An Analysis Of Beowulf: A Hero's Journey

Once upon a time, there was a marvelous warrior that was a hero to so many and king to some. In the story of Beowulf, the hero, Beowulf, must follow and go through the hero’s journey. The hero’s journey has twelve stages, or three acts. The stages go in the order: 1) The Call to Adventure, 2) Assistance, 3) Departure, 4) Trials, 5) Approach to the Inmost Cave, 6) Crisis, 7) Treasure, 8) Result, 9) Return, 10) New Life, 11) Resolution, and 12) Status Quo (Winkler). Since Beowulf is facing three different monsters, there is not only the story’s significant journey, but also multiple inside it. There are three mini-hero journeys Beowulf’s main journey. In the beginning, Beowulf follows his first journey with Grendel. The initial call to adventure is with the news of Grendel. One piece of evidence to support this is: “‘Then news of Grendel, / hard to ignore, reached me at home: / sailors brought stories of the plight you suffer / in this legendary hall… So every elder and experienced councilman/ among my people supported my resolve / to come here to you’” (Heaney 409-417). This first example suggests that Beowulf and his men come to Denmark to fight and help the people because he has heard about the terrible things Grendel has done, and thus starts the

The first and foremost is against the monster, Grendel in Denmark. Beowulf’s call to action was the news of Grendel’s destruction. In the same light, the second journey is against Grendel’s mother with her trying to avenger her son’s death. After entering the lake, Beowulf has some struggles, but finds a precious sword to help defeat her. The best and final journey is when Beowulf is older against the dragon, where he eventually meets his death. Clearly even with his death, he has reached immortality through his story because students and readers today still talk about him. This brave hero is not the only one to make numerous