Anglo Saxon Values In Beowulf

Anglo-Saxon Values that still hold true Today. What are values? Values are “important and lasting beliefs or ideals shared by the members of a culture about what is good or bad and desirable or undesirable”. During the Anglo-Saxon era, there were values that remain the same till this day. Loyalty and courage play a big -roll in today’s values, as much as it did during the Anglo – Saxon time. One of the Anglo- Saxon values that still hold true today will have to be loyalty. One might wonder, what exactly is loyalty? Loyalty is being faithful to something or someone, or in shorter words, always sticking to that one person or thing no matter what the situation is. Beowulf shows his loyalty when he states that he “will not shift a foot” (2524)

What is courage? Courage is the mental or moral strength to venture, preserve, and withstand danger, fear, or difficulty, or in shorter words courage is rather the willingness to look past fear. In Beowulf, there are plenty acts of courage for example, “None of them expected he would ever see his homeland again or get back to his native place and the people who reared him. They knew too well the way it was before, how often the Danes had fallen prey to death in the mead-hall.” (691-696) Beowulf doesn’t enter his battle with Grendel expecting too triumph over the demon. Instead, he can fight Grendel with courage because he’s already accepted that he will probably die in the attempt. After all, if one accepts the worst possible outcome, there’s nothing left to make one afraid. The Book Thief is a book which also shows courage examples “He let his mouth kiss her palm. “Yes, Liesel, it’s me,” and he held the girls hand in his face and cried onto her fingers” (79) This act shows courage because, Max knows that it will be much “safer” for himself and Liesel if he ignores her, but he also knows how in reality some things are more important than

DACA is a program which protects young undocumented immigrants – known as “dreamers”- from being deported. Trump plans to end the DACA program on March 5, 2018. The courage is shown when even Starbucks took a stand to support the Dreamers. “Starbucks will continue to stand with the hundreds of thousands of Dreamers impacted by yesterday’s announcement, including those we are proud to call Starbucks partners” “These young people are in America through no fault on our own, they are contributing to their community and to the economy- this is their home” states the Eater.com Article. This act shows courage because Starbucks knew that there was people that took Trumps side, Starbucks didn’t mind if they lost customers, which were those who were against of their act of support for the Dreamers.
This value is still a value today after 1000 years, because courage has and will always be important. You need courage to pretty much complete anything one puts itself into. If courage wasn’t a value till this day then no one would have known about courage and how it makes them a better