Beowulf Is Not A Hero Essay

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Is Beowulf a hero? Why or why not?
Beowulf is not a hero, the answer is simple and clear. The arguments that may say that Beowulf is a hero focus on his great strength and bravery but that is not all a person needs to be a hero. You must have courage, which I will agree that Beowulf does have this when facing the three monsters in this story, but to be a hero you also need to be selfless, humble, and truthful. When comparing Beowulf courage is the only trait he distinguishes of a “true hero”.
Beowulf’s superior strength is told about countless times in the story, but having a gift that others do not have does not make you a hero, it is what you do with that gift. It is true that Beowulf does leave his homeland to come fight a monster that …show more content…

Beowulf says,“...I hereby renounce sword and the shelter of the broad shield, the heavy war-board: hand-to-hand it how it will be, a life-and-death fight to the fiend.” If Beowulf had fought the Grendel with a sword no one would have thought lesser of him for doing so, but by doing so Beowulf is not …show more content…

When talking about his time back home in Geat, he talks about swimming contest between him and other men, “The truth is this: when the going was heavy in those high waves, I was the strongest swimmer of all.” Beowulf demonstrates in this that he had no humility, even going as far to say that he is the strongest swimmer of all. This is not even the worst part of the situation, if you have great skill or strength it is understandable to acknowledge you do but in this situation Beowulf is competing because there is no other way for him to show his strength off to others so he would challenge others to swim from a boat to the shore. Not only was this ridiculous just to show off strength but also if one of the challengers was not as strong and was overcome by the waves and current they could be killed for no other reason than for Beowulf to show

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