The Hero Quest: The Epic Of Beowulf

Beowulf is an Anglo-saxon story that would have been sung around a fire with the purpose of teaching morals and traits to the listeners. There were three separate parts to the story: the fight and defeat of Grendel, the attack and defeat of Grendel’s mother, and the fight with the dragon which resulted in the death of Beowulf. Each part of the story was added by a different author-thus making each part of the story subject to being analyzed for containing the aspects of the archetypal “Hero Quest”. In each part of the story of Beowulf, Beowulf sets out to defeat a monster, either for glory or revenge, he defeats the great beast largely without any help from the companions he brings along with him, and after the defeat of the monster, Beowulf is always honored and gifted greatly. To begin, the first section of the Beowulf story starts off with Beowulf setting out on the quest to find and defeat Grendel. In this first quest, Beowulf sets out

In a different land, a slave stole treasure from a dragon, incurring the wrath and fury when he would awaken. The dragon would roam the lands destroying villages and kingdoms due to the dishonor of being robbed. Eventually, the dragon came across Beowulf's land and destroyed his home and hall, being defenseless against a dragon's fire Beowulf could do nothing. In response to the burning of his land, Beowulf gathered another group of warriors and went to get their revenge. During the battle with the dragon all of his warriors fled save one who fought with him until the end. Wiglaf, the warrior who stayed to fight, and Beowulf finally slayed the dragon but Beowulf was mortally wounded by a bite to the neck and died shortly after the battle. Before his death, Beowulf told Wiglaf to take all of the gold and distribute it among his people. When Beowulf was finally buried, he was buried under a hill with the entirety of the dragon’s