Beowulf Epic Hero Essay

Beowulf Essay An epic hero is a brave and noble character in an epic poem, admired for great achievements or affected by grand events. Also, epic heroes are characters that do extraordinary objectives that a normal human could never do. In the poem, Beowulf, the main character does superhuman jobs when he battles monsters, swims underwater for hours, and is also a great leader, which also makes him an epic hero. By analyzing the character Beowulf, he is classified as an epic hero.
One of the ways Beowulf proves himself is by performing extraordinary or superhuman deeds. One example from the book is when he travels to the land of the Danes to kill a beast that has killed all of Hrothgar’s (king of the Danes) men. The beast’s name is Grendel

When Beowulf heard of this attack,

In the beginning of the book when he heard that Grendel had been tearing the town apart, he felt that it was his duty to rid Denmark of Grendel. “In his far off home Beowulf… heard how Grendel filled nights with horror and quickly commanded a boar fitted out, proclaiming that he’d go to that famous king, would sail across the sea to Hrothgar now when help was needed.” That shows a true hero, one that believes that he is the only one and that he will avenge the town. The second example proving Beowulf values honor and duty is after Beowulf receives all of his treasures from both battles, he goes back to Geatland and gives his king all of his gifts from Hrothgar. When he gives the gifts he says, “I lost nothing, none of the gifts my strength could have earned me. He opened his store of gems and armor, let me choose as I like, so I could bring his riches to you, my ruler, and prove his friendship and my love.” It takes some real honor to give everything that a warrior earned from the hard fought wars to go and give it all to their