Loyalty And Honor In The Epic Of Beowulf

The basic traits of being a hero are simple. You must have courage, selflessness, humility, loyalty, patience and care deeply about others. “A hero is a person or main character of a literary work who, in the face of danger, combats adversity through impressive feats of ingenuity, bravery or strength, often sacrificing their own personal concerns for a greater good. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hero)”. One of the most important works in Old English literature is Beowulf, it is a great example of an epic hero.

Beowulf’s father once started a feud, which Hrothgar helped to end. Hrothgar recalls, “Ecgtheow acknowledged me with oaths of allegiance” (472). Beowulf traveled with his men to fight a fearsome monster not for the glory of it but so that he could help his father to repay his debt. Many years later, Wiglaf shows his loyalty and devotion to his king Beowulf by following him into the fray when no one else did, promising, “I shall stand by you” (2668).

He withheld his strength, unless necessary, and with time, grew the loyalty, courage, and faith warriors have today. To start off with, loyalty is defined as “the quality of being loyal to someone or something”. In Beowulf by Seamus Heaney, Beowulf is illustrated in your mind as a powerful being who is modest in thought and speech and he is very loyal to his king and the Danes king, Hrothgar. Beowulf, is both modest and humble, when kindly explaining to

Beowulf was a great leader and he was well respected by his warriors and his people. The men that followed Beowulf into Herot were prepared to die for their leader and one did suffer this fate. Janoski proclaimed in her article “Why Beowulf is an Epic Hero”,” Beowulf becomes King of the Geats and is responsible for guiding his kingdom. During his 50-year rule, the kingdom is attacked by a

He was brave. Beowulf gave up his own life for his kingdom and would forever be Herot’s hero. He passed the kingdom to Wiglaf, his bravest comrade. His final words were directed to Wiglaf, and he spoke, “You’re the last of all our far-flung family. Fate has swept our race away, taken warriors in their strength and I led them to the death that was waiting.

Beowulf is about a hero, defeating two monsters to save the Danes kingdom and later on fighting a dragon threatening his kingdom. The setting of Beowulf is around 500 A. D. in Southern Sweden. In the epic poem Beowulf, translated by John McNamara, three major themes: loyalty, reputation, and revenge influence the poem by having ripple effects.

Beowulf is an Anglo-Saxon epic poem with no known author and it shows a young warriors three main heroic battles throughout his lifetime. Beowulf is written as a courageous but loyal man, who often wishes to prove his honor through these crazy deeds which often puts his life at risk. The main focus in this poem is his honor and loyalty to not only himself but those around him. Beowulf has consistently shown how loyalty and honor have proved most important to him through his journeys as this epic poem’s hero.

Beowulf was a hero, not only because he was brave, but also he protected Danes, brought peace to them, because he was a good king, even when he was almost eighty years old, he was still brave to fight with the fire dragon, what a pity was that he died, with the fire dragon. He was a true hero who devoted his life to protect his people; he was the hero who held his sword and his shield to fight with the whole

Beowulf had fell to his pride for a awhile through the story but the thing with Beowulf is that his pride made him what he is. Beowulf is known to be a great warrior since the begin of the story and also a good king later on down in the story. Beowulf self confidence make him a guy with a lot of pride and that same pride also lead him to is demise. A great dragon was sleeping beneath the earth guarding a treasure until a thief stole a gem and the dragon woke up starting to burn places to the ground looking for it.

The story tells of many characters who faced the same circumstances as Beowulf, yet failed to respond in a similar and valiant effort, like Beowulf. For example, when facing the dragon nearly all of his hand picked soldiers coward in fear. Beowulf then showed humility by turning down his first offer to be king. When Hrothgar died, he offered Beowulf the throne; however, he refused, which allowed the rightful heir, Hrothgar’s son to be placed into power. This decision exemplifies the value he placed on ethics and honor.

Taking risk is something we do every day and we may not even know it. Just walking outside is taking a risk; you could get killed or someone can take you. Also, taking a risk help us grow as a person and we can learn from taking those risks. It makes us who we are. Something taking risks can have a good and a bad outcome.

Although Beowulf has superhuman strength, his warriors respect him as a superb leader. Beowulf’s leadership skills are shown while experiencing the fight with Grendel. However, instead of letting his warriors fight Grendel themselves, Beowulf leads them to Grendel and fights with them, even if he defeats Grendel alone. Afterwards, the Danish king Hrothgar, gifts Beowulf treasures, in which Beowulf credits his warriors instead of taking the gifts all for himself by speaking “of his comrades and credits them for having the wisdom of the group. He continues by describing heroic, yet bloody battles, in which he himself is the victor.

The audience will agree that Beowulf is a warrior of generosity, courage, and hospitality which practically defines the Anglo-Saxon heroic code. However, the audience will realize that he is a man of God if they reflect upon his reason which ensures those values. It is understood that Beowulf is as selfless as they come during a time of fear and despair. Beowulf contains an undisclosed characteristic known as fear and employs the courage required to defeat the demons that people have become apprehended to. Of course, others would argue that Beowulf is simply a new follower of Christ and that his morals fall along the lines of Paganism.

The real monster in the story of Beowulf,is the famous and glorious Beowulf. Throughout history Beowulf is looked at as someone heroic , but was he just doing it for his own glory and not for his people. Grendel is looked at as the monster but the real monster is Beowulf. Beowulf only wanted glory, money and fame. Although everyone saw Grendel as something horrible, he never hurt anyone just to hurt them.