The Importance Of Storytelling In Beowulf

Beowulf: An Anglo-Saxon Tale of Loyalty and Glory In today’s day and age, each individual value or values that people hold fill up an immense spectrum; the number of different values are innumerable. The epic poem Beowulf, translated by Burton Raffel, follows the antagonist hero, Beowulf, and his gang of Geats as they quest for fame and fortune, glory and gold in Anglo-Saxon times. In the story, the team of warriors under Beowulf’s leadership undertake impossible tasks such as slaying a deadly monster and an even deadlier dragon. The journey of these Geats consists of many battles and obstacles that emphasize the core values of the Anglo-Saxon era.

Beowulf follows the mythological/archetypal Hero Quest, but the unknown author still manages to throw in surprises to keep the readers on their toes. The basic mythological Hero’s Quest, most often, has twelve main sections throughout each story. The traditional components being the call to adventure, accepting the call, and the archetypes developed in the hero’s journey. However, Beowulf does not follow most of the traditional mythological Hero’s Quest. The unknown author creates Beowulf's outside the box story through his own words.

Beowulf longed, like so many other Anglo-Saxons, to earn heroism through fame. Aside from killing monsters and wielding magical objects, Beowulf earned a reputation across the land of Great Britain for fighting as an extraordinarily gifted warrior. This reputation, earned over the course of many years, allowed Beowulf to take part in one of the most famous bard tales, a story which is verbally passed down from generation to generation of

Thesis: The role of the Anglo-Saxon Hero in Beowulf represents and defines the values of strength, intelligence, selfness, and courage. Beowulf himself models the culture of the Anglo-Saxon hero, as he is willing to face any odds, and fight to the death for their glory and people I. Strength and physical appearance A. Strength is clearly an important characteristic of heroes in Anglo-Saxon culture and heroic code. 1. The beginning of the story Beowulf is described as having the strength of "thirty men" in just one of his arms. 2.

He is a strong, selfless, and honorable warrior and continues these traits even as an old man, king of his people. He proves his worth throughout the poem, following the guideline of the Hero’s Journey. The first plot point of the story is the

Anglo-Saxons have many values and codes of conduct. Some of those include how they honored courage over a long life, valued loyalty to the lord or king above all, etc. The story Beowulf talks about an Epic hero named Beowulf, the journey’s that he went on, and the monsters he killed to help out the people. This will be talked about and it will also be proven that Beowulf is a good example of a hero. In the poem Beowulf, there are a couple of reasons why Beowulf possesses the characteristics of an epic hero and they are how Beowulf acts in a supremely ethical way by modeling the values of his society, he is a courageous leader who performs tasks and accepts challenges, and he possesses superior physical strength.

Beowulf, a New Telling by Robert Nye is an adventurous book that keeps you on edge. In a village with a king and queen who can’t do anything about the evil monsters near their village, young man named Beowulf comes to defeat the monster Grendel who has killed many men who have tried to kill him. Many people told him it couldn’t be done “fighting Grendel is like fighting the ocean, it can’t be done!” Beowulf succeeds and goes off to find Grendel’s mother to kill her.

He made the decision to fight the dragon, even though he was very old and knew he had little chance of winning. He frees his people and is able to return the treasure to the kingdom. The warrior mindset he has makes him brave, and reliable for his people. He is able to keep them from danger, and to protect them. Having a warrior mindset affected the way he ruled, but for the better, he never second guessed going into battle to save his people, and he died a

The description of the hero Beowulf help the reader imagine the savior that faces evil. For example “ The grey bearded lord of the Geats ended those flying burning raids forever” (pg 68 lines 792-794). The imagery in this quote shows the great king old but still very brave. he is showing that his pride and fame will overwhelm even the fact that he is not as strong and young as he used to be.

A Hero's Journey thru Life Throughout life there will be many challenges that will present themselves some of them will be caused by someone else but others will be caused by yourself. Some people will call these people Foes or Anti-Heros. They can range from a monster called Grendel to just a teacher at your high school or just earning the high school diploma. The “Hero” will need to overcome the foe in whatever way they chose. For a high school student there are many foes that one might need to overcome, one of them is graduating high school.

Beowulf is one of the oldest and most well-known epic stories throughout the world. The main character in this story is Beowulf himself. Beowulf is a true and epic hero, who ultimately loses his life while trying to protect the he cared for. Beowulf was a man of great strength, which allowed him to defeat monster and make him the hero that he was. He did not have this strength on his own accord, but was assisted with some divine intervention.

Anglo-Saxons, the clans that ran Old England and led Britain, used bards and Scops to tell their stories. These bards and Scops, honored members of society, passed their oral traditions down the generations. A well-known epic poem told by the Anglo-Saxons, Beowulf, about an epic hero, who leads the Geats in many well-known victories, demonstrates various beliefs that the Anglo-Saxons had. Throughout time, the epic became continuously passed down was changed and evolved into the version that exists today. Which was written into text by Christian Monks, who added here and there parts of their own religion to the epic, leading to the well-known epic today.

Though it is fiction, readers can comprehend Anglo-Saxon thoughts and their concepts of heroism, life and death. Anglo-Saxon culture valued strength, honor, courage, loyalty, and fearlessness. Beowulf was a hero because he was strong, loyal, brave, honorable, and fearless. He wanted to be remembered beyond the years of his life. These values in heroes has not disappeared like its culture.

Beowulf is an archetypal character within a legendary piece of text. He embodies the conglomerate of many Anglo Saxon values expressed throughout his heroic journey. Contrived by the mighty Northern Anglo Saxons, Beowulf is the manifestation of the Anglo Saxon ideals. This work of art helps us identify and analyze Beowulf’s ideals in a way that lets us deduce the values of the Anglo Saxon society. Examination of this poem lets us familiarize ourselves about a society obsessed with religion, vengeance and war-lust beings.

The epic poem “Beowulf”, translated by Burton Raffel, focuses on a hero by the name of Beowulf who goes on a quest to rescue King Hrothgar and his people from an egregious monster by the name of Grendel. This Anglo-Saxon tale gives insight into the values and beliefs of the people from whom the story originated. Their war-centered ideology and views on loyalty and courage were the principles that the Anglo-Saxon culture was founded upon. While warfare was a focal point in their lifestyle, it was far from a savage, barbaric state of fighting. Honor and prestige were bestowed upon those who died during battle and selflessness for fellow warriors was a fundamental belief.