitable warrior, on a mission to serve and protect. Immediately, Beowulf is presumed to be a good force, taking on Grendel who is perceived to be a descendant of Cain, who personifies evil. A valiant warrior, Beowulf protests that he shall take on the monster, stripped of weapons and armor. When the evil monster Grendel attacked the people of Herot, Beowulf chose to fight Grendel and diminish the evil that he represents. While he and his men sleep, Grendel arrives to wreak havoc on the mead-hall.
Beowulf, the great Geatish warrior, lives a very adventurous life filled with many voyages, battles, and victories. Through all of these events, he meets various people who are considered to be heroes like himself. These heroes, however, are unable to have the same abilities and characteristics of Beowulf. His great achievements cannot be matched by anything that they have done in their lives. Beowulf is a superior hero to Hrothgar, Unferth, and Wiglaf in the epic of Beowulf because he kills every monster that he fights, becomes a widely feared warrior and king, and dies in battle completing his final heroic act.
Beowulf is the questor as he goes on the adventure as an epic hero. “Anglo-Saxon epic heroes, such as Beowulf, exhibit a series of attributes that separate them from the normal men or women who rely on the hero to liberate them from the oppression of monsters and other threats” (Jones 2). Unlike regular heroes, an epic hero is more than the average man and they have certain characteristics that only the most elite of humans have. “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” (Heaney 247-250). Beowulf is the questor of this epic poem because he is an epic hero as described by others who meet him. The guard says that he is the mightiest man that he has ever seen and that even his
The character Beowulf, “a man of great strength and bravery” (Magill 388), is a hero in the way he defends his neighboring country, Denmark. When the word that a hostile creature, known as Grendel, was killing tons in Denmark, Beowulf set sail to help defend the people and rid them of the hideous monster.
Beowulf is a good example of a courageous and strong hero. He shows all of
Beowulf by far endures more than the average person as the poem progresses. He is faced with daunting challenges of defeating three monsters that would kill any other man. Beowulf exemplifies bravery by never backing down no matter what the threat was. He was loyal by honoring his promises of keeping those around him safe and alive. And finally, his unwavering confidence helped him push through the toughest confrontations. These traits and the fights with the three different monsters are what genuinely make Beowulf a hero.
Beowulf possesses several distinct traits that allow him to be defined as an ideal epic hero and Anglo-Saxon hero. He is courageous, loyal, wise, and physically powerful. Beowulf puts himself through difficult situations just to keep his people safe from evil. He battles Grendel, Grendel’s mother, and the dragon for his people, though he does it for honor as well. Beowulf shows honor in all of his acts, but he is constantly seeking fame and glory through all of his accomplishments. Beowulf has the perfect qualities and characteristics it takes to be an epic
Beowulf, written between the 8th and 10th centuries, is an epic poem set in southern Sweden. The poem illustrates the Anglo-Saxon’s strong belief in the heroic code. The loyalty between the warrior and his king bound the culture together. The warrior was the ultimate hero who represented strength and courage. Beowulf, the hero in the poem, illustrates the Germanic principles of the heroic code. Through the battles and character interactions, Beowulf converges loyalty, strength, courage and forgiveness into the hero archetype.
While fighting the Dragon Beowulf shows feats of strength and courage that define him as a hero. The classical hero displays a special quality that separates him from the rest of
In the beginning of the novel, Beowulf takes interest in the plight of Hrothgar, King of Denmark, and wants to help him fight Grendel. Grendel is a large monster that has been harassing members in the mead-hall of the Heorot. Beowulf owes Hrothgar a favor, due to the fact that Hrothgar saved his father in years past. Hrothgar is honored to have Beowulf attempt to fight the swamp monster, and decides to hold a feast in his name. When Grendel shows up to the feast, Beowulf illustrates his bravery by fighting Grendel without any armor. When Beowulf wins the battle by ripping Grendel’s arm off, everyone in the mead-hall praises Beowulf for his acts of courage. In this scene, Beowulf proves that he is a hero by fighting off a monster that everyone else was afraid of. This made him look
Beowulf displayed great courage and honor throughout his journeys and battles; he was an epic hero. An epic hero is a person who is viewed as larger than life and possesses values of a certain society. From the time of Beowulf’s battle with Grendel to his brawl against the dragon, he has showed everyone what being an honorable hero looks like. His heroism is revealed through both youth as a young warrior and wisdom as a reliable king. He never backed down and didn’t give up when situations were tough. Beowulf had obligations to fulfill and went about every aspect of his life with courage and strength. He cared for his people and was willing to take on anyone that threatened them or his kingdom. He sincerely was the hero of his time.
Beowulf’s first accomplishment as an epic hero was his battle with Grendel. Grendel was a huge beast, a descendent of Cain, who ruthlessly murdered innocent Danes because he felt pity for himself. Upon hearing of the Dane’s problem, Beowulf set off to help the Danish without having been called upon. Even though Beowulf had men backing him, He drew battle with Grendel alone and without armor or weapons. Yet, Beowulf emerged victorious with the arm of Grendel as his trophy. Beowulf then went on to kill Grendel’s vengeful mother and a huge fire-breathing dragon who thought it had been done wrong by the Geats. Alas, the killing of the dragon would be Beowulf’s last great battle for the dragon took Beowulf’s life in the struggle for his own.