Comparing Beowulf's Honor In Sir Gawain And The Green Knight

In both Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the heroes of these stories must face supernatural enemies to become heroic, and when the deeds or honor is called into question, the heroes are either quick to redirect the situation back in their favor or accept the consequences. For Beowulf, he chooses not to raise an army to defeat the dragon because he relies on the strength he had as a young man though he is now much older. For Sir Gawain, though he continues on a quest to find a man that might just kill him and considered noble for doing so, he is not completely honest with his host which later comes back to shame him. Both men value their honor and how people perceive them above self-safety and in some sense, forethought. In Beowulf,

The “one I scratched your back, now you scratch mine” rather than be upfront and accept the fact that there is a major issue which the king himself is unable to contain and needs outside assistance. This eases a bit of a blow to the ego, an meanwhile, Beowulf is obviously going to be rewarded. That night, a man named Unferth tries to discredit Beowulf’s strength by sharing a story of how he lost a swimming race when he was younger. Beowulf corrects Unferth by unfurling the whole truth, and blames this dishonest behavior on drinking too much, which saves Unferth a little face. Questioning a man’s honor, especially a guest, is wrong and shameful and the man “attacked” has the right to fix the

The people are happy and peaceful, until a dragon under the earth is woken up by a thief stealing from his hoard. Unable to find the thief, the dragon is throwing a fatal temper tantrum and burning everything down. Beowulf, finds the thief and demands to know where the dragon lies. Still trusting in himself, he only takes twelve other people with him instead of raising an army. He does not go into the depths of the cave like he had with the sea-witch, but instead forces the dragon to battle him outside. Honestly, going into the cave, especially if he felt his death was imminent, would have been the smarter option because at least the dragon is stuck under the ground and can’t fly off to gain advantage. Still, it shows that he is not going to charge into battle anymore. The battle ensues, everyone but one, Wiglaf, runs away after Beowulf engages. Wiglaf hits the side, Beowulf is bitten, but deals the final and fatal blow. Before Beowulf dies, however, he passes the torch onto Wiglaf by giving him his heirlooms since he had no