Beowulf Modern Day Hero Essay

¨True heroism consists in being superior to the ills of life, in whatever shape they may challenge us to combat¨- Napoleon. Clearly, Napoleon is explaining that a hero will conquer any negative things in life that challenge them. For example, modern day superheroes always overcome their problems in life. Modern day superheroes such as Batman, Superman, and Spiderman fight the villains and grow superior to the negative aspects in their lives. Similarly, heroes in poems and books gain their heroic name by defeating the ills of life. For instance, in the Anglo-Saxon poem, Beowulf, the hero defeats evil creatures and saves his people. In his battles, Beowulf displays the heroic characteristics such as bravery, confidence, and selflessness.

To begin, throughout the poem, Beowulf demonstrates bravery in a variety of

To prove, there are many situations that Beowulf displays this characteristic throughout the poem. For example, when he hears of the Danes being terrorized by Grendel, he immediately decides to help them. Although, he is risking his own life to help an entire other kingdom. Obviously, this demonstrates that Beowulf is selfless. In addition, he travels to kill Grendel's mother alone. However, he brought warriors with him, he still decided to battle the mother of the beast alone. Also, Beowulf battled other sea monsters alone on his way to Grendel's mother's lair. Beowulf decides to avenge King Hrothgar´s friend, that was killed by Grendel's mother. For this reason, Beowulf shows that he is selfless and will put his life in danger to save others. Lastly, Beowulf successfully exhibits that he is selfless in his historic, final battle. To prove, although he was old and weaker than his younger self, Beowulf fought a furious dragon in order to save his people. Beowulf successfully killed the dragon, but also lost his own life saving his people. Clearly, Beowulf is a selfless hero throughout this