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Humility In Beowulf

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Seamus Heaney’s Beowulf is an old epic poem in which the protagonist Beowulf, a hero of the Geats come to the aid of Hrothgar, king of Danes, whose great hall, Heorot is plagued by the monster name Grendel. Beowulf kills Grendel with his bare hands and Grendel’s mom with a giant sword and later becomes the king of Geats. Then after a period of fifty years, he defeats the dragon but is mortally wounded in the battle and dies. After his death, his attendants burn his body him in the huge funeral pyre and then bury him. Hero is the person who is admired and idealized for his courage, outstanding achievements, noble qualities, and is good in the opinion of others. Anglo-Saxon people find great honor in warfare and warfare is their primary motivation …show more content…

People during the Anglo-Saxon period tried to boast of their powers while trying to have a sense of wisdom and lack of humility like Beowulf and we see that lack of humility before his fight with Grendel when he states “When it comes to fighting, I count myself as dangerous any day as Grendel. So it won’t be a cutting edge I’ll wield to mow him down, easily as I might” (677-680). Beowulf boast of his own abilities saying that he don’t need any weapons and he can fight with bare hands which shows lack of humility in him for Grendel. Anglo-Saxon belief that the memory of heroism is only available to an adventurer through his death, but a loss of humility can weaken a hero like we saw with Beowulf during his fight with Grendel’s mom when he must steal a blade from her wall because his own sword is useless. “Then he saw a blade that blooded well, a sword in her armoury, an ancient heirloom from the days of the giants, an ideal weapon, one that any warrior would envy” (1557-1560). Beowulf lack of humility for Grendel’s mom cost him this time and he has to use someone else’s sword to kill his enemy instead of his own, with who he killed huge sea creatures and Grendel. Humility nearly antagonize what courage is, but they both are equally important and go hand in hand in any super heroes life whether it’s today or during Anglo-Saxon period. Humility is an honorable trait that can be acquired only through age and

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