Beowulf And Harry Potter Comparison

“The archetypal hero appears in all religions, mythologies, and epics of the world.” While the idea of labeling a hero as archetypical started in the twentieth century, there are archetypical heroes that were created over a thousand years ago. One of the first epic archetypical heroes was Beowulf from medieval England, and another well-known archetypical hero is Harry Potter from modern day England. Both Beowulf and Harry Potter are archetypical heroes, even though they are from different cultures and different storylines they are still very similar. What makes Harry Potter and Beowulf archetypical heroes even though they are different?

For a hero to be an archetype hero there is a list of character traits and situations that have to exist in the story. “The universal hero myth always refers to a powerful man or god-man who vanquishes evil in the form of dragons, serpents, monsters, demons, and so on…”

Some of the characteristics that both character have are; having a special weapon, leaving their immediate family or country to live with another, prove themselves on a quest, and have a traumatic event that leads to their quest. These are only a few of the requirements for an archetypical hero. A hero does not have to fit every single characteristic to be archetypical, however, an archetypical hero does have to fulfil most of the requirements.
Beowulf and Harry Potter are nearly synonymous with each others archetypal hero traits. . One similarity is that they both have supernatural weapons that help them accomplish their goals. Harry’s weapon is his knowledge of magic which helps him overcome many of his opponents. Beowulf’s power was being the “mightiest man on earth”, with astonishing strength which helped him defeat Grendel and his mother as well as the dragon. Even though Beowulf uses weapons to kill Grendel’s mother and the dragon, the only reason he could use the weapons so effectively was because of his strength. Potter and Beowulf also both left the homes they were born in and lived somewhere else. For Harry Potter it was his Aunt and Uncle’s because his parents were murdered. Beowulf also left his home but it was to go live in another country so that he could complete his quest.
While Beowulf and Harry potter have almost the same characteristics they do differ in some ways.

Beowulf and Harry Potter do not have all of the same characteristics that make them archetypical heroes. The best example of this is One of the best examples is Beowulf goes above and beyond what is expected of him when he fights Grendel. He says, “I have heard moreover that the monster scorns in his reckless way to use weapons... I hereby renounce sword and the shelter of the broad shield, the heavy war-board: hand-to-hand is how it will be…”.Harry on the other hand only did as much as he had to to defeat his enemy and did not do it on his own. Another difference between the two heroes is only one of them had a teacher that was important to their quest. Harry Potter was taught by Albus Dumbledore who was the headmaster of the school. On the other hand Beowulf did not have a mentor by whom he was educated. There are also some characteristics for archetypical heroes that neither character fits such as neither of them are naïve at any point in either of their

journeys.
Both Beowulf and Harry Potter are archetypical characters because they fit the majority of the definitions for archetypical heroes. Though they do not necessarily fulfill all the same traits and characteristics to be archetypical heroes, they fit enough of the requirements. To the end of his life Beowulf is a true archetypical hero. He dies killing a dragon which in turn kills him despite his “awesome strength.” The two heroes come from different times and different cultures, however, they were both created using similar sets of archetypal characteristics.