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How Did Beowulf Change Anglo Saxon Life

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Since the beginning of time, heroes in society have constantly changed. As society changed their perception of people, modern-day heroes such as Superman and Batman differ much from the heroes of Anglo-Saxon times like Beowulf. Characteristics of monsters within this time interval has also changed with society’s views. The element of fear affects our perception in distinguishing a hero from a monster. In the time of the Anglo-Saxons, they supposed that the more boastful the person was, the more successful and courageous hero he or she was. The quality of humility balanced out how courageous and cocky they were. An example of a hero possessing the trait of humility would be when Beowulf turned down the thrown after defeating Grendel and his mother. The heroes of this time were believed to have supernatural abilities such as unimaginable strength. An example of this would be when Beowulf went into battle with the dragon and his sword, Nagling, crumbled in his hand. Even though he was old, his strength was still extraordinary. He was known to overpower his swords, which became useless to him. The bravery instilled in their personality overall outweighed how people belt about how much they boasted. In today’s society, modern-day heroes exhibit most of the same qualities as the …show more content…

It is a common theory and reaction that when a person is scared, one may turn to dislike whatever scared them at that particular moment. This almost always makes that person deem the scary thing as a monster which transfers onto other’s perceptions. Heroes must have some element of fear because if they don’t they may get too used to being in control of everything around them. Friedrich Nietzsche gave the perfect quote in stating, “Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into

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