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Examples Of Foreshadowing In Beowulf

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While preparing for the fight against the dragon, Beowulf goes into the fight seemingly with the cards stacked against him already hearing the previous story from the bard about Sigemund the dragon slayer. This use of foreshadowing by the poet is not known until now when Beowulf looks to go to head-to-head against the dragon. Sigemund slayed the dragon during the bard’s story but this led to celebrations being held for the slayer, but this already happened on two different accounts for Beowulf. It is then said that “men who relied on his lordship for redress, / who presumed that the part of a prince was to thrive / on his father’s throne and defend the nation” (908-910). This quote shows the foreshadowing of how Beowulf’s downfall will be when …show more content…

Beowulf wants to take on the dragon alone to prove his worth to his kingdom and God so that he will forever be seen as pure in the eyes of the lord. Beowulf is a great warrior and has been his whole life, but that does not necessarily mean that he is a great king. This theme of being a great warrior versus being a great king can be showed here. In order to be a great king, Beowulf believes that he has to protect his people, like any leader should. This could be achieved by having warriors fend off the beast for him but instead of this idea, he takes matters into his own hands and decides he is the only one that should fight the dragon. By doing this, he does protect his warriors from potential harm, but is putting his own life, the defender of all the people in the kingdom, in danger. It seems that Beowulf is letting his great warrior skills get in the way of him making sound decisions and being a great king. This ultimately leads to the great warrior’s downfall and his questionable leading skills are seen after he perishes when his great thanes he scoured the land to find all retreat except

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