The Mythology/Archetypal Hero Quest In Beowulf

Beowulf is the oldest known poem written in Old English. The author was an Anglo-Saxon poet. The original poem was edited by Christian Monks. The latest found version was translated by Seamus Heaney. Like many other works of literature, Beowulf follows the mythological/ archetypal Hero Quest. There are six different parts of a monomyth: the call, the decision, the preparation, the obstacles, the climax, and the return. The poem Beowulf tells about not just one Hero Quest, but three. Beowulf endures two quests in the land of the Danes and one in his homeland of the Geats. The first part of a monomyth is the call. As mentioned above, Beowulf endured three different quests through the duration of the book. The first call was when Beowulf heard about Grendel, the monster across the sea in King Hrothgar’s kingdom. The second call was when Grendel’s mother came back for revenge and killed one of King Hrothgar’s closest friends. Beowulf’s third and final call was when the dragon burned his home. Typically there is a god or god-figure that calls the hero to

Beowulf faces three different endeavors which means the lyric has three different climaxes. The first peak of the story occurs when Beowulf and his men are sleeping in the Heorot and Grendel comes to attack. After the monster kills one of the men, Beowulf grabs Grendel’s arm and rips it off and hangs it on the rafter. The next climax was when Beowulf goes to fight Grendel’s mother, who came back for revenge, killed King Hrothgar’s best friend, and stole back her son’s arm. The two put up a very good fight against each other until Beowulf finds a sword in Grendel’s mother’s kitchen and stabbed her to death. The final climax is when the Beowulf attacks the dragon for burning down his house. The dragon tears at Beowulf’s neck with his fangs. He then starts to bleed and begins to get very weak, yet he is still able to stab the dragon in the